How to Perfectly Crack an Egg (With One Hand) [video] | Hacker News Reader

How to Perfectly Crack an Egg (With One Hand) [video]

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41 pointsbookofjoe38 comments

A few years back, I was a line cook for Denny's. Busiest day of the year was always Mother's Day. Shortly after Denny's introduced the Grand Slam Breakfast (I did say a few years back) I worked Monther's Day on the egg station. In 8 hours, I did eggs for 344 Grand Slams and 45 omlettes. Total: 803 eggs.

So I got pretty good at cracking with one hand.

The only point I'll add: Crack on a flat surface like the counter, not a bowl or pan edge. It yields fewer small egg shells shards to fish out.

PS: I also got to the point I could shell 30 hard boiled eggs in under 30 seconds with a 2-handed shell technique.

One little tip with regards to those bits of shell: wet your finger with water before fishing them out. I dunno why, but it somehow repels the egg white and lets you actually grip the damn shell.

It’s even easier to get the bits of shell using a larger piece of shell.

I just leave the shell. It's not harmful and you never taste/feel it anyway.

I'm pretty sure it's just a massive calcium boost. I do this if I'm cooking for myself, but absolutely not if someone else is eating it. Most people do not tolerate crunch in their fluffy eggs lol.

thanks now i cant eat eggs again until i forget this comment

When I worked for some years in a ramen shop I gained a visible callous on my thumb from peeling ajitama. I remember we would often have races to see who could peel a batch of something like 300 eggs first. I don't remember exactly, but it seems quite reasonable to me that an average time for those races would be under 10 minutes. Great to make Chef happy and have a little fun too!

The callous went away, but have a few more permanent burn scars still from those long long days and nights making tonkotsu with simply 100qt pots and large ranges.

> I also got to the point I could shell 30 hard boiled eggs in under 30 seconds with a 2-handed shell technique.

Amazing- I think that I would have trouble picking up 30 eggs in 30 seconds.

There are many eggy talents

Lest not forgot The Eggman: https://youtu.be/yewjkwZB-YE?si=B01MigqdtkoVILi1

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=elzEOs2pY38

The real eggman

coo coo ca choo

Me too, but I'm confident that if I did pick up 30 eggs in 30 seconds, they'd be right cracked.

Can you share secrets for shelling hard boiled eggs? It takes so long, the shell sticks to the egg or it brings too much white with it

Stick the egg in a smallish plastic container, probably maybe 1.5 to 2x the size of the egg. Fill the container with egg about halfway with water. Put the lid on and shake firmly (lengthwise along the egg) for about 10 seconds.

I dunno what it is about this technique, but it makes the shell MUCH looser from the egg. Doesn't work great for runny eggs though since it tends to pop them.

I make them in an instant pot. 5 mins high pressure cook, quick release, take them out straight into ice cold water, leave for 5 minutes, the shell almost slides off. The fresher the egg, the easier to peel.

This was debunked a while ago in an article from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt for rhe New York Times.

It’s good I don’t read it. Still works for me. YMMV.

https://www.seriouseats.com/the-secrets-to-peeling-hard-boil...

> PS: I also got to the point I could shell 30 hard boiled eggs in under 30 seconds with a 2-handed shell technique.

This is something I'd love to master. Not sure why but I'm terrible at shelling hard boiled eggs.

At 0:47 the video clearly shows three fingers on the "top" part of the egg. At 0:58 the ping pong ball exercise clearly shows three fingers on the top part. The break at 1:08 also has three fingers on the top. But then for some reason at 1:12 the performer switches to two fingers above the break. The double break at 1:33 also shows two fingers above the crack. Some of the egg breaks in the video pull the halves away from each other and other breaks use a slide or shearing/transpose movement to create gaps between the halves. There is nothing in the video about how close to hold the egg to the palm of your hand. With the dozen or so eggs I tried the key was (counter-intuitively) to hold the egg close to your palm so that the pads on your palm act as a fulcrum as you try to pull the halves apart. If you just hold the egg with the tips of your fingers its difficult to create the necessary space. But maybe that's just me and my lack of dexterity. I guess instead of complaining I should create my own video.

> I guess instead of complaining I should create my own video.

I'm eagerly awaiting the sequels to this video where they show us 2-handed, 3-handed, and even more advanced egg cracking methods.

Broken down by hand size, of course.

I was a short order (Waffle House style) cook from 15-21 so I got pretty good at cracking two eggs at a time. In my 20s I impressed a lot of girls with that trick. Now we just need a video on how to see the right pan temperature by the oil shimmer and how to flip an egg.

Save yourself 40% of the video by skipping the informercial intro, use this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE-XeZ3R98U&t=42s

The fact that this, and videos like "how to eat an apple", have millions of views is a testament to how even the smallest things people are curious about, they still want to do it perfectly or correctly

Speaks to the power of youtube as well. A generational innovation.

I watched it because they say "with one hand" when in fact it's one hand and a bowl.

For a few years when I was younger, I got good at cracking eggs with a single hairline crack. I would then wash them, glue them back together, and then paint them with acrylic paint.

We used to do this with Easter Eggs, you would poke a hole in the top and the bottom of the egg with a pin and blow out the egg, use the insides to make scrambled eggs, then paint the egg.

You could have been making cookies, you fool!

its wrong. crack an egg on a flat surface. if you use the edge of a bowl it creates smaller shell fragments that can break away.

Where did using the edge of a bowl, pan, or counter start? Use a flat surface for initial smack and you’ll get fewer shell bits.

I've learned to accept getting a bit of raw cold egg white on my fingers.

Didn’t watch this specific video (already knew how), but this one is definitely a skill worth learning—so either this video or another one is worth watching for sure.

This looks great and all, but another YouTube video says that when you crack the egg against the lip of the bowl, you create shell fragments....

So - maybe those videos need to battle it out?

Both are right... it depends on so many factors. I've (subjectively?) found older eggs to create more shell fragments when cracked this way.

The only hard truth is that the egg will break in whichever random way it wants to.

Current top comment:

>The only point I'll add: Crack on a flat surface like the counter, not a bowl or pan edge. It yields fewer small egg shells to fish out.

The bowl in this video has a flat-ish rim so I expect that there’s no contention but an oversight of the video.

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