by Katie Lane

Created on: October 04, 2008   Last Updated: August 05, 2010

A simple recipe can be completely ruined by just one mistake, and a mistake that many beginners to cooking typically make is one that can be completely avoided - the mistake of not cracking an egg correctly. This mistake may seem small, but it is hugely important to making a dessert taste right. If an egg shell, or even part of one, falls into the batter, the dessert could be ruined. Who wants to take a big bite out of a cupcake only to find a piece of a hard egg shell buried within it?

So how do beginners avoid making this mistake? First, there is one simple way to perfect this technique: practice, practice, practice. The more you practice cracking eggs, the better you will get at it. It takes a lot of time for some and only a few tries for others, but practice is the key to get you cracking like the pros.

So now that you have a recipe ready and are ready to start your first experiment, you need to take it slow. The recipe doesn't call for you to try and be speedy, so don't try and whip through a packet of eggs like you see the people on TV do. Take your first egg in hand and hold it firmly, but not too firmly. Hold it in your palm, not in your fingers, and get a good grip on it. Next, find a clean edge to crack your egg on, like a countertop's edge or the edge of a bowl. It's best not to do it on the bowl's edge, however, in case a piece of egg shell goes flying. You don't want a stray piece of egg shell ending up in your recipe.

Take the egg in your hand and hit it against the edge with enough force to crack the surface, but not so that the egg goes splattering everywhere. This might take a few tries to get the hang of, but once you have found the right amount of force, the egg should just barely crack on the surface. If the egg cracks all over the place, just clean it up, pick up a new egg, and start again. No one can be perfect on their first try.

The next thing to do with your newly-cracked egg is to get it completely open in order to put the entire thing into the bowl. Take your thumb and place it on the cracked part of the egg shell and apply enough pressure for the egg to split into two pieces, and quickly drop the egg yolk into the bowl. Quickly remove the shell from above the bowl and throw it into the trash can, so that you don't allow any egg shell pieces into the mix.

Congratulations! You've just cracked your first egg. And don't worry - if you get any egg shell in the mix, you can simply scoop it out with a spatula.

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