I boiled the brown right off my eggs!!!

[rainy]

Today we hard boiled some FRESH eggs from our chickens - fresh as in laid today. In the past peeling hard boiled fresh eggs has been a pain so we looked up some tricks to make them easier to peel. We saw a lot of comments about two solutions - adding vinegar to the water, and adding salt to the water while boiling. So we figured, we'll do both.

When I checked to see if the water with the eggs had come to a boil I noticed some little brown specks floating in the water. I thought it was odd and asked my wife if the pot had been clean to begin with. We figured since vinegar is a good cleaner, perhaps it dissolved some cooking oils that regular washing hadn't been able to remove from the pot.

These are brown eggs. And as I ran cold water over them after they were cooked, I noticed they looked odd and started rubbing them with my thumb AND THE BROWN CAME OFF! IT CAME COMPLETELY OFF. I rubbed some more and before long I had a white egg shell.

Can someone please explain what happened?

Thanks

-rainy

 

[Farmin Momma]

I am sorry, I don't have an answer about what happend but I am curiouse to wether or not they were easier to peel? I also have a hard time peeling those suckers.

 

[CarolJ]

The brown coating is added to the white egg right before it is laid. So I guess the vinegar/salt combination dissolved that coating.

 

[KDK1]

Today we hard boiled some FRESH eggs from our chickens - fresh as in laid today. In the past peeling hard boiled fresh eggs has been a pain so we looked up some tricks to make them easier to peel. We saw a lot of comments about two solutions - adding vinegar to the water, and adding salt to the water while boiling. So we figured, we'll do both.

When I checked to see if the water with the eggs had come to a boil I noticed some little brown specks floating in the water. I thought it was odd and asked my wife if the pot had been clean to begin with. We figured since vinegar is a good cleaner, perhaps it dissolved some cooking oils that regular washing hadn't been able to remove from the pot.

These are brown eggs. And as I ran cold water over them after they were cooked, I noticed they looked odd and started rubbing them with my thumb AND THE BROWN CAME OFF! IT CAME COMPLETELY OFF. I rubbed some more and before long I had a white egg shell.

Can someone please explain what happened?

Thanks

-rainy

The color on a brown egg is just that, color. It's one of the last steps in the production process. I suppose the vinegar loosened it. A blue egg is blue all the way through.

 

[KDK1]

CarolJ beat me to it!

 

[rainy]

Yes it did make them easier to peel. We have had good luck just adding salt to the water. Then we cool them not just in cold water, but in an ice water bath. Doing those two things made our fresh eggs peel almost as good as store bought eggs.

When we shared that tip with a friend, they said they used vinegar in the water. We were going to try that and somehow decided to combine the methods. Little did we know we were creating a science experiment!

 

[rainy]

Really! So the inside of the shell is blue as well? I guess the blue is a result of something at the very heart of shell formation in those hens then.

 

[Den in Penn]

Acid (vinegar) will dissolve egg shells. If you want to make a soft shell egg, membrane on the outside, try putting an egg in pure vinegar. It will bubble a little and will take a while, about a day if I remember right. One of those neat science things to show the kids. So yes you were starting to dissolving the egg shell.

 

[gallusdomesticus]

The brown color is a very thin veneer added at the end of the passage of the egg down her oviduct. The shell gland derives the brown color from a enzyme in the hemoglobin in her blood and is so thin that you can scratch the brown off with fine sandpaper. Vinegar, being and acid, etches the shell and partially dissolves the calcium carbonate of the shell. It's normal for the color to come off the shell in those circumstances.

 

[duckinnut]

I gonna wash that grey right outta my hair,wash that grey right outta my hair.........oops.... wrong thread.