# Egg cutting



## chef in the making (Apr 26, 2006)

How do you cut an egg shell so that you can place the cooked product back inside?


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## jkath (Apr 27, 2006)

I suppose you'd want to break a few extra eggs till you got nice halves, (save them for another purpose), then use the smoother side of an emery board to file the sharp edges down. Wash the egg and thoroughly dry. Then you can fill your egg cups with your cooked goodies. Hope that helped


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## Gretchen (Apr 27, 2006)

I think you can sort of tap the end gently until it cracks. Then take a pair of scissors and cut around the edge to make a hole.  I saw this done on Behind the Bash for a big "do".


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## grumblebee (Apr 27, 2006)

You can also buy egg shell cutters/toppers specifically for this purpose. I have one that I use to cut the tops of my soft boiled eggs. Here is a link to one similar to the one I have.


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## Michael in FtW (Apr 27, 2006)

You could do what I've seen some chefs do on TV and just use a knife and carefully whack around the end of the egg - but it comes out rather jagged. So, if you are looking for something smother I would go with an "cutter type" egg topper like grumblebee showed (around $5). Another version along this line is made by Zyliss (about $15), and one from Italy (about $30). 

If you want to go pro and get an even smoother cut - then you need one of the "bell" shaped toppers, and they will cost you more. On the low end is the "Clack" egg topper (about $25-$30 but seems to be only available online from the UK or Germany) or the iNOX which uses a plunger and cost anywhere from $45-$95 depending on where you buy it.

Only the bell type cutters mention being suitable for raw as well as cooked eggs. The cutter types only mention "cooked" eggs - don't know how they would work on raw eggs - maybe grumblebee could shed some light on that.


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## Aurora (Apr 27, 2006)

Depending upon how fancy you wish to get with the presentation you may wish to look into something like a Dremel Rotary Tool (http://www.dremel.com/en-us/tools/tool-category.htm?H=188091) to saw through the egg shells. I envisioned a presentation of cutting the egg shell around the long perimeter rather than the narrow diameter.

You may wish to poke a hole in the top and bottom and blow out the contents first.


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## Michael in FtW (Apr 27, 2006)

Have you ever tried to cut a raw egg shell, with the raw egg still inside it, with a Dremel tool, Aurora?


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## Aurora (Apr 27, 2006)

That's why I included the last sentence.



> You may wish to poke a hole in the top and bottom and blow out the contents first.


 
I dare say that you will have the same problem cutting the shell of any raw egg with a fancy egg cutter or a rotary tool. That is, one **** of a mess! You'd have shell fragments and bits all through the raw egg. I'm rather sure that the sizzor type egg cutters are intended to be used on cooked eggs.


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## Waterbury Paco (Dec 4, 2013)

I saw a perfectly soft boiled egg in shell on an episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman at the Grand Hotel in St. Petersburg, Russia. The edges of the shell were so perfectly smooth that the emptied smaller portion was used on edge decoratively! I suppose the chef could've made the perfect shell separately, Emory board and all, then loaded the newly cooked egg into it, but was hoping an all in one solution possible.


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## pacanis (Dec 4, 2013)

Well the home of Fabergé eggs... what do you expect?


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## GotGarlic (Dec 4, 2013)

pacanis said:


> Well the home of Fabergé eggs... what do you expect?



lol.


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## Jing (Dec 5, 2013)

One of my most memorable restaurant dishes featured softly scrambled egg with chopped chives in a perfect whole egg shell with just a tiny lid cut off the shell and replaced to lean gently over the top. When you lifted up the lid, you found caviar on top of the scrambled egg. The egg was served in a traditional plain egg cup.

 It was a brilliant presentation...but I have no idea how they did it so beautifully.


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## Aunt Bea (Dec 5, 2013)

Try this little stocking stuffer! 

Egg Topper | Williams-Sonoma


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## Jing (Dec 5, 2013)

Oooh I love! Bit pricey for a stocking stuffer though.


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## Caslon (Dec 6, 2013)

I've seen soft boiled eggs eaten in the shell...in b&w movies, lol. I've always wanted to try them that classy, room service way.


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## RPCookin (Dec 6, 2013)

Caslon said:


> I've seen soft boiled eggs eaten in the shell...in b&w movies, lol. I've always wanted to try them that classy, room service way.



I grew up with soft boiled eggs eaten in the shell in an egg cup.  My grandmother had a set of egg cups (I sometimes wonder who ended up with them - I never saw them again after she passed away), and she taught us very early on how to properly eat a soft boiled egg.  I'm not sure that I liked the egg so much as it was fun to do.  

Take the spoon and gently crack a ring around the pointy end about 1/2 inch down, pop the shell off, pick off one or two loose shell fragments and eat.  It was like getting to play with your food without being chastised for it. 

This is what my Gramma's looked like.  The big end is for hard boiled eggs - the small end is for soft.


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## Addie (Dec 6, 2013)

Why didn't they have all these neat little kitchen tools when I was raising my family? Of course Woolworth's only carried the least expensive items. And with four kids, it became my favorite store.


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## Jing (Dec 6, 2013)

OMG I have never thought of eating soft boiled eggs any other way but in an egg cup! How do you eat them if you don't use an egg cup??

Rick, I have a couple of egg cups like that, but we use the large end to keep a second egg warm while we eat the first. We always have two soft boiled eggs....and toast soldiers on the side, of course!


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## Steve Kroll (Dec 6, 2013)

Jing said:


> OMG I have never thought of eating soft boiled eggs any other way but in an egg cup! How do you eat them if you don't use an egg cup??


We always had them on toast or hash browns when I was a kid.


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## Jing (Dec 6, 2013)

Steve Kroll said:


> We always had them on toast or hash browns when I was a kid.


That must involve a lot of rather messy unpeeling for the person serving, surely?? Doesn't the yolk run all over the place if you aren't careful??


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## Addie (Dec 6, 2013)

Jing said:


> That must involve a lot of rather messy unpeeling for the person serving, surely?? Doesn't the yolk run all over the place if you aren't careful??



No. I have a grapefruit spoon that is smaller then your regular spoon and scoop out the egg. The yolk doesn't break until I break it in the bowl. Break the egg toward the top and remove. Using a spoon you scoop out the egg and then the part your removed first.


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## taxlady (Dec 6, 2013)

We always used egg cups at my house. I really disliked it when the egg was served scooped out of the shell. My Mormor (mother's mother) did that when I was 4-5 years old. I always felt it was the baby way to eat soft boiled eggs.


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## Addie (Dec 6, 2013)

taxlady said:


> We always used egg cups at my house. I really disliked it when the egg was served scooped out of the shell. My Mormor (mother's mother) did that when I was 4-5 years old. I always felt it was the baby way to eat soft boiled eggs.



I was a little kid the first time I ever saw an egg served this way. I had no idea how to eat it. I honestly thought you were supposed to eat the shell and all. I left the egg there.


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## Jing (Dec 6, 2013)

That's so funny, Addie! I suppose it depends on our origins. Like tax lady, I live in Canada now, where I think egg cups are fairly commonplace? Plus I was brought up in the UK where everyone's kitchen crockery includes a set of egg cups...it's definitely the way you eat soft boiled eggs there unless, as tax lady says, you are a baby. I do have fond recollections of my grandma giving me a shelled soft egg cut up on buttered toast when I was a very tiny little thing.


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## RPCookin (Dec 6, 2013)

Jing said:


> That's so funny, Addie! I suppose it depends on our origins. Like tax lady, I live in Canada now, where I think egg cups are fairly commonplace? Plus I was brought up in the UK where everyone's kitchen crockery includes a set of egg cups...it's definitely the way you eat soft boiled eggs there unless, as tax lady says, you are a baby. I do have fond recollections of my grandma giving me a shelled soft egg cut up on buttered toast when I was a very tiny little thing.



I agree that it seems to be more of an English thing.  I'm English and Welsh on my mother's side, and it was her mother (family name Griffith) who taught us how to eat an egg in the shell using an egg cup.


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## taxlady (Dec 6, 2013)

Maybe it's a European thing. My mum was Danish and my dad was Swedish.


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## Aunt Bea (Dec 6, 2013)

I have a couple of these kicking around, but I never use them.

Never attempted the egg in the shell, I don't function too well first thing in the morning!


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## Caslon (Dec 6, 2013)

Jing said:


> OMG I have never thought of eating soft boiled eggs any other way but in an egg cup! How do you eat them if you don't use an egg cup??



Here's how. My eggs come out of the fridge pretty cold. I punch a hole in one end, boil for 5 minutes (cause my eggs are very cold) and bring the pan to the sink. I start my toaster.  I run a little cold water on them (they are hot), pick them up and hit them on the counter. I lay a paper towel on the counter for the shells and proceed to peel the shells off. Because they are hot, I run them under a stream of cold water a couple of times while peeling.  I put them into a small serving bowl just as the toast pops up. The eggs stay warm as I move everything to the table because they haven't been broken into yet. I'm fine with this method...I've gotten good at it.


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## Aunt Bea (Dec 6, 2013)

Caslon said:


> Here's how. My eggs come out of the fridge pretty cold. I punch a hole in one end, boil for 5 minutes (cause my eggs are very cold) and bring the pan to the sink. I start my toaster.  I run a little cold water on them (they are hot), pick them up and hit them on the counter. I lay a paper towel on the counter for the shells and proceed to peel the shells off. Because they are hot, I run them under a stream of cold water a couple of times while peeling.  I put them into a small serving bowl just as the toast pops up. The eggs stay warm as I move everything to the table because they haven't been broken into yet. I'm fine with this method...I've gotten good at it.



I have been wanting to give this method a try since I saw an episode of Essential Pepin where they were making mollet eggs.  I am interested in the presentation of the soft cooked whole egg in a bowl of soup.

Tomato Chowder With Mollet Eggs | Essential Pepin


One question for you, does the age of the egg make a difference in the removal of the shell?


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## Caslon (Dec 6, 2013)

Aunt Bea said:


> I have been wanting to give this method a try since I saw an episode of Essential Pepin where they were making mollet eggs.  I am interested in the presentation of the soft cooked whole egg in a bowl of soup.
> 
> Tomato Chowder With Mollet Eggs | Essential Pepin
> 
> ...



No it doesn't. The key is that when you start peeling the egg, use your thumb to start the membrane pulling off too. When you do, the shells peel off quite easily (with a little practice).


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## Aunt Bea (Dec 6, 2013)

Caslon said:


> No it doesn't. The key is that when you start peeling the egg, use your thumb to start the membrane pulling off too. When you do, the shells peel off quite easily (with a little practice).



Thanks for the information!

I'm going to give this a try.

I'm a coward so I will probably cook two eggs, my primary egg and my emergency back up egg!


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## Caslon (Dec 6, 2013)

Aunt Bea said:


> Thanks for the information!
> 
> I'm going to give this a try.



Just have some cold water running as you peel them and run them under it for a second when your hand gets too hot. You only have to do this once, maybe twice, while peeling them.


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## RPCookin (Dec 6, 2013)

Caslon said:


> No it doesn't. The key is that when you start peeling the egg, use your thumb to start the membrane pulling off too. When you do, the shells peel off quite easily (with a little practice).





Aunt Bea said:


> Thanks for the information!
> 
> I'm going to give this a try.
> 
> I'm a coward so I will probably cook two eggs, my primary egg and my emergency back up egg!



Sometimes the membrane sticks to the white no matter what you do.  My best success is with eggs that are at least a week old.  The connection between the membrane and the egg white starts to naturally break down as the egg ages (or so I've read from a supposedly knowledgeable source).


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## Caslon (Dec 6, 2013)

RPCookin said:


> Sometimes the membrane sticks to the white no matter what you do.  My best success is with eggs that are at least a week old.  The connection between the membrane and the egg white starts to naturally break down as the egg ages (or so I've read from a supposedly knowledgeable source).



I just bought some eggs that have a date code thats dated pretty far ahead, meaning the eggs are fresh.  I'll give it a go with those to see if the shell still comes off as easy. The only part that's sometimes harder to remove are the very top caps of the egg.  As far as cracking them, just gently crack them on your counter top and rotate the egg and crack the other side and maybe crack the top too, then start peeling them.


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## Jing (Dec 7, 2013)

This thread is a powerhouse of great tips...thanks to everyone!


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## Addie (Dec 7, 2013)

FYI. Brown shell eggs have thicker shells than white eggs. Harder to peel. But not as delicate as the white. They don't crack as easily when cooking in boiling water.


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## Mad Cook (Dec 7, 2013)

Aunt Bea said:


> Try this little stocking stuffer!
> 
> Egg Topper | Williams-Sonoma


Hell's teeth! 28 quid!

 I must be a dreadful hostess - I give my guests a knife to slice off the top of their soft boiled egg


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## Mad Cook (Dec 7, 2013)

Caslon said:


> I've seen soft boiled eggs eaten in the shell...in b&w movies, lol. I've always wanted to try them that classy, room service way.


Doesn't everyone eat their soft boiled egg that way unless it is an oeuf mollet?


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## Mad Cook (Dec 7, 2013)

Jing said:


> One of my most memorable restaurant dishes featured softly scrambled egg with chopped chives in a perfect whole egg shell with just a tiny lid cut off the shell and replaced to lean gently over the top. When you lifted up the lid, you found caviar on top of the scrambled egg. The egg was served in a traditional plain egg cup.
> 
> It was a brilliant presentation...but I have no idea how they did it so beautifully.


Empty eggshells are sold for the catering trade. 

 The cook scrambled egg was probably inserted into the shell with the aid of a piping bag with a large plain nozzle. Practice required so that the scrambled egg doesn't get squashed.


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## Jing (Dec 7, 2013)

Mad Cook said:


> Empty eggshells are sold for the catering trade.
> 
> The cook scrambled egg was probably inserted into the shell with the aid of a piping bag with a large plain nozzle. Practice required so that the scrambled egg doesn't get squashed.



That would make sense. I am sure you are right.


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