When you crack an egg, don't crack it on the edge of a pan or bowl. Instead, crack it on a totally flat surface, like your counter top.
Cracking an egg on a sharp edge increases the odds that you'll get eggshell fragments in your food. But cracking an egg on a flat surface keeps the shell fragments attached to the shell's inner lining, so no fragments get shaken loose.
Think of it like blunt force trauma. You'll do plenty of damage to the shell, but you won't get pieces of it into your food.
Not only that, but cracking an egg on a flat surface also creates a handy indentation, showing you exactly where to put your thumbs to break open the shell. Here, take a look in the photos below:
Look, I was totally suspicious of this tip when I first heard about it. And because I'm an insanely habit-based person in every area of my life, I treat any tip contrary to my habits with absolute paranoia. Plus, it sounded like it might make a mess.
But one day I took a chance, defied my paranoid nature, and used this egg-cracking method for a batch of laughably cheap homemade fried rice. And what do you know, it worked! It was easier to break the egg open, the inner lining of the egg held, there was absolutely no mess, and there was zero chance that any eggshells would get into the food.
Consider me converted. I've been using this method ever since.
Readers, what's your take?
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11 comments:
The side of the bowl works well if it's a thin edge.... I actually find I get more shells with the flat-surface crack, but less mess. When you crack over the edge of a bowl there is always a little dribble.
What a fun debate! Happy Tuesday :)
This is how my boyfriend Jacques Pepin taught me to crack an egg. (I am a slave to his hard boiled method as well.)
I have been cracking eggs this way for a long time - I think I heard the tip on an episode of Good Eats. Alton Brown's rationale was more about the fragments of shell getting pushed up inside and potentially contaminating the food than it actually being easier. But I'm happy to have more of an explanation if anyone asks me about it!
I break more yolks with the flat surface break.
yup, that's how I crack my eggs. Saw it on TV at some point.
Ditto Calico Cat. Got that from Jacques.
I also use the flat crack. Using an edge has panache, but I have never done it successfully (i.e. with no shell fragments and/or dribbles).
I do a flat crack, too!
I tried the flat surface method but find it creates lots of small fragments and sometimes leaves a little pool of egg white on the kitchen counter (perhaps I'm heavy-handed). I do see Erin Beth's point about it being more sanitary, but I've been doing the edge of the bowl method for a long time without any dire consequences.
We are lucky enough to get fresh eggs from our in-laws. The flat surface trick won't work on these eggs. The shell is too tough. The edge of knife work best for us.
I was a short-order cook during college. I must have cracked 10,000 eggs, and I always use the blunt-force method. Never even thought about it before now.
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