One of the underrated pleasures in eating a hard-boiled egg—besides the 6 grams of quick protein they deliver—is the oddly therapeutic act of peeling nature’s most portable snack. But sometimes there’s a hiccup. You go to peel it, and instead of the shell slipping off like a dream, it clings to the egg white, and you end up spending agonizing minutes on something that should’ve taken seconds.
The result? An egg that looks like the mangled surface of the moon. Pitted and cratered, it’s no longer an oval of perfection. However, TikTok user @IDKyoueither has a solution for this most minor, yet super annoying, of life’s problems.
Twist & Pull
In a TikTok video captioned “Couldn’t keep gatekeeping this one,” the Miami-based TikToker shows over 33,000 viewers how to pull the shell away from a hard-boiled egg, leaving a satisfying little orb.
“I eat hard-boiled eggs every day,” says the fitness aficionado who admits to eating about 4 eggs a day in the comments. She proceeds to show off a little sleight-of-hand trick. Holding a brown egg in her left hand, she cracks the side of the shell against her counter, almost like she’s about to crack a raw egg into a bowl.
Then, using both hands, she twists to crack the shell open.
Boom.
The egg drops into her hand, smooth and perfect. Now she’s got an aesthetically pleasing (enough) post-workout snack all ready to go.
Bonus: If she decides to make deviled eggs, hers will look like something edible, not like an adult craft project gone maddeningly awry.
Egg-Citing Engagement
For such a small, niche skill, the creator got some specific interactions—much of it from users who are comically gloomy about their own egg-peeling skills.
“That’s how YOU peel an egg,” one quipped. “I peel it over 5 minutes with a million sharp shell fragments. To each their own.”
“She’s a witch,” another said.
“What!? Please tell me this really works,” another begged.
“I just made a whole tutorial, lol,” the creator responded.
The Tutorial
In her follow-up tutorial, the TikToker explains her process. She says to first bring your water to a boil. Then, gently add in the raw eggs. In her video, she uses a long-handled spoon to place them in the water.
Set a timer for 15 minutes and wait. When your timer goes off, drain the pot, add cool water, and if you’re impatient (like she is), drop in a couple of ice cubes.
When they’re cool enough to handle, you can pull them out and repeat the side-crack, twist and pull technique. She does it on camera two more times. And though the second result isn’t perfect, it does save time and tiny shards of eggshell everywhere.
“Never thought I’d be on the internet showing people how to do this,” she quips.
How To Boil An Egg
There are a few people in the comments who disagree with her timing, arguing that seven to 10 minutes is the “perfect” amount of time for an egg. One commenter even insults hers as “rubbery.”
Enter America’s Test Kitchen. The much-trusted site says that the key to an egg that doesn’t stick to its own shell is steam. So using a steamer basket is very helpful. “That’s because steaming prevents the white from bonding with the real sticky-shell culprit: the membrane between the shell and the white,” it reports.
When an egg is very fresh or cooked slowly, this allows the proteins in the white of the egg to bond to the membrane instead of each other (making peeling an absurdly annoying chore). However, plunging eggs into hot steam causes the whites to shrink, thereby reducing their ability to bond to the membrane.
So, put your eggs in a steamer basket, lower them into a pot with boiling water—but don’t submerge them—set the burner to medium-low, and cook for 13 minutes. When you pull them out of the pot, put them in a sealable container filled with cool water. Put the top on the container, let them sit for 15 minutes, pour off half of the water, and shake the sealed container about 40 times. Then, you should be able to slip the shells right off.
Imperfect eggs might not be the biggest problem you’ll ever face. But if you’ve ever been in a hurry to get out the door and instead find yourself in a silent wrestling match with your snack, this could be egg-citing news for you.
BroBible reached out to the poster via direct message. We’ll update this if she gets back to us with any more cooking hacks.
@idkyoueitherbuthi Coulnt keep gatekeeping this one