The first time I tried to make deviled eggs, the counter was covered with egg shells and bits of egg, mayo and crushed hopes. The boiled eggs refused to peel resulting in ugly husks of what were once glorious freshly layed eggies from our fabulously productive chickie-nuggies (or chickens to the lay person).

Having more eggs than we could give away with our 5 chickens now laying daily, I’d decided to give it a few more tries and have come up with a few tricks – doubtlessly discovered by countless others, but I’m sharing with you all in hopes of saving someone from a bit of frustration.

My perfect hard-boiled egg:

Boil the water first. I add quite a bit of food dye, salt and baking soda to the water. The food dye colors the shells so that when you peel the eggs, it’s much easier to tell when you miss a piece of shell. Then, I add the eggs and start the timer for 10 minutes.

Immediately take the eggs out and place in a bowl full of ice water. This is to ‘shock’ the eggs. It seems to help them peel easier.

While the eggs are in the ice water, I get all the supplies out for my egg filling; mayo, vinegear, mustard, pepper, cayenne, etc.

Peel the eggs before they have cooled all the way down. I pull them right out of the water, still damp and not quite cold yet; the shells practically fall off!

My deviled eggs aren’t exactly beautiful, but they are quite tasty and now that I have learned how to boil an egg, they are significantly less frustrating!