can you crack an egg with one hand...

FranticFrummie

Fri, Dec 21 2012, 7:11 am

DrMom wrote:

MaBelleVie wrote:

Squishy wrote:

I never knew that people crack eggs with two hands. Another thing I never heard about until this site.

Well, obviously people do the actual cracking with one hand. But do you always complete the whole process with one hand- open egg, pour into checking container, pour into bowl? I actually tend to check just by passing the yolk back and forth from one half of the shell to the other. So one handed would not work for me.

This. How do you check for blood spots if you do the one-hand thing? (which I think looks totally cool btw)

You are cracking the egg into a clear bowl, so you can check. The super duper secret to one handed cracking is to use a very thin, sharp edged bowl and an exact 45 degree angle. It will work like a knife! Eggs will shatter if you hit them on a blunt edge, or at the wrong angle.

The other secret is to use good quality free range eggs. The shells will be harder. Cheap eggs from battery chickens are thin and fragile. It's a sign that the chickens are malnourished and can't produce enough calcium to make a good shell. You don't want those eggs anyway, because there's hardly any nutrients. Pay more for the good eggs, they will taste better, cook more nicely, and you can do the one handed thing without lots of shell bits flying around.

I once bought cheap eggs, and when I picked up an egg my thumb went right through the shell! shock

The omelets tasted horrible, too. Completely flavorless.

33055

Fri, Dec 21 2012, 7:16 am

DrMom wrote:

MaBelleVie wrote:

Squishy wrote:

I never knew that people crack eggs with two hands. Another thing I never heard about until this site.

This. How do you check for blood spots if you do the one-hand thing? (which I think looks totally cool btw)

As Zaq said - a little glass bowl.

When I first saw the title I thought the op wanted to crack an egg just using her hand. I heard you need twenty pounds of pressure.

zaq

Fri, Dec 21 2012, 8:33 am

DrMom wrote:

[This. How do you check for blood spots if you do the one-hand thing? (which I think looks totally cool btw)

You drop the egg into a small clear glass container like those wonderful little Pyrex ramekins, and lift up the container to check the underside. Not till I was an adult did I learn that the bowls were not, in fact, custom-designed for inspecting eggs.

My BFF uses a Yahrzeit glass.

greenfire

Fri, Dec 21 2012, 12:02 pm

Eemaof3 wrote:

Thanks for the inspiration. I have been cooking since 5AM and decided to try one handed egg cracking. Not only could I do one, but I did one in each hand and no shell fragments!! Oh what makes us happy on 3 hours of sleep!! Shabbat Shalom all!

ah - the 2-handed bandit - gotta LOVE your tusiasm Hooray

greenfire

Fri, Dec 21 2012, 4:10 pm

reminds me of a story ~ when dd #1 was about 2 years old she was helping me bake ... when I turned around she decided [after having watched thousands of times] that she would crack the eggs herself ... to her shock the little eggy that she smashed on the side of the metal bowl ... splashed with such a tremendous amount of goo & shock ... & mess & giggle

STovah

Sat, Dec 22 2012, 7:05 pm

TranquilityAndPeace wrote:

On a side point - I read that if you bang the egg on a flat surface, like a counter, versus a curved surface, like the edge of a cup, you're less likely to get shell fragments in your egg.

Is that true?

It's true in my experience - once I read that in some cookbook, I started cracking the egg against the counter or sink instead of the rim of the glass, and there are definitely fewer instances of pieces of shell getting in.