Good Idea Friday - The Hard Boiled Egg Debate

So, last year we posted about how adding a bit of baking soda to your hard boiled eggs allows them to peel more easily. The response received after that post was bigger than we imagined it would be. Apparently the way you boil (or don't boil) your eggs is highly personal and widely debated. So this year we thought we would take the time to test out various methods of hard boiling eggs and see which resulted in the easiest to peel category. We posted on our Facebook page for ideas and suggestions. Armed with 2 dozen eggs bought last Wednesday (same lot, same date, same time, variations would be at a minimum) we got to testing yesterday.

I will say right off the bat that I'm not a fan of eggs and hardboiled are probably my least favorite way to eat them. Sorry. I was unable to be the taste tester, so I had my kids and husband judge for me.

Method One - Traditional Method

Place eggs in a pan in a single layer, add enough water to cover. Turn to medium-high heat and allow to come to a boil. Once boiling, turn heat off and cover. Allow to sit covered for 12-17 minutes.* Place eggs in a cold water bath. 

REVIEW - First off, the timing on this method depends entirely on how you store your eggs. Most reviews say 12 minutes, but having used this method myself I always find them slightly undercooked. At least in my house, my kids like the yolks to be firm, no gooey bits, but not dry. Due to how you store your eggs--some countries it's more common to store eggs out, but here in the US we tend to keep our eggs in the refrigerator--it can affect the way the eggs cook. Room temperature eggs take less time than cold eggs do, so they require a few extra minutes cooking time depending on your tastes. Personally, I find 15 minutes to be the perfect time.  

So how well did they peel? Perfectly. I give it a 5 star rating. 

Method Two - Oven Baked Method

Pre-heat oven to 325° F. Place eggs in a muffin tin. Bake 20 minutes. Place eggs in cold water bath.

REVIEW - I have heard by die hard fans (as well as my all time favorite scientist/cook, Alton Brown) that it is THE WAY to make hard boiled eggs (though they aren't boiled, so .. hard baked?). Easy enough to test out. The results though left me less than impressed. I will say that my oven, due to a couple infamous oven fires, isn't the best working oven out there. That very well may have altered the results. However, they were far harder to peel, and they were over cooked. Most had a couple hard brown spots on them, and there were several that had weird brown spots on the shell where the egg inside tried to push it's way out of the shell. All ovens vary, and I've heard using a silicone tray works to prevent the burned spots, but I didn't have one to test out. 

All in all, I give it a 3 star rating. I think if you know your oven and time it better, this may work, it just wasn't as foolproof as I was hoping it would be.

Method Three - Baking Soda Method

Same as Method One, ddd in a couple tablespoons of baking soda prior to boiling. Place eggs in a cold water bath. 

REVIEW - Honestly it worked just as well as the traditional method. Since I was using week old eggs for this test, it didn't make much of a difference. Having used it on fresher eggs in the past though, it does work. 

I give it a 4 star rating on fresh eggs since it's not perfect, but it works better than just a plain boiling method on fresh eggs. 

So there you have it. There were other methods I've came across just tonight that I was unable to test out in time, pricking the bottom of eggs with a pin, baking in the oven in a muffin tin with water in the cups to prevent drying out/burned spots, boiling with a bit of vinegar instead of baking soda, boiling room temperature eggs, etc., etc.

Really though, the truth is the reason eggs stick to their shells is because of a thin membrane under the shell. So I don't doubt some of this methods will work; the pin prick, the baking soda, and the vinegar all act as ways of separating the membrane from the shell. It's one of the reasons you are suppose to put the eggs into an ice bath right after cooking, in hopes the thermal shock will aid in it as well. It's also why older eggs peel better, as they age the membrane separates from the shell.

And as always, you can find us on facebook and twitter. Please let us know what your favorite method is and let us know if we forgot to test out a certain way.

Good Idea Friday - Glow in the Dark Cupcakes

Goulish Glowing Cupcakes : Recipe Snobs 

Pinterest  in general (well, the people on pinterest, so I guess "Pinners") have this weird obsession with all things glow in the dark. I've never personally put a lot of thought into what I can and can't make glow in the dark, but on pinterest a quick search can pull up dozens of different ideas, most of which are wrong and won't work.

A fan of the blog sent me this, and I was delighted to see something glowing that isn't a bad idea for once! Not only that, it's cupcakes! And who doesn't love cupcakes?

So, what's the secret? Well it's tonic water. It's the quinine in the tonic water that does the trick. However they won't just magically glow in the dark, you need a black light to activate the glow of quinine (just like you do with the infamous "Galaxy Cocktail")  I can't vouch for how this tastes, but it would be a fun and easy enough project for Halloween to test out. Head over to Recipe Snobs for the full recipe. 

And remember, if you have a pin you are curious about, we're always taking ideas! Find us on facebook or twitter. 

Glow Sticks and Nail Polish

"break a glow stick & put in clear polish" 

With Halloween coming up I've been seeing a lot more Glow in the Dark pins then you usually see. However as we learned with our other glow stick pins, not only will this not work, it's probably not the best thing for you. Not only that, glow stick formula typically doesn't glow that long once it's exposed to air. I was going to test this out and see how long it will glow, and if it would even set up properly but alas, I'm out of glow sticks. Even if it did set up right (instead of leaving your nails a big glowing gooby mess, which is what I think would happen) the glow would only last a short time, then you're left with a funky colored bottle of nail polish.

Instead, just buy glow-in-the-dark nail polish. A quick search not only pulls up a lot of different companies and online vendors that sell it, they also use the same exact image as the Pinterest pin! But I'd also like to point out that even with retail glow in the dark nail polish, without a blacklight you will not get the effect depicted here. That's not your standard glow-in-the-dark glow. 

Any fans out there with a spare bottle of nail polish and glow sticks want to test this out for me? I'm honestly really curious if it will even set up and harden right. 

Good Idea Friday - Bleaching Pumpkins

Preserving Jack O' Lanterns : My Science Project

I wasn't planning on doing these pins quite yet, but after everyone on my Pinterest page started pinning autumn things I figured I'd jump in. I've seen this pin and others like it a dozen times or more this time of year; so, does bleach really help keep cut pumpkins lasting longer? 

Yes! I figured it would, but I had no idea just how well it worked until I found the source of the above image.  Over at My Science Project they run a pretty extensive test on some of the more common methods people use to preserve cut pumpkins. It's pretty interesting read, and wouldn't you know it, but bleach actually came out the winner (neck-in-neck with a commercial product, but bleach is cheaper and would be my go-to), with the cut pumpkin lasting a whole 2 weeks before molding.

So with autumn just around the corner, it would be a good idea to keep a bottle of bleach on hand when you carve those pumpkins. 

Good Idea Friday - How to Boil an Egg

"Add baking soda to the water when you hard boil eggs to make peeling easier"

Just in time for Easter, this is going to make a lot of peoples lives a tad bit easier. Because yes, it's true! I was honestly skeptical myself so I gave it a try and did notice it seemed to work really well. But WHY? Well over at TheKitchn, there's a great write up that talks about the science behind this. Turns out that the baking soda helps alter the pH of the egg membranes, allowing them to weaken and making it easier to peel. All it takes is a 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda to the water to do it's magic. They do mention sometimes it can cause the eggs to taste more sulfuric, but my kids haven't complained so far. (disclaimer - I hate hard boil eggs, so I haven't tried them myself)