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This contradicts advice to add vinegar to the water, but may be based on better science. I don't know, but I do know how to boil eggs successfully without the dreaded green ring around the yolk. If I'm making deviled eggs for a party, I always use older eggs so they don't have any chips out of the white. Any recalcitrant mess ups are, of course, cook's treat. 
This contradicts advice to add vinegar to the water, but may be based on better science. I don't know, but I do know how to boil eggs successfully without the dreaded green ring around the yolk. If I'm making deviled eggs for a party, I always use older eggs so they don't have any chips out of the white. Any recalcitrant mess ups are, of course, cook's treat.
The most useful technique I have found for smooth peeling is to go against intuition. One wants to come at the peel with the fingers and nails straight on like is done in most tasks. I find that if I can slide a thumbnail in the opposite orientation with the nail facing the egg in a loose area, and push the shell away that way, rather than pull it, it works best for me. Your sensitive fingertip can feel when you're successfully under the membrane. I try to get a ribbon of shell away around the circumference this way and the sides practically fall off intact with a little help using the same backward orientation.
