Hard Boiled shelled eggs. Why, Why?

This morning while I was doing grocery shopping I saw "eggland's best" for $3.50 for 8 eggs hard boiled and shelled.

Who in the gosh darn heck is that lazy to buy them?
As Dr. Farnsworth said once (Futurama) "I don't wont to live on this world anymore"

I confess that I purchased the Trader Joe's brand until the guilt overcame me.

As with any other convenience item -- convenience. My wife has purchased them to take to work. And you can go to GFS and get a 10lb box if you're in desperate need of about 100 hard-boiled eggs.

Not sure what the great mystery here is. Sometimes, you just want hard boiled eggs either right away or don't feel like boiling, shelling, peeling, and cooling to make a large egg salad for a party. Saves you a reasonable amount of time, and some people are just bad at making hard-boiled eggs. There's plenty of items in a grocery that are far "lazier" than shelled hard-boiled eggs (see: prechopped veggies, shredded cabbage, cut-up fruit, etc.) Hard-boiled eggs are a perfectly reasonable convenience item.

I know you were questioning the need for a home cook to purchase them, but from a professional kitchen's point of view...consistency. The time for me to pay someone to prep, cook (hopefully properly) and shell them is way more than "paid for " by the simple act of having them in a nice vac-pak all peeled and ready for use.

exvaxman wrote:This morning while I was doing grocery shopping I saw "eggland's best" for $3.50 for 8 eggs hard boiled and shelled.

The obvious answer is that shelled raw eggs are messy to pack in a lunchbox.

D.G.Sullivan wrote:I know you were questioning the need for a home cook to purchase them, but from a professional kitchen's point of view...consistency. The time for me to pay someone to prep, cook (hopefully properly) and shell them is way more than "paid for " by the simple act of having them in a nice vac-pak all peeled and ready for use.

Consistent...? Sure. Consistent crap!

I would never use these precooked and heavily processed eggs, which have the flavor and consistency of rubber. Have you tasted these?

If a restaurant can't boil an egg, do you really want to eat there? What other short cuts are they taking? Tomato sauce from #10 cans? Frozen and cooked chicken for chicken salad? Those frozen rubber chicken breasts that have the grill marks on them? All very consistent products.

What's wrong with tomato sauce from a #10 can?

Binko wrote:What's wrong with tomato sauce from a #10 can?

Well, having tasted some of them in various hotel and club kitchens, I'd answer by saying, "What's right about tomato sauce from a #10 can?" Actually very little. No nuance, no finesse, just ok/somewhat bland/ tomatoey stuff that's super easy to use and very consistent. But not even close to a properly made sauce using quality canned tomato product with fresh aromatics. Just typical industrial food stuff. "Sysco ish"...if you will. (There are probably exceptions to what I just wrote.)

Disclaimer: I actually like Sysco a lot, and order from them weekly when we're in our high season The basic dairy items are always super fresh with longer than usual expiration dates. Good prices on basic stuff like A.P. flour, granulated cane sugar, plastic garbage can liners, plastic wrap. Basic produce items are usually pretty good too. My Sysco rep is a super guy and always helps me out when we're slow and can't meet the 20 case minimum order. In fact, he's never refused to bring by a case of anything when I've reached out to him.

And they carry Plugra butter.

Evil Ronnie wrote:

Binko wrote:What's wrong with tomato sauce from a #10 can?

Well, having tasted some of them in various hotel and club kitchens, I'd answer by saying, "What's right about tomato sauce from a #10 can?" Actually very little. No nuance, no finesse, just ok/somewhat bland/ tomatoey stuff that's super easy to use and very consistent. But not even close to a properly made sauce using quality canned tomato product with fresh aromatics. Just typical industrial food stuff. "Sysco ish"...if you will. (There are probably exceptions to what I just wrote.)

I was just thinking of plain tomato sauce. 6-in-1 is fine, for example. In my opinion, at any rate. It's my favorite for pizza and more American-style pasta sauces, the kinds that are thick and fully pureed.

Binko,

I was referring to canned Marinara or spaghetti sauce type products, like those that might be used in hospitals, school cafeterias and the like.

Evil Ronnie wrote:Binko,

I was referring to canned Marinara or spaghetti sauce type products, like those that might be used in hospitals, school cafeterias and the like.

Ah, yes. Agreed then.

Hard Boiled shelled eggs? That, I don't understand. Buying hard boiled eggs in shell makes sense, in some cases.

I travel weekly to work and it's so hard trying to eat healthy. Even though my hotel has a huge breakfast spread of bacon, weird yellow eggs in a pan (they do have a made to order station), waffles, bagels, danish, you name it, boiled eggs are not available unless I call 20 minutes before so they can make it for me.

If I want boiled eggs in the evening, well that's a different matter. So what I do is call up in the morning and request a couple eggs and take with me. Luckily, this option is available to me. If not, I can see myself buying them but not shelled.

Egg prices likely to rise amid laws mandating cage-free henhouses

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... tml#page=1

exvaxman wrote:Who in the gosh darn heck is that lazy

I want an egg salad sandwich and I want it NOW.

I bought them once. I was leery of them but once I made egg salad with them they tasted like anyl other egg. Are they really different? I don't know what they would be like plain.

toria wrote:I bought them once. I was leery of them but once I made egg salad with them they tasted like anyl other egg. Are they really different? I don't know what they would be like plain.

It's not the best egg you've ever eaten but, as you noted, it's not appreciably different than any home-boiled egg.

Evil Ronnie wrote:

D.G.Sullivan wrote:I know you were questioning the need for a home cook to purchase them, but from a professional kitchen's point of view...consistency. The time for me to pay someone to prep, cook (hopefully properly) and shell them is way more than "paid for " by the simple act of having them in a nice vac-pak all peeled and ready for use.

Consistent...? Sure. Consistent crap!

I would never use these precooked and heavily processed eggs, which have the flavor and consistency of rubber. Have you tasted these?

If a restaurant can't boil an egg, do you really want to eat there? What other short cuts are they taking? Tomato sauce from #10 cans? Frozen and cooked chicken for chicken salad? Those frozen rubber chicken breasts that have the grill marks on them? All very consistent products.

I realize that I'm replying to an old post but the pre-cooked eggs are far from "heavily processed." It's a boiled egg with a trace of added preservative.

I tried them once (maybe from Trader Joe's?), didn't end up using them and would never buy them again. They were dense in texture and had a very strong sulfuric smell that was unappetizing.

Once a year I make about 144 deviled eggs and I used to boil and peel the eggs myself. Now, I have a local caterer I really trust do this for me and it saves a lot of time. They do a great job. The whites are completely intact and there's no green coating around the yolks. Because they do such a stellar job, it's well worth the cost. After all, time is money.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:I tried them once (maybe from Trader Joe's?), didn't end up using them and would never buy them again. They were dense in texture and had a very strong sulfuric smell that was unappetizing.

Once a year I make about 144 deviled eggs and I used to boil and peel the eggs myself. Now, I have a local caterer I really trust do this for me and it saves a lot of time. They do a great job. The whites are completely intact and there's no green coating around the yolks. Because they do such a stellar job, it's well worth the cost. After all, time is money.

=R=

Maybe they sourced them differently, but in my experience (Eggland's Best and GFS' product), I'd be hard-pressed to tell them apart from my own.

Off topic but curious, Ronnie - do you do that many classic deviled eggs or variations?

On topic, I am always puzzled by those pre-cooked/shelled eggs. It just seems they would absorb odd odors or liquid or something ...no thanks.

Siun wrote:Off topic but curious, Ronnie - do you do that many classic deviled eggs or variations?

On topic, I am always puzzled by those pre-cooked/shelled eggs. It just seems they would absorb odd odors or liquid or something ...no thanks.

They're sealed in bags, so there are no odors to absorb and absorb no more liquid than any hard cooked egg. They aren't alien life forms, merely a convenience version of the same thing you'd make at home. Totally fine.

Siun wrote:Off topic but curious, Ronnie - do you do that many classic deviled eggs or variations?

I generally do a pretty standard filling . . . mayo, a couple of different mustards, horseradish and some pickle juice (plus salt and black pepper). Depending on the crowd and the rest of my menu, I may, from time to time, incorporate some rendered bacon fat into them as well and/or top them with a bit of crispy bacon.

This is typically for a pretty large party, so it works out to less than 1 portion per person, which is why I make them all the same.

=R=

niknik wrote:Hard Boiled shelled eggs? That, I don't understand. Buying hard boiled eggs in shell makes sense, in some cases.

Like this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAkzEusQLBw

In his first column for The Times, J. Kenji López-Alt tests his way to the best egg: perfectly peelable and tender throughout.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/dini ... -ios-share

My only complaint is his assertion that the Instapot isn't good because they vary so widely in temperature/pressure. That may be true, but if you own one it's the only one you have and it should be consistent, no? (like my grills)

I do a couple dozen a week (and have for years) and with MY Instapot its the 'egg' setting at 4 minutes and 2 minutes of sitting before manual release and an instant ice bath for 10 minutes. This yields the perfect soft white and just cooked through yolk.

Obviously, different eggs can produce various results, but this is 85% foolproof in my book.