
The Science of Eggs - Hooke
http://luckypeach.com/the-science-of-eggs/
======
MegaDeKay
Harold McGee is the author of this article and he is both brilliant and a
great writer. Reading the rest of his articles on that site [0] would be time
well spent. This paragraph alone was enough to get me to whip up a batch of
salt-rising bread [1], and it was indeed tasty. I have made it several times
since.

"The engine behind this fermentation method is Clostridium perfringens, a
close relative of bacteria that cause botulism, tetanus, and food poisoning.
It can eat flesh. It gives gas gangrene its name by causing putrefying flesh
wounds that bubble and foam with flammable hydrogen. And it can make something
surprisingly delicate and tasty."

[0]
[http://luckypeach.com/author/haroldmcgee/](http://luckypeach.com/author/haroldmcgee/)

[1] [http://luckypeach.com/infectious-
confection/](http://luckypeach.com/infectious-confection/)

* edited for formatting

~~~
david-given
I used to make ginger beer, which is traditionally is cultured from a thing
called a ginger beer plant; this is a jamjar full of nasty brown goop
consisting of a symbiotic mix of yeast and bacteria (and a lot of slowly
decomposing ginger).

What you're _supposed_ to do is to leave a jamjar of sugary water out in the
open for a few days so that it gets infected with whatever strain of wild
yeast happen to be floating around your house. You keep feeding it for a month
or so and the desired types of bacteria and yeast are supposed to outcompete
the others and you end up with the right stuff to make ginger beer out of.

Good ginger beer plants make good beer, and afficionados have been using the
same plant for years, occasionally swapping cultures with other people to
breed just the right culture to make _really good_ beer.

Me, I was squeamish about wild yeast in my 1900 British terrace mostly made
out of damp rotting bricks, so I added a tiny amount of beer yeast to mine to
get it started. Worked really well.

I eventually lost the plant when I had to go on holiday, and so was unable to
feed it. Instead I tried freezing it. The results when I thawed it were very
weird --- I think the freezing process killed of all the yeast, but not the
bacteria, or vice versa. It was certainly quite useless.

 _Edit:_ Aha, instructions on how to make your own!

[https://delishably.com/beverages/How-to-Grow-Your-Own-
Ginger...](https://delishably.com/beverages/How-to-Grow-Your-Own-Ginger-Beer-
Plant)

------
Blahah
This is a lovely article, but I can't help feel the author is missing a trick.
If you need to peel an egg, do it under fast running cold water. No matter the
condition of the egg, the running water will rapidly separate the shell and
membrane from what's underneath, and it usually comes away in a single sheet.
No need for 4-8 hours of chemistry.

~~~
slimbods
It might be that you don't have the problem with peeling very fresh eggs the
author is addressing. We keep our own hens, and an egg just a few days old is
bloomin hard to shift the shell off.

~~~
jpp
Having spent the better part of a week researching this one, I found two
things that "cracked the case": 1) steam cook instead of boil (12 minutes in a
pot with 1/4" water) - and then 2) let them cool down for 12+ hours. You can
at that point crack the shell in half and the hard-cooked egg will fall out...

If waiting isn't an option, then under water -- either running water or in a
bowl -- works just as well. The outer membrane that sticks to the shell just
needs moisture to release.

------
deanclatworthy
Or just use a eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher [1]

[1]
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=2QfRMwdZUBA](https://youtube.com/watch?v=2QfRMwdZUBA)

------
telesilla
Yeah everyone has their own way of peeling eggs, handed down by
parents/grandparents? Mine is to shake the saucepan quite hard just after the
eggs are boiled (how hard depends on how long you boiled the egg). This should
put a few clear cracks in the shell. Now submerge in ice water or just run
cold water over the eggs for a minute. Now when you go to peel it, the shell
has separated and it should just come right now cleanly. Works for me about
95% of the time (could be more but I'm often lazy)

Here's my method explained in detail by someone else, followed by comments of
more methods.. it's a rabbit hole.

[http://thestonesoup.com/blog/2010/03/the-secret-to-easy-
to-p...](http://thestonesoup.com/blog/2010/03/the-secret-to-easy-to-peel-
boiled-eggs/)

------
cmurf
Roll it on a hard surface? Shell cracks into small fragments that stick to the
membrane between shell and egg, and it peels right off. I haven't ever had the
problems described.

~~~
pYQAJ6Zm
Similar method: I gently press them all around between my palms to get these
cracks. Then, peeling them under running water is really easy.

------
peterwwillis
I've tried every non-chemical method that I could find, and The Spoon Method
is the most foolproof method to peel eggs, soft boiled or hard, cold or warm,
old or new. All it takes is about five practice eggs and you should have it
down. It's insanely easy, quick, and effective: you get a spoon, crack the
egg, and work the spoon up under the shell by pointing the end of the spoon at
the shell, so it pushes up and cracks the shell, and only the bottom curved
part of the spoon comes in contact with the white, briefly. You can take the
entire shell off in one go. There is no cooked egg that it hasn't worked on
for me. YMMV

------
foofoo55
Another solution [1] was on HN a while ago. Lower the cold eggs into boiling
water, boil for 7-9 minutes for desired yolk, then plunge into ice water. We
regularly boil 2-4 dozen eggs a week this way and almost never get a stubborn
peeler, whether the eggs are old or fresh, store-bought or backyard.

[1] [http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/the-secrets-to-peeling-
ha...](http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/the-secrets-to-peeling-hard-boiled-
eggs.html)

------
ryandamm
Thanks for posting this, I love Harold McGee and wasn't aware of his posts
here. I've now got a bunch of browser tabs open with his other articles, can't
wait to read them all...

He used to write occasionally for the NY Times, but it's been awhile. He's
also an occasional guest on Dave Arnold's podcast "Cooking Issues."

------
asciimo
That's the most nauseating HN post I've read. I look forward to the day when
eating other animals' reproductive materials is a rare delicacy.

~~~
sokoloff
Is it worse than eating the animals themselves?

Or the milk, originally intended to support the young animals after birth?

Is it worse than eating the reproductive materials of plants?

