I Asked 5 Egg Farmers the Best Way To Hard-Boil Eggs—They All Said the Same Thing

The answer shocked me.

Helping my mom make a platter of danishes was always a highlight for me, because it signaled that something special was coming up, often a holiday. What I loved even more, though, was getting to scrape the filling out of the bowl.

When I was a kid, I probably messed up more eggs than I managed to peel correctly. With practice, I eventually figured out how to peel an egg in one piece and without any tears or cuts.

I've got my routine down pat when it comes to boiling eggs, but since I do it fairly frequently as part of my meal prep, I thought I'd check in with the experts - egg farmers - to see if I was doing it the best way, and their consistent response really threw me for a loop.

The Panel of "Eggsperts"

in Richmond, Virginia
and Author of
: Eggfluencer at

The Most Important Trick for Steaming Hard-Boiled Eggs, According to Egg Producers

I've experimented with just about every method for easily peeling hard-boiled eggs, ranging from gently shaking them in a glass to refrigerating them after boiling. ("The latter tip, one I highly recommend even now.) Still, I wasn't equipped to handle what my egg producers shared with me:

Nicole, Jes, Kara, the farmers at Shine Farm in Richmond, Virginia, were recently talking some valuable advice. They said, "Get your eggs from your favorite local farmers market, but let them sit in the fridge for a few days first. They're a lot easier to peel after you boil them."

Down the road from there, at Sylvanaqua Farms in Colonial Beach, Virginia, farmer Chris Newman suggests the following: “My tip is if you purchase eggs straight from the farmer, don't boil them for a week or even ten days. Eggs that are too recently collected can be extremely hard to peel.”

The moment of clarity arrived, and I now understand why my repeated, exasperated efforts to peel fresh vegetables from the farm had been thwarted until now. The vegetables, however, seem to benefit simply from a little extra time.

Eggs stored for a longer period have larger air cells at the wide end of the shell, resulting from egg contents contracting and air cells expanding. When such eggs undergo hard cooking, the easier-to-peel shell makes them ideal candidates.

According to Sarah, even store-bought eggs can be too fresh to peel easily. It's usually a good idea to wait until they're near their expiration date to peel them. "When you use cold eggs directly from the fridge, and select eggs that are nearing their expiration, you'll find it easier to peel them. In general, the older the egg, the less difficult it is to remove the shell."

Let's take a look at some expert methods for perfectly cooking hard-boiled eggs.

Choose a pot large enough to fit the eggs in a single layer.
Immediately transfer the eggs to a bowl filled with ice water after removing them from the boiling water to make peeling easier.
Begin peeling the egg from the wider end, where the air bubble is located