I’m working at a camp and got roped into the kitchen. I crack a million eggs a day so have plenty for practice. Any other tips on neat little tricks to learn to combat this boredom are welcome!
This thread made me realize that I have no idea how I actually do this, but yours is the method that feels right
It’s actually one of those things you need to just try for yourself. It doesn’t take too long to get the hang of, but yes, popped yolks are always a possibility.
This is how I do it as well. You need to get a good crack for it to work well.
I keep busting the yolk but this seems like it would work better and keep the yolk whole.
crack it on a flat surface like the table, not the edge of the bowl.
aside: Sabrina (1957) has an amusing sequence on the topic.
Excellent film and time for a rewatch!
I watched a woman at a bakery crack two at once. One in each hand. It was an amazing feat. I wish this for you, internet friend. Godspeed with the eggs. Also, yay for that camp for not using powdered eggs.
Thank you for your kind wishes! Your good will shall flow into each hand and the eggs shall respond.
I loved this. 😊😊😊
Yeah, I learned working in a cafe prepping the 10 ltr bucket of scrambled.egg mix each morning. Once you get it on your dominant hand, train your non dominant hand as well. Then you're double cracking my G. Get the job done fast and look cool 😎🥚🍳
And if your hand is big enough, you can hold three at a time. crack reload, crack reload.
Damn! That's impressive!!!
This is how I do it, too. You explained it very well! And now I’m gonna think of a snake head when I’m cracking eggs tomorrow morning.
I was confused until the "kinda like a snake's fangs" and sudden lightbulb! Thank you, internet stranger!
…and you must commit.
this is harder done than said for people who’ve experienced a broken finger before. At least for people (me) who didn’t allow the broken finger to properly heal in a cast.
The secret is slightly larger hands than you have
Confidence
The answer to so many of life's complicated issues.
Once you master one-handed cracking, move on to cracking 2 eggs in 2 hands at the same time.
It’s one of the neatest skills I got in the kitchenC even though I occasionally break my yolks.
Four eggs total or two eggs total with a total of two hands?
1 egg in each hand and another in my mouth, for a three-egg style cracking.
OnlyFans?
If you wanna pay me a monthly subscription to watch me break eggs with my mouth, please do.
🤣🤑💰💵
There's really no "trick" to it as far as I know, it's more of a "feel" thing, here's how I do it.
- make a fist around the egg so that only the part I want to crack is exposed.
- crack/smash the egg
- carefully release my grip until the egg slides out
- toss the shell
Don’t use quail eggs. You’re welcome.
Those you just bite the tops off of and dump contents out, no?
Quail eggs are different than chicken eggs. I would generally hard boil those. More prep time.
Keep the egg tight to the palm of your hand with your index and middle fingers gripping the top side of the egg and your thumb and ring finger gripping the bottom. Depending on the size of the egg and your hand, you almost want your fingers to meet when gripping the egg. Regardless, be sure to leave a bit of space between them in order to expose enough shell for when you perform the cracking action. The reason you want to keep the egg tight in your hand is that you need the joint between your fingers and palm to act as the hinge point when opening said egg. So the more closed your hand can be around it, the more open it can be after cracking. Give it a sharp and swift crack on a flat surface, hold over your receptacle of choice, and pull your hand open. Egg should fall right out.
This is very detailed. Thank you!
Whenever I crack an egg one handed, I always like to imagine my hand as one of those massive grab buckets they hang off of cranes that open up into two halves when they deliver a load into a truck or something. Same idea.
We would have egg races at a dormitory kitchen where I worked. Face off across a stainless table and see who could complete a box of eggs first. Much fun, We tossed the eggs in a colander to ensure the yolk was broken and filter out any extraneous shells.
My technique was two at a time, one in each hand. I hit the eggs on the tabletop, lifted them over the colander and sort of squeezed with my thumb to further break the shell then flick your hands back as you tossed the shells into the discard. This ensured that the yolk flew fast enough to break.
Always crack on a flat surface, never on an edge.
I went wrong here. I’ve been cracking them on the edge of the bowl.
Just gotta commit
It's all about the wrist flick and a touch of finesse! After plenty of practice, it's become my favorite kitchen party trick. Who knew egg-cracking could be so satisfying
I would like one touch of finesse to go please.
The baseball grip. Hold the egg like a baseball with the narrow end between your first and middle fingers, then the wide end in your thumb. Crack and flex your hand ti pull it apart
Keep practicing the one hand method, use a flat surface not a sharp edge. Next step is two handed so you're breaking 2 eggs at a time, one in each hand. Now, start practicing 2 eggs in one hand using your palm and all 5 fingers. Then you start to pick up 4 eggs at a time to reduce trips to the flats.
I can't count the # of flats I have broken into 5 gal buckets for scrambled, to say nothing of feeding 5000 people breakfast every day for years.
I accept your challenge. I shall rise to this goal.
Practice
I think practice and technique but mostly practice. I find it super easy but I work in a cleanroom with microscopic parts using tweezers and other tools. We build up dexterity over years of working tiny stuff. One day you find that your now ambidextrous and you can break eggs super easy without breaking the yoke.
hold the egg like a baseball thumb on the bottom two fingers on top. crack the shell on a surface then open up your fingers and let gravity do the rest of the work.
Flat service
Other comments explain how to hold an egg but I also recommend you always crack eggs on a flat surface to avoid little shell chips
Practice.
You want to keep the inner membrane intact so the shell bits stay connected to each other.
But how? Is that just a matter of how hard you hit it on the table?
Yes, it's easier if you gently tap it once or twice on its side on a flat surface. Then use both hands to hold the egg while pushing your thumb tips into the collapsed area and pull the two halves apart.
Practice the movement with an Easter egg!
Only using one hand.
I learned using the golf ball method. Take two balls and hold them together in one hand. Then practice the motion by seperating the golf balls with your finger. There are videos on demonstating this methodl. Once you have the motion, it's easy.
I was given great advice for this. Do you know how to flick open a zippo lighter?? It's the exact same motions. Grip the middle three fingers and rotate your thumb outward to open the top half.
I’m not sure where it is anymore because it was a while ago. I watched it but there’s a video by Chef John about making French toast where he goes over cracking eggs in one hand that was what taught me.
Your egg-fu is weak. To overcome the egg you must become the egg.
I take the whole egg in my hand with my hand with all 4 fingers loosely grasping. Crack it on a flat surface. Close my fist with my middle and ring fingers parted, and my thumb and pinky finger on each end. Then I pull my pinky and thumb back with the egg, kinda half way to the hang 10 shaka. Once I get in a rhythm, I can do them all day.
This I will try. Thank you.
Crack on the counter not the edge of a pan/bowl
So make a c with your pointer and middle integer on tom and your thumb at the bottom use that to grasp the top of the egg. Then use slightly separate the middle and the ring and use your ring and pinky to graps the bottom. Crack with enough force to split egg at least halfway around. Keep thumb and pointer and middle still and use your ring and pinky to spread the egg open.
You'll want to crack the side of the egg on a flat surface like the counter not the side of a pan or something like that. This makes sure the shell breaks but not the membrane. Then your thumb will pull the bottom as your index finger pulls the top. This rips the membrane and the egg falls out. This method is best for preventing stray shells
Dexterity.
Idk practice moving your third and pinky finger together while thumb first and middle go the opposite way? That's how mine move when I crack eggs one handed. Also be sure to crack on flat surface
When you crack them on the flat surface, are they broken completely through where they start to leak out, or do you break completely through over the bowl?
The confidence to hit the egg hard enough. You need a sharp strike with some gumption. Don’t smash it into the counter but a good sharp rap will do it.
With your thumb on one end and your middle/ring on the other, you want your index arched over the “equator” of the egg. If you strike correctly, you’ll get a clean break around the circumference if the egg and you can just pull it open with the thumb and middle/ring to separate.
Expect to lose a little bit of egg white. The force needed to get a clean break means you’ll lose about a 1/4 teaspoon of white
I need to read this thread, I am and always have been clueless in egg cracking, on the other hand I am now an expert at cracking and then pulling shell out of the egg in the pan or bowl.
I really don’t see the point in using the one-handed approach since using 2 hands can prevent risk of breaking the yolk.
This is also coming from someone who had to learn to separate the yolk from the white by continuously moving the yolk back and forth in the eggshells until the white came away and all that was left is the yolk.
Always crack your eggs separately, sometimes you can find blood inside the egg once opened. The only way to prevent that is to crack the egg and open it in a separate container and then add it to the rest of your eggs.
If you have expired eggs do not immediately throw them away. Soak them in a clear container with water. Floaters are bad, throw them away. Those that are in the middle are still good but their days are numbered and you must use them first. Last are the fresh eggs which always sink to the bottom.
Confidence
The secret is big hands
Indifference and speed.
Be decisive in you actions
Practice and confidence
Practice and confidence
You gotta commit
Like the old lady said to the girl who asked how to get to Carnegie Hall - "Practice". Cooks and chefs do it by the dozens all day, all year. I do it on the rim of the bowl. For me, it's faster and neater than using the counter. Just make sure the bowl has some mass and isn't slipping. Maybe put a damp paper towel under it. A lot of advice says to use a flat surface to get less shell in the bowl, but I haven't had that problem. Just pay attention, adjust your approach, and practice.
Unusually large hands. 🙌
But I prefer to crack them two handed. No matter what you risk less egg shell falling in by careful cracking. I can crack eggs one handed all day but fishing out even one tiny fragment will negate all that time savings.
If you're only doing a single egg, I have one side between thumb and forefinger, other side between ring and pinkie, Crack on counter, use middle finger as a lever to pry it open.
If it's 2 or 3 I just palm them and stretch my hand back to open, but the yolks get smashed a lot, so it's for things like making a bunch of omlettes where it's not gonna matter.
Bigger than average hands
Jauque Pepan says to crack them on a flat surface to prevent broken shells in your eggs. Worked great since I started doing it
Don’t do it one handed. Get a flat of eggs, a Bain marie, and a chinois. Start cracking and pass the eggs through the chinois.
Vertical drop, horizontal tug
We used to put a cone strainer on top of the pot we were cracking eggs into so if shell got into it it wouldnt matter because you were just going to mash the eggs through the strainer to make a huge batch of scrambled eggs. I'd take 2 eggs in each hand and hit them on the side of the pot and then just kind of spread my fingers so the shell would separate into two.
I worked one summer at a camp and we were supposed to rotate between the different camper sections and the kitchen, doing two weeks at each one, but I didn't like working with the teenage girls so I did four weeks in the kitchen instead of two.
The original movie Sabrina, with Audrey Hepburn, has the best demonstration of the trick, and it's where I learned how. But to describe, take it in your dominant hand. Hold it with your index finger on one end (if it was a globe, that would be a pole), the other end on your palm, and the inside of your second finger and thumb against the egg. Strike it quickly against the edge of the bowl then leverage your second finger and thumb toward the action of separating the two halves.
I admit I cheat and tap it with a clean fork or spatula before proceeding as described.
And it's a great movie, even after all these years. The Harrison Ford remake is great but I don't think they included the cooking class scene I'm talking about in that one.
Great movie! I agree. I just rewatched that scene because someone else linked to it but couldn’t tell exact what he was doing. I need a bigger screen. Or better glasses, perhaps.
The trick is that when they do it on TV, you can’t see the tiny shell fragments in the bowl 😉
Confidence and a sharp edge
I hold the egg kinda horizontally always with the bigger end to the right. Index finger weoaows around the smaller end, other fingers wrapped around bigger end, thumb wrapped underneath towards the middle. Tap it, then apply pressure with my thumb to break the egg and simultaneously use my fingers to “hinge” open the egg from the top.
weoaows?
Lmfao autocorrect is so chaotic. I meant “wrapped” .. but I’ll leave it
Crack the eggs into a chinois over a bucket: then it both catches any errant shells and prescrambles them a little!
I genuinely can't do it two handed anymore. Not sure when that transition happened, but I get shell everywhere or break the yolk when I try it two-handed now.
Seriously, as long as you’re not dropping shells into the mixture, who cares? A million years ago, when KP was done by soldiers and not contractors, I had to do what you’re doing—crack thousands of eggs every day. One egg at a time, two eggs at a time, three eggs at a time, you experiment with what works for you. My hands are fairly large, so I settled on two eggs at a time, hard/soft on a wood cutting board, cracking them individually, and then doing a twisting motion that would separate the eggs but leave the shells in my hand. Then I tried left handed. Then both hands. Then I graduated from basic training. Good luck in finding what works for you. 😊
The real secret to cracking eggs one handed is to not use you other hand
crack on a flat surface. rest the middle of the egg on the inside knuckle of your index finger, and the ends between your middle finger and thumb. Use your thumb to punch a hole in the cracked egg and apply pressure using the knuckle while pulling the shell apart with your thumb and middle finger.
I use the knuckle on my left hand to crack the egg shell. Using a sharp surface increases the risk of small bits of shell getting in the egg mix.
You hold it in your right hand and crack against your left knuckle?
yes. tense my fist and use the knuckle of my left middle finger.
It came when I was at work and found that whacking 100s of eggs on the side was unhygenic, and holding a spoon to whack it with meant I had to put it down and pick it up each time I needed a free hand. so the knuckle it was.
I like this better than the counter where you end up with a mess. Thanks!
I personally would start with practicing finger dexterity, use some eggs like baoding balls
Practice
no secret just be prepared to crunch shell in your food 🤷
I do it. Idk how but I do.
Practice. I used to have to make breakfast while holding my infant daughter so I learned real quick how to do it one handed LOL
I agree practice!
I hold the top of the egg between my pointer and middle finger and the bottom with my thumb and ring finger, gripping around the whole egg. After the crack, I pull my fingers back with the top of the shell, kinda like a snake's fangs. The egg just hinges open like it would with a two handed crack. It's not much movement, but enough to open the egg.