I Tried This Viral Hard-Boiled Egg Peeling Hack, and It Actually Sort of Worked?

Every time a Tweet goes viral proposing to make some annoying kitchen task quick and easy, there’s the inevitable blowback when it turns out that it only works with a certain type of pineapple or mango, or that long before you can master it, you might accidentally slice a finger off (I’m looking at you, garlic-peeling trick!). But sometimes one comes along that seems so easy, so innocuous, and so tempting that we have to try it right away. Such was the case with the viral egg peeling video that made the rounds yesterday.

In the video, a hard-boiled egg is dropped into the glass, swished around with water for a few seconds, and then when it’s pulled out, a quick squeeze pops the egg right out of the shell. It looks relatively easy — especially for anyone who has ever spent time picking at stuck pieces of shell on a stubborn egg.

So I decided to try it out. When my water boiled, I dropped three eggs in for nine minutes to get my perfectly cooked eggs. When I pulled them out, I stuck the first one in the glass, ran some water in, and shook it. The shell cracked a bit, but the egg didn’t really pop out. Still, the whole shell popped off, so it was relatively easy to peel.

On the second egg, I shook longer and harder, added more water and shook again. This time, the egg broke right at the narrow top, the way it does in the original video, and with a firm squeeze (more effort than the video really shows), it plopped out. Originally, I had planned to use the third egg as a control, to see what these specific eggs were like to peel normally, but now I was fascinated and wanted to try again. I shook again. This time, the egg didn’t crack at the narrow top, so I thought it might not work, but by continuing to firmly squeeze the egg from the thicker of the two poles, it eventually popped out.

So yes, this trick worked with a little practice. As always, it seemed to require far more shaking and squeezing than the original video implies, making it questionably useful when compared to the usual peeling. Still, it’s a cool party trick.