Julia Child's Method For Flawless Boiled Eggs

We've made it way too complicated to make hard-boiled eggs. Everyone seems to have a different suggestion for how to make the best boiled eggs, usually involving ice baths, super precise timing, and other headache-inducing "hacks." And often, the result is the same old disappointing, cracked, hard-to-peel eggs. But if there's one person we can trust to dish out legit, no-nonsense boiled-egg advice, it's Julia Child, the queen of simple yet genius kitchen wisdom.

The key to Child's method takes about two seconds and is practically foolproof: Before cooking, poke a hole in the egg using a push pin (or, if you're feeling fancy, an egg piercer). This keeps the shells from cracking during the cooking process, thus preventing leaky whites and resulting in an easier-to-peel egg.

Child didn't invent this trick (egg piercers have existed for quite a long time), and she isn't the only celebrity chef to have promoted it — Jacques Pépin is also a loud and proud fan of the method. If you have one of those life-changing Dash rapid egg cookers, you may have noticed that even the measuring cup comes with a built-in egg-poking pin for this very purpose.

All eggs have a small air pocket between the inner and outer membranes in the larger, rounder end. Poking a tiny hole in the large end of the egg prevents air pressure in the pocket from building up during the boiling process and cracking the shell. The air pocket grows as the egg matures, so it will be bigger in older eggs than fresh ones, which is partly why older eggs may be easier to peel.

By most accounts, Julia Child's poking method is a simple and reliable way to prevent eggs from cracking while boiling. But like all things related to boiled eggs, there is some debate as they can still crack, and some say piercing the shell could increase the risk of bacterial contamination. Still, the effort-to-reward ratio for this trick is far better than most boiled egg hacks. And honestly, any cooking method backed by two of the most influential celebrity chefs of all time is at least worth a stab.