Whack it with a teaspoon and you get a jagged crater, little shards of shell sinking into the yolk, and a fair chance the whole top caves in. Slice it with a knife and it’s quicker but messier, and you tend to lose a chunk of white with the lid. Neither is a disaster. Both are mildly annoying every single time, which is why egg toppers exist.
How the ball-drop type works
The NobleEgg Egg Topper is the bell-shaped kind you’ll see in a lot of European breakfast kitchens. A stainless steel cup sits over the top of the egg, a rod runs up from it, and a heavy ball slides on the rod. You lift the ball and let it drop. The jolt runs down into the cup and cracks a clean ring round the shell, and then you lift the top off with a spoon.
Using it goes like this:
- Stand the egg in an egg cup, pointy end up.
- Rest the topper over it so the cup sits square on the shell.
- Pull the ball up and let go. Once is usually enough.
- Lift the cap off with a teaspoon. The cut line should come away in one piece.
You also get to control how hard it hits. Pull the ball higher for a thicker-shelled egg, or lower if you’ve been getting cracks that run down the side. NobleEgg say the right height depends on your usual brand of eggs, which sounds fussy but in practice means you work it out on the first couple and then stop thinking about it.
The details
It’s all food-grade stainless steel, about 5.5 inches tall and just over 2 oz, so it lives happily in the cutlery drawer. It’s dishwasher safe. Note that it’s the topper on its own. The egg spoons you see in some listings aren’t included with this one.
Who actually needs one
If you have a soft-boiled egg once a month, honestly, keep using the knife. It makes more sense in a house where dippy eggs are a regular weekend thing, especially with kids who want soldiers and get upset about shell in the yolk. It also makes a tidy job of eggs for guests, where you’d rather not hack at them at the table.
It won’t rescue an overcooked egg, and you may need a test egg or two to find the right drop height. But if you’re fed up of picking shell out of the yolk with a fingernail, a clean round lid every time is a nice change.
