I Tried the Tape Method for Peeling Eggs — Here’s How It Went

Peeling hard-boiled eggs is notorious for being one of the most frustrating cooking tasks (second to peeling onions and garlic, that is). In many cases the shell sticks to the egg, resulting in a messy pile of shell fragments, or it takes some of the white with it, leaving the egg torn and misshapen. 

It’s no wonder there are several methods out there for easily peeling hard-boiled eggs, including the crack-and-roll method, spoon-rotating method, peeling-under-water method. While most of these have worked well for me in the past, I decided to test my luck with a more innovative method that, if done right, looked immensely satisfying: the tape-peeling method.

For consistency, I made sure to test this trick three times while keeping all other variables consistent.

Eggs: All eggs came from the same carton, and were purchased only a few days before. I anticipated these being somewhat harder to peel, as older eggs peel more easily.

Boiling method: I used Wikihow’s method, which is typically how I make my eggs. Submerging in salted water, I boiled the eggs on the stove for 13 minutes before dropping them into an ice bath to halt the cooking process for 5 minutes. After that, I let them chill in the refrigerator for an additional 30 minutes. This is supposed to help loosen up the shell.

According to this video, you then wrap the circumference of each egg in packing tape, rolling it in the palm of your hand against the countertop with just enough force to delicately crack the shell. Peel back the tape, and the shell should come off in one clean sweep. This leaves just the top and bottom of the shell, which easily slide off.

Needless to say, this was one of the trickier methods I’ve tried. Un-sticking the tape was challenging to begin with, and I found that some of the shell fragments didn’t adhere to the tape as I had expected. And why introduce tape in the first place when I can achieve perfectly peeled eggs without the addition of something extra? While I likely won’t use this method again, it’s an innovative little tip that I can keep in my back pocket.