Two Peeling Tips that Will Make You Happy

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This is not a cooking blog. No way! But, after seeing a thread on Facebook about how to peel an onion and not cry I thought I’d share a tip my mother taught me on how to peel an onion without crying. It is so simple I don’t know why everyone doesn’t know it – cut the root end of the onion off first, before you start peeling it. Apparently the roots are the source of the chemical that irritates your eyes. Once it is removed and discarded you can peel and dice without crying.

My second tip will tell you how to how to peel a hard boiled egg without breaking the egg. All of my life I have struggled with trying to peel a boiled egg without it ripping out part of the egg.  My mother-in-law advised not to use fresh eggs for boiling. She always had a dozen of week-old eggs on hand for making boiled eggs. That improved my performance somewhat, but I didn’t always have that extra dozen eggs on hand, and even when I did, at least some eggs would still break in the peeling.

I was discussing this with my friend, Jackie, a couple of years ago (I am 67 years old now) and she gave me the simple answer to peeling perfect eggs. Put them in a bowl of ice water as soon as you take them out of the hot cooking water. Voila, perfectly peeled eggs every time!


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