One of everyone’s favorite spring traditions is coloring eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide. But those pesky eggs aren’t always that easy to boil. Sometimes, they develop cracks during cooking, which can mar the beauty of the finished product. Fortunately, there are a few tips that can help ensure your boiled eggs won’t crack this Easter.

The Los Angeles Times revealed the trick is all in cooking them “properly.” Sure, almost everyone knows how to hard-boil an egg. Simply drop them in the boiling water. But that will normally result in a sulfurous rotten egg smell. Who wants that?

L.A. Times Test Kitchen and Food Editor Russ Parsons’ tip is simple. "Place the eggs in a pan just big enough to hold them in a single layer," Parsons said. "Cover them with cold water and bring them to a rolling boil. Cook for one minute, then remove them from the heat. When the water has cooled enough that you can put your hand in (about 20 minutes), the eggs will be perfectly cooked."

Here’s why this method works: Cold water and placing the eggs in a single layer helps prevent cracking. The short time also helps with cracking because there is less chance of breakage. Since the eggs will be perfectly cooked with this technique, the yolks will be a perfect yellow and any green ring will be absent.

WikiHow.com added that one teaspoon of vinegar for each egg before the burner is turned on stops eggs from cracking. This apparently works because the proteins in the egg white congeal faster and plug the natural cracks in the shell.

eHow.com suggested using eggs that have been in the refrigerator longer. When an egg gets older gets the contents shrink. If there’s less content inside the egg it’s less likely to crack the shell when it expands. But the eggs should be left to warm up before boiling, since adding cold eggs to hot water will increase the chance of them cracking.

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