LET'S GET CRAFTY
with Danielle Natowski
How to dissolve the eggshell of an egg
You will need:
an egg
regular white vinegar
a glass jar with lid
How to:
1. Add an egg to a glass jar.
I’d recommend choosing a glass jar with a wide mouth, because your egg will swell slightly and may become too large for the jar opening
2. Add vinegar.
Pour in enough vinegar to cover the egg, and then a little bit more. Our eggs floated at first, but they sank later on.
3. Look for bubbles!
Within a minute of adding the vinegar, tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide gas (the same gas that makes fizzy drinks all fizzy) appear on the eggshell. This is one part of the chemical reaction that is happening inside the jar.
4. Put on the lid, and let sit for a few days, or maybe a week.
The egg becomes slightly larger (because of osmosis). The brown eggshell colour pales. A layer of scum appears on the surface of the vinegar.If you’re keen, you could replace the vinegar after a day or two. Or if you’re like me, you might accidentally forget to do this bit….
5. Carefully remove the egg from the vinegar. Wash and gently rub off any remaining eggshell.
We found the eggshell wiped away, just at a light touch. It’s like wiping away wet chalk dust. (If your eggshell doesn’t come off easily, you may need to soak it in more vinegar for another day). And now you have a shell-less (or naked) egg. Naked eggs are cool. The inner membrane stays intact, so the eggs feel quite rubbery. You can gently squeeze them. The eggs are translucent, so you can see the yolk which, interestingly, always floats to the top.