How To Boil Water

Well, not just water - How to boil Eggs.

I have been boiling eggs for at least 65 years, since I was seven or eight, and aside from the ongoing dispute over how long to boil them, I always thought it was pretty simple and straightforward. Place eggs in pan, add water, place over heat source, wait...

I've recently learned a tip that will make your life easier.  Actually, I saw this on Facebook over six months ago, but only tried it over the last six weeks.  

When boiling eggs, add a little baking soda to the water.  

It has no effect on cooking time, or how the eggs taste, but it causes the shell and the egg inside to separate, making them amazingly easy to peel.

As to how much baking soda to add - a teaspoon or a tablespoon - it doesn't seem to matter.  I don't measure, but then, I'm a guy.

I'd guess I add about one Blinkum.  

That's a unit of measurement I first heard about in the mid-60s.  Webb Hunt, program director at KQUE, told the story of the elderly black lady who helped raise him.  She was teaching him her recipe for fried chicken and told him she always added one extra blinkum of milk to the batter.  When he asked, she rocked the milk carton back and forth saying "One blinkum, two blinkums..."