The Eggstractor: Does it Work? (1 Viewer)

[Dave Poehlman]

The Eggstractor

The Mrs and I have been going back and forth on this one... she says it's a gimick.. I say it works. I mean, LOOK AT IT GO!


(Ever since I fell for the Miracle Thaw... she doesn't take my claims seriously. )

So I thought I would pose the question to the most impartial group I know, the HTF. Has anyone used the Eggstractor?

 

[Julie K]

And here I thought it would be a device to get eggs out of chickens easier....

 

[Rob Gardiner]

To me, this looks like a solution in search of a problem. This might be useful for world-class competitive egg peelers trying to shave a few seconds off their best times, but I think the old-fashioned way is probably sufficient for the rest of us.

 

[Chazz_S]

Yeah, I've never really found peeling eggs terribly difficult on the few times a year I do it.

However, if you're in the position where you have to peel 20 hard boiled eggs a day or something, hell, go for it.

 

[Moe Maishlish]

Honestly, I'd buy one of these contraptions if it actually worked.

I *love* hardboiled eggs... great healthy snack, and a fantastic source of protein.

The biggest pain in the ass for me though is getting that #$^!%#@ shell off!!

Moe.

 

[Julie K]

Put the eggs in very cold water immediately after boiling them. This will make the shell come off easier.

 

[Rob Gardiner]

I have a rule for selecting kitchen gadgets:

If a device does one thing and one thing only, I make sure that the task it perform can't be done by any other practical means.

My waffle iron is good for nothing but making waffles, but it is worth devoting the space to store it because waffles can't be made any other way. (Although I'm open to creative ideas! ). Same for my burr grinder (no other way to get a consistent grind for coffee). The pizza stone isn't the only way to cook pizza, but it can also be used to cook steaks or fish when it's too cold to fire up the grill.

The EGGSTRACTOR sure is cute, but it does only one thing, and that one task can easily be performed with general purpose tools. (Just roll the egg around firmly on the countertop!) So it fails the test.

 

[Johnny_M]

I live in Sacramento CA, and 1 of the local news stations has a "does it work" program they do sometimes. Recenctly they tested this device and it worked "some times", but they really had to play with it to make it work properly. they didnt reccommend it.

1 funny note tho, as a joke somebody gave one of the news casters a non-boiled egg and when he tested it egg went all over his suit. haha, he looked pretty mad.


Johnny

 

[MarkHastings]

It'll also make the yolks brighter yellow, instead of the greenish tint they usually get.

At least that's what I've heard on the cooking shows.

 

[MarkHastings]

Dave, you got the Miracle Thaw? I saw this online: LMAO! Is all this really saving you any time???

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Lol, yeah. It does work pretty well if you follow the directions. But, it's not anything you couldn't achieve with a regular frying pan.

Thanks for the Eggstractor instructions, Mark. It does look like a PITA just to peel an egg. Maybe I'll buy one for the Mrs as a gift.

I wonder if there's someway you could incorporate a CO2 cartridge and blast the egg out of its shell. Hmmm...

 

[Garrett Lundy]

So thats what I was doing wrong!

Serously, when your parents throw you out onto the street at 18 (or 17, 12, 35) I guess you're expected to know this stuff by then. But you wont believe the number of exploded eggs I created by putting eggs into already boiling water. As a result i gave-up on HBE's for years.

Now if only I could get the omlettes to not stick to the pan ( I therfor also end-up eating alot of scrambled eggs w/cheese & mushrooms )

 

[Ken Chan]

Seems too long. I get pretty consistent results by bringing the water to boil, placing the eggs in the water (enough water so that they are covered completely) and then turning off the heat. 10 minutes, and they are just slightly soft in the center. (Since the heat is lower, the time doesn't have to be as exact.) Drain the hot water. Fill with cold water from the tap. Throw in some ice cubes. Let that sit for a few seconds (not really sure how much that matters). Drain the cold water. Whack the eggs around the inside of the saucepan until they're thoroughly cracked. They peel very easily and quickly.

 

[James Landau]

KMSP-9 in the Twin Cities has a similar news segment they occasionally run called Let Baillon Buy It. Reporter Jeff Baillon buys and tests many of the useless little gadgets you see advertised on TV and occasionally he finds one that actually works as advertised!

His test of the Eggstractor was a huge disappointment. It removed the shell and quite a bit of the egg white along with it. A couple eggs had nothing but the yolk left! It seldom removed all of the shell either. There were bits and pieces that had to be picked off by hand. In the end, he wound up with a huge mess—pieces of shell, egg white and yolk all over the place. Much better to just do it by hand.

A quick search on Google shows that quite a few other TV stations have also tested the Eggstractor with similar results. One station, on a scale of five, gave it a rating of zero.