spreenkle #6
With Easter 10 days away, now seems like a good time to talk
Eggs!
Separating whites from yolks – contrary to what you watched your mother do, it’s not the best idea to separate using the shell. Why? Eggs can transport that nasty nasty salmonella bacteria – where would you see those little uglies lurking? yup. The shell.
A better (safer) way – there are several:
1. Use your (clean) hands – break the egg into the palm of your hand, gradually open your fingers enough to allow the white to slip between them into the bowl beneath, while the yolk stays put. 10-year-old Sicily especially loved this method! It’ll work even better when her hands are 12. 🙂 Wash your hands well after. I know, not YOU, but somebody out there’s going to forget, lick their fingers and get real ugly-sick.
2. Break the whole egg into a bowl. Using a slotted spoon, dip into the bowl, lifting the yolk and gently transferring to a separate bowl. (Don’t try to do this with multiple eggs at once, unless … well, just don’t.)
3. Use a slotted tool specifically made for this purpose. There are a number of them on the market if that’s your pick. From $6.00 to something ridiculously more. While on topic, I must include this : years ago my sister-in-law bought me an oogley critter-head, cup-shaped, made of pottery. It has a rather wide frowning slit for a mouth. Break the egg inside, tip him over a bowl and he drools egg whites.
I alternate between using my hands and the ogre. My psychiatrist thinks I was repressed as a child and wasn’t allowed to play with my food enough. But honestly, who DID? Good news: I’m on meds. They’re helping. 😉 Would love to hear your method.
The perfect hard-boiled egg –
Never ever fails me. Put eggs in a pot of cold water – the pot should be large enough for the eggs to sit in one layer on the bottom. Bring water to boil and then immediately turn off the burner. Allow the eggs to sit, covered, in the pan of hot water for exactly 15 minutes. Remove eggs from water and set out on a towel to cool for 2 minutes. At this point, you can remove their shells. (Or, if you’ll be using them for Easter, either dye them straightaway, or put them back in the fridge to dye later.)
Peeling a hard-cooked egg – freshest eggs peel best. If you have trouble removing the shell, inserting the tip of a wet teaspoon under an edge of the shell and running it up under it can help.
I suppose we can talk eggs again another day, but that’ll do for now. This is just a spreenkle after all.
cooking-spree 
If you are worried about your egg-shell safety, you can always wash them before you break them. If you get the out from under the chicken, you have to do that anyway!
‘Tis a good point you raise Imelda! I just always figured I’d have to scrub an egg so long in order to get it clean enough that I’d rather just use my ogre. 🙂 But thanks a lot for the good word!
Thanks for another informative post in the Spreenkle series, Spree. I sidestep the egg issue altogether by buying eggs with pasteurized shells. They work for me!
Clever lad!! :). Unfortunately, the farm that I buy from doesn’t have pasteurized yet, so sticking with the safeguards.
That’s the perfect hard-boiled recipe spree:) Thank you for spreading your ❤ spreenkles today!! xoxo Smidge
I do it the old-fashioned way with the shell. Neither my mother, nor my grandmother nor my siblings nor self have ever gotten salmonella.
Sharyn, I hope people don’t misunderstand what I’m saying – the risk of being infected by salmonella isn’t great. (No one in my family has been sickened by it either.) I’m only saying that when a person is infected, it IS serious, and one way to mitigate chances is to take certain precautions with raw eggs.
Perfect timing for Easter! I do need to perfect my egg-making skills. With your help, I think I should be able to master it. 😉 Thanks for the tips.
Healthy, good quality, fresh eggs are EXTREMELY unlikely to contain or carry salmonella – many, many foods carry it. you’re far more likely to get food poisoning from incorrectly heated food etc… I’d go so far as to say that salmonella in eggs is pretty much a myth these days, at least in Britain. Though, it is best to take precautions – I have absolutely no bones about eating raw eggs though.
I’ve had the opposite experience of peeling eggs by the way – I peel 80 a day – fresh eggs are ALWAYS much, much harder to peel… then again, I’m REALLY bad at peeling eggs :D, I probably just cook them wrong. I want an ogre… I’ve seen them before, very clever :D.
I shall have to look back through your back catalogue of spreenkles 😀 – love the term.
Frugal Nick, there have been reports of salmonella-contaminated eggs here, and not all that long ago. It IS rare, you’re absolutely right! And I’ve probably read more reports of salmonella being carried on mass-packaged greens and other vegetables than on eggs. And yes, everyone ought to have an ogre in their kitchen. 🙂 I mean |: [
Really?! Mad one. I’ve never ever heard about anyone having it from eggs or otherwise! 😀
Mad? No!! Haha! I was trying to approximate the expression of my egg-separating ogre! 😉
I nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award =)!
Check it out on my blog: http://sensualappeal.wordpress.com/
There’s lots of good information in this post. I am new to your blog, so I took some extra time to browse through your earlier posts. I’m so glad I did that.You’ve created a great spot to visit and I really enjoyed the time I spent here. I’ll definitely be back. I hope you have a great day. Blessings…Mary
Mary, very kind of you to leave such a thoughtful comment! I appreciate it so much. Thank you for visiting and do come back! 🙂
i want to try the hand-separating method. I usually have one of those on me!
The only bummer is that that method requires two. 🙂