Eggs that have been sitting in the fridge for a week or two are best for hard-boiling. When hard-boiled, older eggs are easier to peel than fresher ones.

The lower acidity level of older eggs keeps the white from bonding strongly with the shell, and their lower moisture content creates an air pocket between the white and the shell.

To ensure that the shells slide right off your eggs, add a tablespoon of cooking oil to the water before boiling it. Any kind of oil will do the trick.

Eggs are covered in thousands of tiny pores, so the oil will seep through and create a slippery layer between the egg white and the shell, making for a smoother peeling process.

Since they’re acidic, adding two tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice to the water before boiling can help soften the eggshells, making them easy to peel.

They also make egg whites firm up faster, so if any cracks form in your eggshells as they move around in the water, it’s less likely that the whites will escape through the cracks.

Half a teaspoon of baking soda, which has a high pH level of 8 or 9, is enough to increase the alkalinity of your boiling water and thus raise your eggs’ pH level.

This makes the eggs less acidic, preventing a strong bond between the whites and the shells and allowing for easier peeling. This hack is ideal if you want to hard-boil fresh eggs.

Before boiling, use a clean thumbtack to poke a small hole in the wider end of the egg, where the egg’s air pocket is located. This trick has many benefits.

The water that’ll enter the egg through the hole will separate the white and the shell, while also letting the air inside escape, reducing the chances of the shell cracking.