How To Tuesday – How to Crack and Separate the Perfect Egg
We are really getting back to basics today – but that’s not a bad thing. How many times have you taken an egg cracking one hit too far and ended up with a shelly, crackled, crumpled and – oh my gawdddd a broken yolked mess? *Raises hand* Too many times to count.
I feel like an egg cracking reformer. I used to be a side-of-the-bowl egg cracker and how many times I have had to fish pieces of shell out of the egg out of the mix was astounding. You know those “how many years do you spend in the folding laundry” surveys, I’m pretty 3.79 months of my life have been spent fishing egg shells out of cracked eggs. Inevitably I’d end up puncturing the yolk and then the shell piece that reduced me to a bobbing for egg shells… ridiculous!
The big problem with cracking eggs on the side of the bowl is that it forces the cracked shell into the egg whites, fracturing them and lodging them in there for you to dig through when they hit the bowl. Boo!! A score of 2.39 from the French judge! Go sit in the corner. But when you crack your eggs on the counter top instead there are no shells shoved into places they don’t belong, and the membrane inside the egg is left in tact so you don’t run the risk of puncturing your egg yolks, too.
We’re half way to a perfectly separated egg. The German Judge score? 6.32!
Next is separating the egg yolks from the egg whites – furthering the great debate over shell separating or hand separating. Growing up my mom taught me to separate using the egg shell technique. It worked well enough, but if you don’t crack a clean shell, the jagged eggs tear at and mangle the egg whites. The more you toss the eggs back and forth to separate the whites and yolk the odds are higher you’re going to end up puncturing your yolks and rendering your efforts and your egg useless!
So Mom, I’m sorry to say – I have strayed from your egg-separating ways. But it was for the best. Once I got over the slippery-eggs-on-my-hands feeling. I know, squidgey.
The eggs in your hands technique means no jagged shell edges to cut your whites and yolks on and the weight of the egg whites helps separate the yolks from the whites on their own – making your job a whole lot easier.
So test out these theories and see what works best for you. You might be surprised what you find.
Of course there are also neato little tools out there to help with this process – but why spend an extra $5 when you have two perfectly good egg separating tools attached right to you. WIN and WIN!
For additional How To’s check out these easy tutorials and hone your kitchen skills for the better.
How to Make Perfect Whipped Cream
How to Brown Butter
Do you have How-To’s you want to learn? Leave me a comment below!
I’m an old-fashioned crack on the bowl/shell separating kind of girl but I see the logic of changing my ways thanks to you!
My mum taught me to crack on the side of the bowl and separate using the egg shells, but I think next time I’m going to try and this way! Thanks for sharing.
I could of used this post when I was separating 10 eggs the other day!! Thanks girl!
SQUIDGEY. Aka, my new favorite word and THEEE perfect non-word-word to describe raw eggs in my hands.
Aaaand now I want eggs.
PS.. squidgey.
Looks at those graceful and gentle hands 🙂
Love this series! I was raised in the “shell to separate” mentality, but I’m going to have to give my good ol’ fingers a try. Plus, it’s fun getting messy in the kitchen on purpose!
I love using my hands to separate. Its weird that I like it, I know…
Hands are the only way to do this and you are a master. Sorry Mom 🙂 All the best from the hot and highly intelligent, talented women of BeBetsy! (Sharon is going to kill Denise for this) Bye Bye Mrs.
Love this!! I always grew up cracking on the side of the bowl until I learned about the counter a few yrs ago. Such a difference!!!
Great tutorial!
This is SO true! Great shots too Megan!
I always cracked on the side of my bowl until I took a Joy the Baker class and she joked about it… and said to always crack on the counter. Total DUH moment.
Awesome tips, thanks Megan!
This post is such a duh moment for me. Why haven’t i cracked my eggs on the counter all along?
I try to remember to crack on the counter. Gosh, there is nothing worse than getting egg shells in the perfect cake batter or cookie dough!
Great tutorial 🙂 really smart tips!
The counter method is the way to go! Besides avoiding the inadvertant mangling the yolk from pushing the shell into the egg, you also avoid pushing in any bacteria that may or may not be lingering on the shell. But not in an “eggs are scary” way. 🙂
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If you just carefully put the eggs in a bowl, you can use a plastic water bottle mouth to pull the egg yolks out. Just squeeze and put the mouth over and your mess free. Must be a small, bottled water sized mouth on the bottle.
This is just wonderful! I hate separating eggs (don’t we all?) and have stayed away from white cakes and such because of this. Eggs were on sale this week (I wonder why?) and we have no kids to dye with, so I think I’ll try this. I’ve also heard that an older egg is easier to separate than the one you just brought home. Older being a day or so.