Let me start by saying if you can find a local source of farm fresh eggs, you need to get on the bandwagon. Farm fresh eggs are so infinately superior to store bought (in this farm girl's opinion) and if you don't believe me...try this little experiment. Get yourself a farm fresh egg and a storebought white one and crack them next to one and other in a skillet. You will first notice a distinct difference in the yolks with farm eggs being very dark yellow and usually larger than the pale yellow comparison from the store. The white of the egg from the store bought one is usually very watery and cooks up very thin as compared to the farm fresh. Should you decide to scramble the eggs separately you will see a distinct color difference with the farm eggs being a very dark yellow and the store variety a pale pastel.
With all that said when we first started with our hens I must say I so missed egg salad, deviled eggs and hard boiled eggs...why you ask? Because with farm fresh eggs being so well, FRESH, you cannot peel them when you cook them. (Just think how easy the storebought variety peels, and if you leave a farm fresh egg in your fridge for 3 weeks or more it will peel fine...hmmm...what does that say about the freshness of storebought?) The shell just really wants to hang on and you end up pulling off most of the white of the egg just to get the shell off. So, what is a farm girl to do? Experiment of course, so here it is, I finally found the secret!
With all that said when we first started with our hens I must say I so missed egg salad, deviled eggs and hard boiled eggs...why you ask? Because with farm fresh eggs being so well, FRESH, you cannot peel them when you cook them. (Just think how easy the storebought variety peels, and if you leave a farm fresh egg in your fridge for 3 weeks or more it will peel fine...hmmm...what does that say about the freshness of storebought?) The shell just really wants to hang on and you end up pulling off most of the white of the egg just to get the shell off. So, what is a farm girl to do? Experiment of course, so here it is, I finally found the secret!
I tap my eggs (large side down) on the counter before putting them in the water to boil. Just a hairline fracture is all you need (you don't want the egg smashed all over the counter of course. If you look in the pan you can see the hairline fracture/dent on some of the egg bottoms. This allows air to get into the space between the shell and the egg membrane while you boil the eggs and thus creates the ability to peel the eggs after boiling. Then, for a foolproof extra, I toss in a teaspoon of baking soda into the water before boiling, I cannot explain the science behind why this works to help the process, but it does.
then just boil the eggs for a standard 20 minutes and enjoy!
