How To Crack An Egg Perfectly Every Time

You might feel a bit sheepish Googling something as simple as "the best way to crack an egg," but you shouldn't. In this day and age, thanks to the Food Network, the Cooking Channel, and the rise of the celebrity chef, you've probably seen a dozen different egg-cracking methods, all proclaiming to be the best, the easiest, the most foolproof. So which way really is the best way to crack an egg?

Surprisingly, cracking an egg against the rim of a bowl is not the best way, even though 57 percent of Americans polled by HuffPost in 2019 do just that. Only 23 percent of egg crackers say they use the "right" method: cracking an egg on a flat countertop.

This method is endorsed by none other than chef extraordinaire Jacques Pepin, and frankly, when Jacques Pepin tells you to do something, you just do it, regardless of proof or reason. But in this case, there is good reason. According to Pepin (via The New York Times), by cracking the egg on a flat surface like the countertop or a cutting board, you eliminate the risk of transferring bacteria from the shell to the edge of your mixing bowl, where it can then transfer into the contents of the bowl. Bacteria aside, Nick Korbee, executive chef of Egg Shop NYC, told Today that cracking an egg on a sharp edge (aka the side of your bowl) has other risks. "This [method] tends to leave shell fragments and broken yolks from time to time..." he explained.

And how about those hot shot Food Network chefs that crack their eggs with one hand? Is that something you should be working toward as #egggoals? "There is no earthly reason to force home cooks to crack eggs with one hand," Korbee said. He does advise, however, that if this happens to be a skill you want to nurture, you need to "practice holding the egg between your thumb and forefinger, tap to crack the shell and pull your thumb back gently to separate the shell and release the egg into the wild!"

Whether you want the perfect sunny-side up egg, or just don't want to risk getting shells and/or bacteria in your bowl, using a flat surface to crack your egg is clearly the best technique.