The internet told me that if I shook my uncooked egg before boiling that it would come out with a beautiful yellow color and creamy texture. No whites, no yolks, just a pale yellow. Sounds cool, right? I saw multiple people liking the idea, so I hopped on board and tried it with the hard-boiled eggs I like for lunch. Folks, some ideas we should not try at home. Want to know what happens when you shake an egg before cooking?
There are many beautiful things about the simplicity of a hard-boiled egg. I for one happen to love both the yolks and the whites, their perfect soft and supple texture when cooked properly and their ability to be a meal by themselves.
Now recently the internet told me, via Pinterest of course, that shaking your eggs before cooking would result in an egg of even texture and color. Curious like most would be, I tried it. I felt ridiculous standing in my kitchen shaking my eggs before placing them in the water, but I obliged and fully followed the directions. See those directions here:
→ Hard-Boiled Eggs at UustuusThe results? Disaster! The shells stuck to the flesh of the egg (which was still white), as if it had done away with that precious little membrane that aids in peeling. Once I got past that, the egg inside seemed relatively normal. The colors hadn't mixed, so I shrugged it off as a loss, sprinkled some salt on them and sat down to dinner. A dinner which I promptly spit back in my bowl, ashamed at this childish act and saddened that these eggs weren't edible. Not even a little.
The whites and the yolks had turned to hard rubber and the outside of the white was almost unchewable, like shoe leather. The soft egg taste had been replaced by something much stronger. Between the smell and the texture, folks, this is not an experiment we should ever try at home.
Have you ever had an internet food experience go horribly, horribly wrong? Share your food fails in the comments below. Surely I'm not alone in having a Pinterest fail?
Related: Peel and Go: 5 Ways To Make a Meal With Hard-Boiled Eggs
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I don't think that shaking the egg lead to your end results.
It sounds like you used old eggs and cooked them too long. Even if you didn't shake the eggs, your results would have been the same.
Eggs are designed to resist shock.
I have also had a pinterest fail. I saw crockpot chicken paella and thought why not. It can't be thatbad. If it's good it could save me tons of time and I love Spanish food. It was the worst meal I have ever made. It came out like mush, tasted nothing like paella and looked like someone ate it first. I was embarrassed to serve it for dinner to my husband. I was also mad that I wasted time and money. I will never make a recipe that doesn't have reviews again.
Yep, make ahead breakfast sandwiches. Totally inedible. Cooking times were totally off. Dense and chewy and tasty crappy. Never again.
This is why I no longer cook anything from recipes that don't come from sources I trust (The Kitchn being one of them!). Of course, I realize somebody has to vet new ideas that pop up on the web--thanks for being willing to be a guinea pig on our behalf! :)
Like msmla, I stick to recipes with comments sections (as long as the comments aren't "I'm so making this tonight!"). Epicurious and the Kitchn are both pretty reliable once you view the comments.
It sounds like she used fresh eggs. The layer of air between the membrane and the shell increases with age and is why it is easier to peel older eggs. Old eggs are preferred for hard boiling.
This is why I started an "Accomplished" Pinboard -- all my followers know that I can't recommend a recipe unless it is on that board (with notes included). All the rest are just ideas.
Poor pinterest, every once in a while a dud really does make the rounds!
I find Pinterest has entirely too many recipes that revolve around opening a packet of powdered Italian dressing.
LOL elizeh! I agree. I don't "pin" any food items until I've read the recipes and reviews. Too many times I've clicked and found that the link wasn't even to the original website or that the link has been blocked because of spam, etc.
What never ceases to amaze me is that you can squeeze a raw egg in your hand as hard as you can--and it will not break. I think it has something to do with the even distribution of pressure or something. I'm pretty sure this is a fail-proof experiment, but if you're going to try it, maybe you should start out with your hand in the kitchen sink. Just make sure you're not wearing any rings when you attempt this. In the unlikely event that it does not work, remember, you heard about this from a coffee blogger, not an authority on egg squeezing or the laws of physics!
Yes, you are right... I confuse myself with these things. I've been poaching eggs lately and have been wanting very fresh eggs.
I do the same thing! I have a Recipes to Try board and a Tried and True board. I also write comments to my recipes, including alterations, clarifications and recommendations.
LOL - sometimes, you have to think these things through logically, right? After all, an egg is specifically designed to protect a live BIRD from being damaged, even if it is rolled around or dropped (within reason.) Pinterest probably also believes that you can terminate a pregnancy by jumping up and down vigorously.
Lol! I have a Recipes to Try board as well...I love the idea of the Tried and True one!!!
The saying "You Can't Judge a Book by its Cover" comes to mind when picking and choosing recipes on Pinterest. I never pin any recipe or re-pin without looking at the recipe first. As for hard boiled eggs, I've used your recommendation of storing the uncooked eggs, tips down, the night before boiling them to center the yolks: http://www.thekitchn.com/tip-perfect-hardboiled-eggs-47197
Now I want to follow you on Pinterest because that is a great idea!
I've been told of an entire blog dedicated to awful Pinterest recipes.
My oldest son, Stuart, lived in Japan for a year where this type of egg is known. He wrote an Instructable about how to make one, with pictures. His method works well. Here is a link:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Scrambled-Eggs-still-in-the-Shell-/
There have been variations of a "healthy breakfast cookie" recipe all over Pinterest. I decided to try one from from a reputable magazine that called for just five ingredients: Raw bananas, vanilla, applesauce, flax meal, and dried cherries - "no sugar needed!" Even as I was mixing them they seemed like they'd be bland, so I added some cinnamon and chopped walnuts, and baked them up. They were TERRIBLE - rubbery texture and zero flavor, plus they ended up turning black as they cooled (I'm guessing it had to do with the bananas). Into the trash they went, and I also deleted the pin from my board before anyone else saw it and made the same mistake. Yuck!
Or can of cream of something. Seems like Pinterest is sometimes like the junk food of the internet when it comes to recipes--lots of eye candy, but not necessarily great quality.
Now I want to read that blog!
I do the same when it comes to pinning, checking the recipe first--it's so easy to pin everything I see, but I try to be very picky about what I choose; quality over quantity. And if I'm pinning it, it's because I realistically think I would want to make it in the future. If the recipe doesn't check out, it'd just clutter up my boards.
I fell for the 'bake the eggs in the oven' Pinterest post. My house stunk of eggs for half a day and the eggs were rubbery and the outside was a unappealing brown once I peeled them. Don't do it. Ever.
I think the blog you guys are referring to might be this one:
http://pintester.com/ She tests all sort of pins, not just recipes, though.
I was burned by the cauliflower wings too! A turnip gratin was also a huge disappointment floating in a casserole dish of curdled dairy and bitter liquid.
The link in the article leads to an Estonian site. It explains that she achieved this type of egg by putting it in stoccking and spinning it, not shaking.
It is also mentioned that it took many, many failed attempts.
Wohoo for me being apparently the only Estonian speaker on this post so far...
I have made several complete failures in the kitchen. One of the first time cooking for friends, they came unexpected and I had cooked like three times before, so I went and grabbed frozen bolognese sauce from my mum's freezer. My mom said to thaw it in a pot with a bit of water, but I took a "bit" as almost a cup, I think. It came out as weird water with meat lumps in it...
A few weeks later I made my first lasagna in a tiny microwave/oven combi. I thought I'd put on the oven, but apparently it was the microwave PLUS oven that had been baking my lasagna. All dried out it was like chewing carton. My boyfriend was so nice to eat it all anyway and is still claiming he really likes it.
And then, a few days ago, I decided to try something new: endive soup with curry (witloof soep). The picture looked really tasty so even though I know I really don't like endive, I made it. It smelled SO NICE, but when I tasted it, there it was, that bitter endive aftertaste. Ate the rest of the soup, but threw away the leftovers. :(
I'm easy to find! I think my pinterest name is just "amineh" Let me know if you try any of the recipes, I love hearing about other people's stuff!
Yes! I made a batch of THE most horrible candy cane brownies from a recipe I got off of Pinterest. They looked so cute with the red and white stripes of the candy embedded in the chocolate. Well, the candy burned and turned the brownies into a big melted mess. Pan from hell to clean! Never again! I use my food pins for ideas only unless I know the source.
As long as you guys are crafting your own equipment, wouldn't it be easier to create a container to hard-boil the egg itself within?
For example, in the "Egg Scrambler" video, they had a clear container filled with an egg, so we viewers could see how the egg is scrambled within the shell.
Now, if that clear container could be used to cook the egg, and wouldn't stick to the cooked egg, it would be much easier to create a "yellow hard-boiled egg", or just to hard-boil an egg without even needing to peel the egg.
Just place your egg, either white and yolk, or scrambled, and whatever other ingredients you might want, in your egg-shaped cooker, hard-boil it, and then just pop it out.
Creating a non-stick container where you could just "pop it out" is probably the hardest thing to achieve there. But if it could remove the task of peeling the egg? Wonderful.
This microwave poacher does half the job -- I basically end up with a hard-boiled egg with a weird shape:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002MR0MC
But it pops out easily.
haha, YES I've been burned by Pinterest. I have a board, Recipe Verdicts, where I re-pin recipes that I've made and give my two cents about them.
The absolute WORST was a whipped cream substitute made with boiled cashews. I don't know why I thought that was a good idea, but weird recipes attract me. It went into the compost and I whipped the pin over onto my Verdicts board with some pointed comments.
I'm glad to know the oven method doesn't work for hardcooked eggs (another commenter said). I had that pinned and I was intrigued.
FWIW the author says he does not taste the eggs, they just look cool...
I wish that was the case, but just to make sure I did boil a few eggs that were unshaken and they came out perfect as usual!
I've definitely had some pinterest fails -- usually of the crockpot variety. here was one that was supposed to be sesame chicken but tasted like the ketchup and soy sauce it was made with -- yuck! And don't even bother with the "cook X meals in one sitting" pins -- the recipes are all AWFUL (admitted even by the blogger whose post the pin links to).
But the worst was a "beauty" routine. It was supposed to create super smooth legs. Sugar, olive oil, and a dash of lemon juice. I tried it out. My legs started burning instantly. I was only able to stand the awfulness for half the listed time, and even after I washed it off with body wash and moisturized, my legs were itchy and rashy for DAYS. And of course, the bathtub was an olive oil disaster. My husband almost killed himself in the shower the next day.
On the flip side, I pinned the Kitchn's take on Jamie Oliver chicken cooked in milk recipe, and then repinned it with a guarantee because it sounds sketchy and I wanted my followers to know that it's real and awesome.
The best way to hard boil an egg can be found here: http://tiptomato.com/?p=166
Works perfectly every time.
I've had way more Pinterest recipe successes than failures, but I know what I like and how I like to cook so I don't heed everything in a recipe if it sounds dumb. The biggest failure is that awful breakfast cookie recipe with bananas. Yes, rubbery and not cookies at all.
Pinterest fails = Crock Pot Mac & Cheese; basically turned out to be scrambled eggs with noodles and water-y cheese sauce. It was disgusting.
On the other hand, I made a crock pot Pizza Pasta casserole that was amazing!!! Total comfort food but it truly tasted like pizza but in pasta form. Never would have thought of it without pinterest and now it's my go-to Snow-Day dinner.
Oh Allie's post made me laugh so hard. I'm glad I'm not the only one to fall for some of those pinterest recipes. I'll stand clear of the ones mentioned. Thanks.
Cashew creme is actually really good - I wonder if the recipe was just off. The only time it doesn't work out for me is when I'm too rushed and put in too much water, so it's not as fluffy.
Saw a "cauliflower steak" somewhere. Thought it sounded intriguing. Went straight from my plate into the garbage.
I don't understand why anyone would want to do this shake an egg and hard-boil it thing. It defeats the whole purpose of eating a hard-boiled egg! Other than just to see what happens...
Exactly. And swirling eggs around is an old old trick for making them well-centered. Not only the tip was wrong to start from, but the cooker used bad eggs and cooked too much ¬¬