This article originally appeared on ExtraCrispy.com.
Many people think of a brand new year as a chance to kickstart their all-around self-improvement. We think it’s the perfect opportunity to focus on refining your breakfast techniques and simplifying your mornings, especially with clever egg hacks. Whether you like ‘em scrambled, poached, or over-easy, preparing eggs for breakfast is suddenly about to get way more entertaining—not to mention foolproof. With these egg hacks, you can peel an egg in five seconds flat, make fluffier pancakes, boil a perfectly soft egg every time, or prepare two dozen eggs all at once. We've tested plenty of egg hacks, so we know whereof we speak. These are the eight egg tricks you shouldn’t live without a moment longer.
Crack an Egg with One Hand
There’s nothing worse than cracking an egg and having to fish bits of shell out of the bowl. This year, save time and cut down on mess by mastering the one-hand cracking technique. Now you will never again have to experience a sneak attack from shards of eggshell in your omelet or frittata.
Peel a Hard-Boiled Egg in a Glass of Water
Sure, you could use a spoon to peel a hard-boiled egg, but a mason jar filled with a bit of water does the deed in less time. Just place a cooked egg in a jar, add one to two inches of water, cover, and give it a good shake. In just five seconds, the shell will break loose in big pieces, and you’ll be left with a perfectly peeled hard-boiled egg.
Make 24 Hard-Boiled Eggs in the Oven at Once
When you're cooking eggs for a crowd, it’s much easier and more convenient to make hard-boiled eggs in the oven. Seriously, you can cook two dozen eggs all in one shot. (And free up plenty of space on the stove for other important breakfast foods like bacon, pancakes, and hash browns.) A whole, unpeeled egg fills each cup of a muffin tin and cooks perfectly. All you need to do is set the temperature, start the timer, and walk away.
Make Perfect Boiled Eggs Every Time
It’s easy to misjudge the right cooking time for boiled eggs, and once you’ve encountered the icky sulphuric taste of overcooked eggs, you can’t un-taste it. But, you can completely avoid this common mistake by following our boiled egg timeline. Timing is everything and with our help, you’ll only ever cook the most flawless soft-, medium-, and hard-boiled eggs.
Mix Pancake Batter into Your Omelet the IHOP Way
IHOP is known for its pancakes, but the breakfast chain also makes the fluffiest omelets. Sure, stirring pancake batter in your omelet mixture might seem a little odd, but we figured if this is the trick IHOP uses to get their omelets on lock, it has to work for the average home cook, too. And it certainly does. Adding pancake batter to eggs adds a touch of sweetness and results in an omelet that’s hefty and airy at the same time.
Grate Eggs and Trick Your Brain into Thinking You’re Eating Cheese
Blue Hill at Stone Barns’ nifty egg grating technique will add unique and excellent texture to any breakfast your heart desires. Because of its similarity to cheese, you could even skip it altogether. (Though you totally don’t have to.) The technique itself is incredibly simple, and can be done with a rotary grater, hand or box grater, or a Microplane at home. Just hard boil an egg to whatever level of firmness you like, grate it, and top any cheesy breakfast of your choice, like last night’s pizza, huevos rancheros, quesadillas, tacos, and more.
Put Eggs in Water to See If They’re Good or Bad
People have strong feelings about food expiration dates—especially when it comes to telling how old eggs are. The best way to test the freshness of eggs is to drop them into a glass of water. If the egg sinks, it’s still ok to eat. If it floats, throw it away. It’s as simple as that.
Make Hollandaise Sauce in a Blender and Never Whisk Again
Although hollandaise sauce sounds über fancy and complicated, it’s actually super easy to make with this blender hack. Instead of constantly whisking the egg yolks, melted butter, and lemon juice on the stove to fully emulsify the sauce, dust off your blender and swirl together all the ingredients for a couple of minutes. It’s totally foolproof, won’t leave your arm exhausted from a ton of whisking, and you don’t have to worry about the sauce breaking.
