The Best Surface To Crack An Egg On Isn't Your Counter
Cracking eggs on a countertop may not result in a full break because its membrane will likely remain intact. You'll have to annoyingly try to get the yolk out with multiple taps or by using another method. Your egg may also rupture in too many places when using a flat surface, which can lead to a mess. Thankfully, there's a great alternative. By delicately tapping two eggs together, you'll create the perfect fissure right in the middle of one of them while the other remains intact. This will allow you to cleanly pull that shell apart and remove the yolk. You'll also avoid multiple attempts at cracking the shell like you would with a countertop, which can save you a little time when cooking.
What's even more convenient about this hack is that the cracked egg won't have as many fragments because the membrane will hold onto most of those bits of shell. This will help keep the bowl containing your yolk free of too many annoying shards that you'll have to fish out. Your life in the kitchen will be so much easier when making breakfast egg dishes due to this hack. But this isn't the only effective alternative to using your counter.
Crack an egg using your fingers instead of your counter
The best alternatives to using your work surface are methods that will likely deliver a perfectly cracked egg on the first try, unlike countertops. One such method is the one-handed egg-cracking hack. Simply hold the egg over your mixing bowl between your thumb, index finger, and middle finger. Crack it slightly against the rim of your bowl so a small slit appears right in the center near your middle finger. Apply just a little more pressure to the break with your middle finger. The egg should fracture just a little bit more from that pressure. As it does, pull the shell halves apart with your thumb, index, and middle fingers, and the yolk will fall cleanly out of the shell and into your mixing bowl. This may be one of the most effective ways to speed up your poached eggs.
You can also avoid a messy, counter-cracked egg by using a knife. Scientist Sally Solomon, who researched the best ways to crack eggs at the Poultry Research Unit of Glasgow University, explained to The Telegraph, "For best results, you should hold the egg in the palm of your hand with the pointed end towards your fingertips. You should then break it with a palette knife, striking it across the middle of the egg using the kind of wrist action used to cast a fly-fishing line."
Additional tips for cracking eggs
No matter which method you use to crack your eggs, use a separate bowl. You don't want any fragments making it into your main baking dish or mixing bowl that has all of your other ingredients. You'd have to fish out those shards from your mixture, which can be annoying, messy, and cost you time. If you don't want to crack an egg on another egg, you can use the rim of a bowl. Just be sure to use a bowl with a thin rim. A thicker-rimmed bowl may fracture the shell too much and create a mess.
If you happen to get some shell in your eggs after cracking them, don't worry. There's a simple hack that you can use to get them out. Just use the cracked shell to scoop out the shards from your bowl. This way, you'll avoid messy fingers and getting frustrated trying to get those tiny fragments out of the bowl. And remember, your counter seems like the most obvious method to use, but you have many other options — including just dropping eggs right in the pan.