How to peel a boiled egg in seconds

Boiled eggs are notoriously difficult to peel. Photo / 123RF

Hard boiled eggs are a healthy and nutritious snack great for packed lunch boxes or for a snack on the go.

And while they may be easy to make - just boil them for nine to 12 minutes depending on the size of the egg - peeling them is a different matter.

It can take several painstaking minutes to delicately remove the shell of one egg, but a new life hack doing the rounds could change all that.

By just adding baking soda to your pan of hot water, some people claim the egg shell will easily fall away.

The secret is adding baking soda to the water. Photo / 123RF

A teaspoon of the white powder will save you from clawing away at the hard shell around the egg, according to US TV station WBTV's Morning Break program.

It claims, after doing research online, that fresh eggs are more acidic, which makes them harder to peel because the egg white adheres closer to the shell.

But the show said that if the egg has been kept in the fridge for several days, the pH level of the egg white increases, making it more alkaline, and therefore easier to peel.

To speed up this process, the baking soda quickly increases the alkaline levels of the egg white, according to WBTV.

But some people have warned that this also intensifies the egg's sulphur flavour, making it taste much more "eggy".

WBTV put the hack to the test - but it didn't exactly work out as planned for the team on camera.

One of the presenters declared: "This life hack is whack" as he struggled to peel his egg.

But after their initial dismay, both found that their shells peeled off in almost whole pieces, rather than the tiny fragments that usually come off in the peeling process.

The presenter later admitted the trick is "not bad".

His colleague added that they weren't sure how long the eggs had actually been boiled for, and said the tip was "maybe worth giving a shot".