What eggs-actly is the problem?

With Easter and Passover right around the corner, the egg is the star of the Spring holidays. So, I have a confession to make. I have difficulty cracking an egg. It really makes no sense, especially as it’s a newly developed problem. Are eggs any different than they used to be? Could they have become thick shelled?

Cracking an egg is probably one of the first things I learned how to do to help out in the kitchen. Well, maybe it came shortly after measuring out dry ingredients. Lately, I can’t seem to get a clean break. I almost always wind up with a little shell in the egg. Sometime a lot of shell. My eggs are misshapen and uneven. Albumen and sometimes yolk ooze out onto my fingers.

I understand that I need to hit the side of the egg against a solid surface and then separate the pieces that form by the cracked shell. I used to have no problem with this. I could do it without looking. Now I think about what surface to strike, how hard to hit, and the best way to pry it open. Once it’s open, I know plenty of good things to do with the little eggy.

At a friends’ house one time, I witnessed her making brownies with some neighborhood children. I don’t think these children had ever helped in the kitchen before, but were not going to let on. When she handed them eggs to crack, the boy just held it in his hand and squeezed the egg until it collapsed in and went everywhere. No one had ever shown him the proper way to open an egg.

I can clearly remember that day in my head. I sometimes feel like that boy, with egg all over my hand.

Any advice on the best way to crack an egg?