Oh Yeah! That's why those who have tried it are so adamant! (And if you peel your eggs while they're still just a little warm, that goes easier too.) I like to hear stories from the coverted...Welcome fellow egg steamer!

I think it was our own Shaun who first mentioned egg steaming success.

I wish I had been reminded of this sooner. I made hardboiled eggs and I swear half the white stuck to the shell and went into the garbage disposal. Barnmom reminded me later.

I also tried dyeing the whites for deviled eggs. I thought they were cute but no one wanted to eat neon colored deviled eggs. Live and learn.

Here they are in living color with the chunks missing from the "whites."

Actually it was a lady named, elphaba who discovered this method.

I've been steaming my eggs for years now! I'll never boil them again.

Another convert here. And plastered the tip all over my cooking boards! LOL

blueiris24:

We want to know how and how long, also.
you are not getting off that easy.
LOU

What I love (NOT) is when people argue with me about steaming eggs and tell me that I'm doing something wrong and try to fix my issue. Well I say it's already fixed...STEAM THE SUCKERS! It's the only way I will ever fix "boiled eggs" again!

I've never heard of steaming instead of boiling. Will someone post the method?

I'd never had a problem in my life with shells sticking to the eggs until I moved to the California central valley. All of a sudden, I couldn't get an egg peeled to save my life. Everybody told me that if the shell stuck, the egg was too fresh. Didn't make sense to me, but then I tried it with some older eggs, and they were fine.

Now I'm in Massachusetts, and the eggs boil and peel just fine again.

Just for the sake of comparison, I put cold eggs in warm tap water, bring them to a boil, boil for 8 minutes, and then dump the eggs into very cold water to stop the cooking process. Perfect eggs every time, none of those weird yolk displacements or greenish tinge.

I'm always interested in new techniques, though.

I wonder why the freshness of the eggs would make a difference, or for that matter, why the heat method (steam or boil) would? Any of you scientifically minded cooks know the explanation to that one?

I've been steaming eggs ever since Elphaba first posted her method on the CF and am happy with results. Sometimes it works too well as you will see in a post I hope to have up later today on making John's Chinese tea eggs.

Blueiris, you and I are pretty much at the same altitude and I am wondering how long you steamed your eggs and if you used a cold or ice water plunge before peeling therm?

I do anywhere from 15 to 17 minutes and always an ice water plunge. I'm trying to make myself really time it and write it down. I don't usually remember to take them out of the fridge and let them come to room temperature - I know that would shorten the steaming time.

Rachelellen, I wish I could explain the science involved but I can't. I do believe from long experience that older eggs peel more easily. More than once, but before I started steaming them, I've forgotten to buy eggs for Easter and dashed out the night before and boiled and colored them for Max to draw on. Those were always a disaster to peel. I hope someone will chime in with the science too.

Pam, I think your eggs are very cheery and fun.

Lee

As the eggs get older, more air passes through the shell, and that makes it easier to peel it off cleanly.

Steaming is how restaurants do it.

I remember one of my Grandmothers or Great Aunts had a egg steamer thing. It had a cloth cord so that should tell you how old it was. LOL

I've never tried the steam method yet as boiling has worked for me for the most part. I need to try it the next time if I remember to.

Pam, your eggs still look fine and festive to me. I remember Marilyn turning me and others on to dyeing the whites years ago. I still do it for Easter and the 4th of July.

David

I never have problems with perfectly peeled hard-boiled eggs.

The trick:

First hard boil, or steam your eggs. After the eggs are cooled, you put the eggs in a container and shake them vigorously. Don�t shake so hard that the eggs will split.

The eggs will bang into each other and to the sides of the container and the shells will crack into many tiny pieces which will just fall off the eggs or easily washed off.

dcarch

It doesn't matter if the eggs are fresh or older, I still have the same results if trying to boil. Banging them together doesn't do anything except crack the shells, the shell still sticks to the egg white. Ya know, that's exactly what I was talking about...people try and tell you all that you are doing wrong or what they do that's right...the problem is that I've already tried EVERYTHING they are suggesting with NO SUCCESS!

Regarding the difference between steaming and boiling eggs, here is my possible egghead's explanation:

A classic Physics 101 experiment:

If you put two pieces of flat glass panes together, you will have no problem taking them apart.
Now if you put one drop of water in between the glass panes, you will no longer be able to pull them apart. You will be working against atmospheric pressure of 14 lbs per sq. inch.

When you boil an egg, you will see very tiny air bubbles coming out from the egg shell. That's the air inside the egg expanding due to heat. If you boil the egg too quickly the expansion may crack the shell. When the egg starts to cool down, the vacuum inside the egg draws in water, and the water seeps in between the layers of the shell, the membrane and the egg white, creating a situation similar to the glass pane above.

Steaming will not create this situation.

dcarch

Thanks for saying nice things about my deviled eggs. The colors haven't stopped me from eating them.

I have never steamed eggs but my daughter told me a method she uses to boil them and it seems to work very well. Cover your eggs with cold water, bring to a full boil, remove from heat and put a lid on the pot. Let them set for at least 10 minutes, then pour the water off, shake the pan hard enough to crack the shells then cover them with cold water. I always check to be sure the large end of the shell is cracked and then I let them set for a good bit in the cold water. Shells almost always turn loose.
The only real difference I see to what dcarch posted is covering them with cold water.

I don't have a problem with trying the steaming method. Maybe I'll do that the next time.

jude

So glad so many have tried the steaming method. I got the idea from another forum on the web. I have a little silicon steaming basket I use these days immersed in a sauce pan. I steam for at least 20 minutes, sometimes 25.
I think the instructions I first got about this said to steam for 30 but the water in my pan is nearly gone when I steam for 30 so I quit sooner and no problems.
I don't know the physics - last time I checked Cooks Illustrated's preferred method for hard boiling eggs was to put water in a saucepan - something like only 1/2 inch up the sides and put eggs in - this would make it almost like steaming and would avoid the need to buy a steaming basket if you don't already have one. Sorry I can't remember Cooks Illustrateds method exactly and my subscription has run out.
Hope everyone had a great Easter.

I haven't tried steaming eggs.
I very rarely have trouble peeling them,
don't know why.
Maybe because the eggs I cook in shell are usually 'older' store-bought? ?
I just might have to try it next time, anyway.

A little off topic:
Dedtired, I had the same idea,
wanted colorful Deviled eggs.
So, first I boiled them to hard boiled.
("Simmered" is probably a more accurate word).
Then I very carefully cracked the shells all over,
Trying to get an even cracking.
Left all the shells on.
Died the eggs, using food coloring,
Let them sit in their dye bath a little longer than usual.
Then I peeled them.
The result was pretty 'marbleized' eggs.
When halved for Deviled eggs,
The filling was against the 'normal' white,
Just the sides & bottoms were colored.
They made quite a hit with the family here.

The regular liquid food color worked the best.
The more intense gel colors didn't take well at all.
And yellow was a dismal failure.
Blues, greens, reds, purples, etc,
Made the prettiest 'marble' pattern.

Now, if I could just find a seasoning in colors
To sprinkle on top. . . . . . .

Sorry, no pictures,
I don't 'do' food pictures.

Rusty

Lou -- I just put them in a steamer basket in a pot, I even put several on top of each other ;0, brought the water to a boil, then turned it down and let them steam for 20 minutes. They were the most perfect "boiled" eggs I've made in years.
(and I didn't worry if they were old or new, warm or cold, salt or no salt, water rolling or not quite to a boil, etc etc..... )

I couldn't stand it anymore, had to make me some PERFECTLY STEAMED eggs for a batch of deviled eggs! PERFECT every time! :)

please, please tell me how to steam the eggs

Chigger,[your name makes me itch..lol.. and look for the nail polish] the method is mentioned several times in this thread. Just use whatever you want as a steamer, put the eggs in your steamer and cook for about 20 minutes. That's it. Lee does hers for only 16 or 17 minutes at high altitude... some put them in cold or ice water afterward, but basically all you need to do is steam for twenty minutes.

FWIW, here's the latest method Cooks Illustrated is using. Basically it's bring 6 eggs, covered with 1" of water (that is, 1" over the top of the eggs as shown in the video) in a medium saucepan to a boil on high heat. Right when it starts a vigorous boil, cover tightly and remove from heat for 10 min. Chill in ice water for 5 min. To peel, tap on a countertop all over the egg and and then gently roll it with your hand on the counter. Then start peeling from the air pocket in a spiral motion and the shell should peel off in strips held together with the membrane.

They at one time gave guidelines for different size eggs to add or subtract a minute for each size going up or down but I've never found it that critical.

I've used a variation of this method for years and it's worked fine for me. I don't like to shatter the shells, rather just crack them and pull the shell off in large chunks, pulling slowly and you'll hear the suction release.

Been meaning to try steaming but never really knew how long to steam them and didn't bother to research it since the method I've used has worked so well. Probably have to give it a try sometime soon.

Has anyone tried steaming potatoes and eggs together for potato salad? I'm wondering if they'd cook in about the same time if you cut up the potatoes.

Guess I shudda checked my notes. Although it doesn't say to combine them it does say steam the taters for 15-25 minutes though it sounds like that may be for whole spuds. Should work. Maybe.

Annie,

Should work fine if you pull the pantyhose very tight.

dcarch

cynic, I use that same method, but I didn't know that Cook's Illustrated used it, that's just how Grandma showed me. Cover the eggs with cold water, bring to a boil, shut off the heat, cover the pan, let them sit for 10 minutes. Drain off the hot water, cover with old. She even rolled the eggs around on the counter to crack them all over! I'll bet she could have worked for CI, LOL, if she had ever heard of them. (grin)

Anyway, I've never steamed eggs either because this method has always worked for me and so I've never bothered to use anything else.

Pam, I colored the eggs too, I always do, the Grandkids love it. They wouldn't eat an egg for any purpose, no matter how it's prepared, but they get a charge out of me coloring the eggs:

I also decided to get creative and dye some eggs. A magazine I had here had instructions to put a flower onto the boiled egg, put the whole thing into the toe of some pantyhose to keep the flower in place and then dye it. when it came out of the dye it would have a nice imprint of the flower. Yeah. Sure. It must have worked for them because the eggs on their cover were cool. This was mine, look, you can almost see a pattern of a flower...

OK, that didn't work, so the same magazine (no, I just don't learn) said to make neat polkadots, just stick those page reinforcments on the eggs and dye them, them peel off the round reinforcements. Again, lovely pictures. I dunked the eggs into the dye and sure enough, all the little stickers came off and floated to the top and the eggs came out like this:

So, I spent two hours dying eggs that look just like the ones that usually take me five minutes. And people wonder why I don't do crafts, LOL.

Annie

Here are our Easter Eggs that my daughters decorated

See, dcarch, yours are lovely. Mine are colored. And THAT'S why some people are "crafty" and others are not. I'm not. So, I'll cross "dye cool patterned Easter Eggs" off my list and add some other ridiculously time consuming crafty thing, which I'll fail miserably at, but it'll keep me off the streets, LOL.

Annie

Oh my some of these Easter eggs are amazing.

I love what you have done DCarch, and Shaun, your daughters Easter eggs are great. Love the pumpkin.

Ann

Blue Iris:
Thank you for the comeback.

Annie:
Seems like you use Panty Hose for a lot of things, LOL !!!
I boil mine similar but have to try Steaming.

DC:
Did you ever see the Polish tradition for Decorating eggs?

They must spend hours on one egg.

I should have taken some Photo-s.

I ate mine with mustard and had a beer.
LOU

annie1992, I didn't know Christopher Kimball was your Grandma! :)

You know what I find interesting is people in so many videos getting excited about precise timing on eggs and so much discussion about the green/black tint around the yolks and I think back to when I was growing up and my mother never timed eggs. She's put them on and start them (presumably) simmering or boiling (who knows - I didn't pay much attention) and be cooking other things, bacon for breakfast, potatoes for salad or whatever and I don't recall ever having trouble with rings. For that matter I don't recall too much trouble peeling eggs and we'd often get them from the farm. Brings back a nice memory seeing little old Mabel hunched over as she was (in her 70s) with her egg basket and when we'd stop for some eggs she'd have a wash rag and wipe them off. Don't get much fresher than that! I suppose it could be something with all the genetic modifications being done too, that could be causing some issues.

I could sure go for some eggs right about now....

dcarch, what beautiful eggs! I want to try that now! I made my first deviled eggs today, and surprise! they weren't hard to peel, in spite of being refrigerated. I wonder what method my mom used to cook them? Certainly not steaming, though you guys have made me curious.

LOL, cynic, I guess we just never know who we might be related to. Grandma was kind of short to be Christopher Kimball, though, she was 4'8". (grin)

You know what my problem is? No patience, that's what. If I'd fiddled with stuff longer, it probably would have worked and only taken me an hour or so longer. Yup, half an hour per egg probably would have done it, and then I wouldn't want to crack them to eat them and they'd have to be thrown away in a couple of weeks.

And I did try to use some smaller leaves, like dcarch, but I couldn't figure out how to get them to stay in one place long enough to tie up the pantyhose, every time I pulled it tight the leaves would move to the top of the egg. Maybe I should have glued them first....

I guess I'd better let the grandkids do it instead!

Annie