Everyone seems to be looking for quick and easy ways to eat more protein. For this exact reason, my friends have been keeping boiled eggs in their fridge to add extra oomph to a salad or to grab as an on-the-go snack. But peeling can be so tedious and annoying — it’s slippery, fragile, and, personally, the smell really gets to me.
While scrolling on Instagram recently, I saw a creator suggesting that adding lemon to the boiling water makes it easier to peel hard-boiled eggs. So, of course, I had to put the trick to the test.
I boiled one egg without lemon, as my control, and then boiled another with three lemon rounds in the water. I boiled each egg for 10 minutes and then gave it a quick rinse under cold water. To my surprise, the egg boiled with lemon took me significantly less time to peel.
I should note that I peeled the control egg first, so you could argue that I was in the groove, but I really do think the lemons played a role in the results. The most noticeable difference was how easily I was able to get under the shell’s membrane of the egg that was boiled with lemon. This allowed me to remove large chunks of the shell at once with ease. The control’s shell kept shattering into tiny pieces.
I also was peeling both of these eggs a bit more carefully than I normally would because I wanted to see how much resistance the shell was really giving me. I didn’t want to know how good I was at peeling eggs, but how good this trick was at the task.
Someone in the comment section compared this hack to adding vinegar to the water, which I have heard helps make eggs easier to peel. Apparently, adding vinegar helps break down the calcium in the shell, which weakens it and makes it super easy to peel. I would like to say that’s what happened here with the acidity that came from the lemon, but I’m no scientist.
Now, if you’re wondering if the eggs taste like lemon after this trick, you’re definitely not alone. I had the same question, and I’m happy to report you can’t taste lemon at all (although it did make the task of peeling smell a little bit better). So if you’re trying to make meal prep go a little faster this Sunday, might I suggest adding a lemon to your grocery list?
