Oh the Stress of Eggs
I consider myself a decent cook.
I make a good eggplant parm, a killer baked stuffed chicken and a yummy steak marinara.
So can someone please explain to me why I stress out over boiling eggs?
Of course, this weekend is the biggest egg-boiling weekend of the year (according to the American Egg Board, around 93 million dozen eggs are sold in America Easter week! Wow!). So I am already sweating. Now that my 15 month-old son is eating hard-boiled eggs, I want to make extra sure I do it right.
What’s there to stress about, you ask?
As I put the eggs in the pot, I worry they’ll crack. As they boil and rub up against each other, I keep worrying they’ll crack. Then when a few do crack, I throw them away because I worry they aren’t safe. After they’re boiled and I’m cracking them (all that worry about them cracking just to turn around and crack them – gotta love it), I worry I’ll miss pieces of shell and we’ll all choke.
Big sigh.
If you are a freak about boiling eggs too or if you just dig fun egg facts (who doesn’t?), check out this egg info from the American Egg Board:
-- It’s actually better to hard cook instead of boil your eggs. This means you bring the eggs to a boil and then turn off the heat and let them sit for 15 minutes. This will combat that ugly green ring you sometimes see when you crack your egg. And there’s less of a chance of them being tough and rubbery. My DH would gag at that last sentence. LOL. He is funny when it comes to eggs. He mostly hates them but sometimes eats them.
-- The fresher the egg, the harder it is to peel it after cooking it. So this is one time when it’s better to not buy fresh. If you haven’t yet bought your eggs for this weekend (like me), then – happy peeling! Oy.
-- Begin peeling at the large end. This supposedly makes it easier. Um, not to me. I always find it hard. I guess that’s because I buy fresh eggs. Reminder to self: see before-mentioned tip and buy stale eggs.
-- Dye your eggs in water warmer than the eggs so they don’t absorb the dye water. Hmmm. I always manage to dye the inside of at least one egg. The water cools off unless you are super speedy. If you are like me, trying to be all artistic with half-and-half eggs and the fun white crayon….the water gets cold. And I throw out the ones that are dyed inside. So for the sake of art, I waste eggs. Sigh. Someone needs to invent an egg-dye-water warmer. Anyone on that?
-- Don’t keep eggs at room temperature for more than 2 hours. It’s unsafe to eat them after that. I’m having flashbacks of the real eggs sitting in my Easter basket on Easter morning as a kid. I know for a fact they sat there all day. And I’d crack one open maybe 5 hours later for a snack. I’m still here. But, yikes. Guess my parents didn’t have their egg safety straight.
Happy Easter everyone!!
TuscMoms.com Editor Kristi Palma is an award-winning journalist with a Master's Degree from Northeastern. But she's first and foremost a stay-at-home mom to Jack, a blue-eyed banana-lovin' little boy born in November '06.
Contact her at