VERY A-PEELING

To easily peel a boiled egg, the key is to plunge the eggs into iced water once they’ve finished cooking. This process helps to set the membrane surrounding the egg, creating a film between the white and the shell.

“This is the most important thing, to put the egg into iced water, or run under a very cold tap after boiling,” Mendes said.

There are two methods of peeling: spoon, and jar.

Most will be familiar with the spoon method. Simply use the back of a spoon to gently shatter the eggshell, turning the egg around to shatter it everywhere. Then gently peel away the shell, which should come off in large pieces. Make sure you try and peel from the thin membrane under the shell as this is much easier.

The jar method can be used to peel multiple hard boiled eggs at once.

Add some cold water to a large jar with a lid, then add the boiled eggs. Close the lid and gently shake the eggs to shatter the shells. You will start to see the shells removing as you shake the eggs around. Don’t be too rough, as the eggs might break up.

“This method is a bit of fun. We found that just shaking the eggs around in the jar didn’t work so well, but with a bit of water in there the eggs almost peeled themselves,” Mendes said. “It’s not obviously a good method for very soft boiled eggs, but if you’re doing a few eggs at a time it’s good.”

If you want to eat your peeled eggs hot, simply dunk in iced water for a few seconds, so they are cool enough to handle, but will still be warm inside.