A few years back, I was a line cook for Denny's. Busiest day of the year was always Mother's Day. Shortly after Denny's introduced the Grand Slam Breakfast (I did say a few years back) I worked Monther's Day on the egg station. In 8 hours, I did eggs for 344 Grand Slams and 45 omlettes. Total: 803 eggs.
So I got pretty good at cracking with one hand.
The only point I'll add: Crack on a flat surface like the counter, not a bowl or pan edge. It yields fewer small egg shells shards to fish out.
PS: I also got to the point I could shell 30 hard boiled eggs in under 30 seconds with a 2-handed shell technique.
One little tip with regards to those bits of shell: wet your finger with water before fishing them out. I dunno why, but it somehow repels the egg white and lets you actually grip the damn shell.
When I worked for some years in a ramen shop I gained a visible callous on my thumb from peeling ajitama. I remember we would often have races to see who could peel a batch of something like 300 eggs first. I don't remember exactly, but it seems quite reasonable to me that an average time for those races would be under 10 minutes. Great to make Chef happy and have a little fun too!
The callous went away, but have a few more permanent burn scars still from those long long days and nights making tonkotsu with simply 100qt pots and large ranges.
Stick the egg in a smallish plastic container, probably maybe 1.5 to 2x the size of the egg. Fill the container with egg about halfway with water. Put the lid on and shake firmly (lengthwise along the egg) for about 10 seconds.
I dunno what it is about this technique, but it makes the shell MUCH looser from the egg. Doesn't work great for runny eggs though since it tends to pop them.
I make them in an instant pot. 5 mins high pressure cook, quick release, take them out straight into ice cold water, leave for 5 minutes, the shell almost slides off. The fresher the egg, the easier to peel.
At 0:47 the video clearly shows three fingers on the "top" part of the egg. At 0:58 the ping pong ball exercise clearly shows three fingers on the top part. The break at 1:08 also has three fingers on the top. But then for some reason at 1:12 the performer switches to two fingers above the break. The double break at 1:33 also shows two fingers above the crack.
Some of the egg breaks in the video pull the halves away from each other and other breaks use a slide or shearing/transpose movement to create gaps between the halves.
There is nothing in the video about how close to hold the egg to the palm of your hand. With the dozen or so eggs I tried the key was (counter-intuitively) to hold the egg close to your palm so that the pads on your palm act as a fulcrum as you try to pull the halves apart. If you just hold the egg with the tips of your fingers its difficult to create the necessary space. But maybe that's just me and my lack of dexterity.
I guess instead of complaining I should create my own video.
I was a short order (Waffle House style) cook from 15-21 so I got pretty good at cracking two eggs at a time. In my 20s I impressed a lot of girls with that trick. Now we just need a video on how to see the right pan temperature by the oil shimmer and how to flip an egg.
The fact that this, and videos like "how to eat an apple", have millions of views is a testament to how even the smallest things people are curious about, they still want to do it perfectly or correctly
For a few years when I was younger, I got good at cracking eggs with a single hairline crack. I would then wash them, glue them back together, and then paint them with acrylic paint.
We used to do this with Easter Eggs, you would poke a hole in the top and the bottom of the egg with a pin and blow out the egg, use the insides to make scrambled eggs, then paint the egg.
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So I got pretty good at cracking with one hand.
The only point I'll add: Crack on a flat surface like the counter, not a bowl or pan edge. It yields fewer small egg shells shards to fish out.
PS: I also got to the point I could shell 30 hard boiled eggs in under 30 seconds with a 2-handed shell technique.
The callous went away, but have a few more permanent burn scars still from those long long days and nights making tonkotsu with simply 100qt pots and large ranges.
Amazing- I think that I would have trouble picking up 30 eggs in 30 seconds.
Lest not forgot The Eggman: https://youtu.be/yewjkwZB-YE?si=B01MigqdtkoVILi1
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I dunno what it is about this technique, but it makes the shell MUCH looser from the egg. Doesn't work great for runny eggs though since it tends to pop them.
This is something I'd love to master. Not sure why but I'm terrible at shelling hard boiled eggs.
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I'm eagerly awaiting the sequels to this video where they show us 2-handed, 3-handed, and even more advanced egg cracking methods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE-XeZ3R98U&t=42s
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