Peelability of Hard-cooked Eggs

DIFFICULTIES in peeling hard-cooked eggs cleanly, without nicking or scoring the surface of the cooked white, have plagued salad makers. Substantial losses of edible product are encountered when large pieces of cooked white adhere firmly to the shell and membranes. Furthermore, salad plates, prepared in large institutional kitchens, lose a certain aesthetic appeal when the hard-cooked eggs are torn and ragged looking. Swanson (1959), Meehan et al. (1961) and Fry et al. (1966) have suggested peelability was most directly related to egg white pH. Swanson considered 8.7 to be the critical pH level demarking poor and clean peeling properties while Meehan et al. suggested the peeling difficulty persisted until approximately pH 8.9. Reinke and Spencer (1964) considered this same pH range, 8.7–8.9, to be the critical range of pH. Reinke and Spencer (1964) reported that microscopic examination of sections of the “site of peeling” stained for mucin showed easy-to-peel…