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OK - bad pun I know. But following on from a thread from @morning glory about peeling eggs which I can't currently find there were a number of questions about why some eggs were difficult to peel and how to deal with this.
So being in the position I am in, having chickens of my own and an egg supply where I can identify which hen has lain which egg (4 of my 5 hens are laying at the moment and all lay different eggs, 1 lays blue eggs, the other 3 all lay brown eggs, but one being an older hen lays them speckled and sometimes with rippled shells, another lays almost round eggs (telling which end is the pointed end is interesting) and the other well the eggs she lays are just huge, so they are all easily identifiable and I collect them on a daily basis).
I am pretty certain that newer/fresher eggs are harder to peel - we are talking about hard or soft boiled eggs here... and there are a number of ways proposed to deal with this. Suggestions have been made about adding things to the water when boiling them, things such as vinegar, bicarbonate of soda or even salt. Well reading up on things I decided that vinegar didn't make sense to me because apparently a freshly lain egg has a higher concentration of CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) in it which makes it more acidic, so adding vinegar to the water made little or no sense (making the water more acidic whilst boiling the egg). Adding bicarbonate of soda made perfect sense to me from that angle because it is alkaline and would help to neutralise the CO2, but would 5 minutes in a pan really make that much difference? It didn't matter, I didn't have any Sodium Bicarbonate as it turned out. So I had to settle for salt.
Now in the interests of a scientific experiment, I have kept as much constant as I could. Both eggs have been lain by the same hen, but that means at least a day apart (hens only lay 1 egg a day maximum), so I have today's and yesterday's to hand. They are almost identical sizes, and were cooked in the same pan on the same ring, which had not been adjusted flame wise, were lowered into the water the same way, and had the same volume of water in the pan. They were also cooked for the same length of time having both come from room temperature (currently 20C). Yesterday's egg was out in the kitchen all night, so I have no reason to believe that it was not at the same temperature. They were cooked between 1:30pm and 2pm, so have had plenty of time to reach the same internal temperatures... They are both fertilised eggs... (Don't ask me how I know this... there is a rooster who is enjoying his new found freedom and flock after we adopted him a week last Sunday.) After cooking, they were both then put into the same washing up bowl full of icy cold water from my very cold water tank and left there for 10 minutes.
So the results... Well there was a very definite difference. One I have not experience before. Usually all eggs of a similar age behave the same way.
Well let's meet the hen (and rooster concerned). She is (probably) a white Plymouth Rock and he is a total cross breed. She was hatched in February of this year and started laying about a week after she arrived here 7 weeks ago, I think. In fact checking the calendar, she started laying on Tuesday 6th September, exactly 7 weeks ago today.
Right meet the eggs. Sorry about the poor focus... I will tell myself off loudly and go off and sit in a corner...
A touch hard to tell that they are the same size, but she typically lays eggs that are 58-62g in weight (58g, 59g, 60g, 60g, 60g, 61g & 62g))
I introduced them to the pan using a metal slotted pasta spoon (fantastic for catching eggs and them not being able to escape and fall). I half submerge them, allow them to adjust for around 15 seconds or so, then almost completely submerge them, allow them to adjust for another 15 seconds and then fully submerge them and remove the spoon. Both eggs then had a gentle simmer for 5 minutes using my smallest pan with 750ml water (3 cups) going by the pan's own gauge. The only difference is that the second egg (yesterday's) had 1 tsp salt added to the water which was allowed to fully dissolve before the egg was added.
So the results.
Without Salt.
Today's egg with no salt. As you can see, it was not peeling very well at all. Not the worst I have had, but not ideal either. I used a teaspoon in the end to tease it out of the shell.
Lunch - And as you can see the white really did not want to cut with the knife at all.
With Salt.
Yesterday's egg and it peeled really easily.
It also cut much more cleanly.
Now in order to really be sure, I need to repeat the test with 2 more eggs from JJ (Jealous Jane). Ideally it should be another yesterday and today's egg which means I will have to wait 2 days before I can repeat the test and change the salt to the 'today's' egg. Otherwise I can repeat it tomorrow with the eggs from the 22nd and the 23rd of the month giving the salt to the 23rd of the month.
I may do both just in the interests of food science
So being in the position I am in, having chickens of my own and an egg supply where I can identify which hen has lain which egg (4 of my 5 hens are laying at the moment and all lay different eggs, 1 lays blue eggs, the other 3 all lay brown eggs, but one being an older hen lays them speckled and sometimes with rippled shells, another lays almost round eggs (telling which end is the pointed end is interesting) and the other well the eggs she lays are just huge, so they are all easily identifiable and I collect them on a daily basis).
I am pretty certain that newer/fresher eggs are harder to peel - we are talking about hard or soft boiled eggs here... and there are a number of ways proposed to deal with this. Suggestions have been made about adding things to the water when boiling them, things such as vinegar, bicarbonate of soda or even salt. Well reading up on things I decided that vinegar didn't make sense to me because apparently a freshly lain egg has a higher concentration of CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) in it which makes it more acidic, so adding vinegar to the water made little or no sense (making the water more acidic whilst boiling the egg). Adding bicarbonate of soda made perfect sense to me from that angle because it is alkaline and would help to neutralise the CO2, but would 5 minutes in a pan really make that much difference? It didn't matter, I didn't have any Sodium Bicarbonate as it turned out. So I had to settle for salt.
Now in the interests of a scientific experiment, I have kept as much constant as I could. Both eggs have been lain by the same hen, but that means at least a day apart (hens only lay 1 egg a day maximum), so I have today's and yesterday's to hand. They are almost identical sizes, and were cooked in the same pan on the same ring, which had not been adjusted flame wise, were lowered into the water the same way, and had the same volume of water in the pan. They were also cooked for the same length of time having both come from room temperature (currently 20C). Yesterday's egg was out in the kitchen all night, so I have no reason to believe that it was not at the same temperature. They were cooked between 1:30pm and 2pm, so have had plenty of time to reach the same internal temperatures... They are both fertilised eggs... (Don't ask me how I know this... there is a rooster who is enjoying his new found freedom and flock after we adopted him a week last Sunday.) After cooking, they were both then put into the same washing up bowl full of icy cold water from my very cold water tank and left there for 10 minutes.
So the results... Well there was a very definite difference. One I have not experience before. Usually all eggs of a similar age behave the same way.
Well let's meet the hen (and rooster concerned). She is (probably) a white Plymouth Rock and he is a total cross breed. She was hatched in February of this year and started laying about a week after she arrived here 7 weeks ago, I think. In fact checking the calendar, she started laying on Tuesday 6th September, exactly 7 weeks ago today.
Right meet the eggs. Sorry about the poor focus... I will tell myself off loudly and go off and sit in a corner...
A touch hard to tell that they are the same size, but she typically lays eggs that are 58-62g in weight (58g, 59g, 60g, 60g, 60g, 61g & 62g))
I introduced them to the pan using a metal slotted pasta spoon (fantastic for catching eggs and them not being able to escape and fall). I half submerge them, allow them to adjust for around 15 seconds or so, then almost completely submerge them, allow them to adjust for another 15 seconds and then fully submerge them and remove the spoon. Both eggs then had a gentle simmer for 5 minutes using my smallest pan with 750ml water (3 cups) going by the pan's own gauge. The only difference is that the second egg (yesterday's) had 1 tsp salt added to the water which was allowed to fully dissolve before the egg was added.
So the results.
Without Salt.
Today's egg with no salt. As you can see, it was not peeling very well at all. Not the worst I have had, but not ideal either. I used a teaspoon in the end to tease it out of the shell.
Lunch - And as you can see the white really did not want to cut with the knife at all.
With Salt.
Yesterday's egg and it peeled really easily.
It also cut much more cleanly.
Now in order to really be sure, I need to repeat the test with 2 more eggs from JJ (Jealous Jane). Ideally it should be another yesterday and today's egg which means I will have to wait 2 days before I can repeat the test and change the salt to the 'today's' egg. Otherwise I can repeat it tomorrow with the eggs from the 22nd and the 23rd of the month giving the salt to the 23rd of the month.
I may do both just in the interests of food science
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