Hard-boiled eggs are a great snack between meals. Of course, you want to make sure you're prepping and preserving them correctly to reduce any chance of them going bad. (This is a great tip for Easter time, when many people have hard-boiled eggs by the dozen.)
Keeping Hard-Boiled Eggs Fresh
You want to start with a great hard-boiled egg from the get-go. The perfect egg has no green ring around the yolk and tends to have a creamy consistency in the middle. For maximum freshness, leave them in their shells until you are ready to eat or prepare. The shell will help to protect the egg from bacteria, and can help prevent them from absorbing odors from other foods in your refrigerator. A quick beginner’s tip is that hard-boiled eggs can be preserved up to 7 days in the refrigerator.
If you are thinking about using your hard-boiled eggs in a recipe, the trick is to use old eggs. When they get older, they tend to lose moisture through their shell. Their pH changes, and that makes them stick less to their outer shell, making them easier to peel. If you buy your eggs a week or two before you decide to boil them and leave them to age, you’ll have the best results when peeling.
Here’s another fun trick that will help you make the best of your hard-boiled egg experience. If you’re planning on eating your eggs as soon as you boil them, you can gently crack the outside shell. Though this may not work perfectly, it will definitely make peeling easier and help quicken the process.
The Best Place to Store Hard-Boiled Eggs
It is not safe to keep hard-boiled eggs at room temperature for long, and refrigeration is necessary if they will not be consumed within a few hours. If taking to a picnic or packing in a lunch, be sure to keep the eggs in a cool place. It doesn’t matter if they are peeled or unpeeled, but it would be helpful to put the eggs in a bag and label it in order of the day you boiled them to make sure you know when they will spoil. Always make sure to dispose of hard-boiled eggs once they have been left out for too long.
Once they are cooked, they’ll last for about one week regardless of the storage method. If the eggs have already been peeled, keep them moist by covering them on bottom and top with a damp paper towel before placing them in the container.
Another storage option for hard-boiled eggs is to freeze them and keep the cooked yolks. If you freeze the entire egg, the whites will become tough and inedible. Storing the yolks will allow them to be used as a fun and tasty garnish on many different dishes.
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