Gordon Ramsay's Hard-Boiled Egg Tip Makes Peeling Hassle-Free

Hard-boiled eggs are endlessly hack-able. Tips and tricks abound, from plunging your eggs into an ice bath to achieve sunny yellow yolks instead of the green ring of death, to pricking holes in the shell to keep it from cracking during boiling. Add in Gordon Ramsay's hard-boiled egg tip to truly make peeling hassle-free.

Ramsay's tip is a two-parter and requires no extra utensils or materials other than a bowl of cold water, your mouth, and your two hands. Once the eggs are done boiling, remove them one by one and immediately plunge them into a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process. Then, grab one of the eggs in your hand, and tap the base of it on a hard surface, like a cutting board, to break the shell. Then, stick it quickly back into the water bowl. "The water seeps underneath the shell [and you] see the shell come off so much easier," Ramsay explains in a video posted to his YouTube channel.

For step two, Ramsay takes the already cracked egg and peels away the cracked bit of shell near the base. He brings the egg to his mouth and gives a quick blow to separate the egg from its shell. From there, the shell peels away seamlessly in large pieces, leaving behind a perfectly whole hard-boiled egg with no pockmarks in sight.

There are some other tips that will improve the way you make hard-boiled eggs, specifically the peeling process. Adding white vinegar to your water before you boil the eggs will take the pain out of peeling thanks to the acetic acid. It actually dissolves the calcium carbonate in the eggshell, which weakens the entire outer covering.

Cooking oil works in the same way. When you add a tablespoon of oil (olive, canola, avocado, or any other kind will do) to your pot of water, it actually seeps into the pores of the eggshell and separates the inner membrane from the shell, making peeling a breeze.

Some say adding a teaspoon of baking soda to your boiling water results in easily peelable eggs because it makes the water more alkaline by giving the pH a boost which, in turn, breaks down the inner membrane. But others maintain it doesn't seem to make a discernible difference.