The Boiled Egg (part 1) (Chicken Salad Sandwich)

We celebrated a few family birthdays this weekend with a real Texas BBQ. Grandpa smoked some ribs and chicken and I added in skewered shrimp, hamburgers and hot dogs. Along with those main dishes, we made baked beans, potato salad, macaroni and cheese and deviled eggs. It was sure to be an amazing spread....of which no one got any pictures! Geesh....

Anyway, as we are working in the kitchen on the food preparations, we started having issues peeling the boiled eggs that would be part of the potato salad and the deviled eggs. The shells were just not coming off and we were butchering each one as we went a long. After only getting 7 clean eggs out of the 18 that we boiled, it was clear that we needed to start all over. So we started the boiling process again. As we restarted, we discussed the best way to prepare boiled eggs in order to get a clean shell removal. The way that I make boiled eggs was just slightly different than the way my parents make their boiled eggs. Not a huge difference but a difference, nonetheless.

I mentioned that I had heard that the older the egg is, the better the shells are to remove. I also heard that if you give the boiled eggs an ice-bath immediately after they were finished on the stove, this would also ensure a clean peeling experience.  We discussed the different cooking methods as well. Should you start the egg off in a pot full of cool water? Should you boil the water first then drop the eggs in? Should you let them cook for 10 minutes, 12 minutes or 15 minutes? All this talking has led me to a little experiment of my own. Here goes.....

Over the next few days, I'm going to prepare boiled eggs in several different ways.  I bought a dozen eggs from the store and asked a sweet friend of mine for some super fresh eggs from her pet chickens. I've heard conflicting thoughts on how old grocery store bought eggs are. Some research I've read said that most eggs in the grocery store are about 3-5 days old, other sources say they can be up to 20-30 days. I bought this set of eggs from Kroger so let's assume they are about 10 days old. The set of fresh eggs we are using are about 4 days old when we start this experiment.

Here are my findings from today's session:

I placed 3 store-bought eggs and 3 fresh eggs in a pot of cool water and began heating the eggs and water over medium high heat until it was boiling. I then reduced the flame to a slow rolling boil for 10 minutes.

After the 10 minutes of cooking, I placed one of each type of egg into an ice bath to cool for 10 minutes;

one of each type went into a bowl of cool water from the tap for 10 minutes;

the last two eggs I allowed to cool for 10 minutes on their own without assistance (they didn't cool very much in that 10 minutes).

After the cooling session, I began the peeling process. I was surprised to see that there really wasn't a difference in how easy it was to peel the different types of eggs. There also really wasn't much of difference in the peeling ease based on cooling style. The only issue I had was with the two eggs that were allowed to cool on their own....they were still very hot to the touch and I did rip one up a bit (the egg from the store).

So that concludes today's session - tomorrow I will boil the water first and let the eggs set for 10 minutes in the hot water covered.

Now that I have six eggs to eat, how should I prepare them.......
 - I ate two boiled eggs for my breakfast this morning
 - I will make a few deviled eggs for The Boy for dinner (he and I are the only ones who like them)
 - I will make chicken salad for sandwiches. I've added the recipe below. Enjoy!!

Chicken Salad Sandwiches (makes about 4 servings)

Ingredients:
2-10 ounce cans of chicken breast, drained & shredded
2 boiled eggs, chopped
1 TBS almonds, chopped
1 tsp yellow mustard
1 1/2 TBS mayonnaise
1-8 ounce can chopped pineapple, drained
salt and pepper to taste
favorite type of lettuce
toasted bread