Kamala Harris' Technique For The Perfect One-Handed Egg Crack

You need a lot of cool, calm, collected confidence to run for President of the United States, but you also need some of that to effortlessly crack an egg with one hand and get perfect results. We're not suggesting ejecting an egg from its shell in one thwack is a feat on par with running the country, but all the same, watching Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris perform the former is one of the many examples of her steady hand. It's also inspiring us home cooks to practice our own egg-cracking skills. 

Harris demonstrated her egg-cellent method on her YouTube series, "Cooking with Kamala." The videos of the Vice President making different dishes with various chefs, cooks, and celebrities debuted four years ago but has been recirculating since her appointment as the Democratic nominee. In an episode where Harris was making monster cookies in Iowa, she picks an egg up, gives it a solid whack on the side of the bowl, and squeezes it just enough to separate the shell's halves and drop the yolk and white in, shell-free. "You can do it one-handed," observes the Iowa high school senior Harris is baking with, exclaiming, "You're a pro!" Harris then smiles the confident smile many of us bakers dream of smiling after such an effortless and flawless egg-crack.

In case you need any convincing to trust her cooking expertise, Kamala Harris' collard greens are so popular she has to prepare them in a bathtub to meet demand among family and friends, and she grew up with spices perfectly organized in instant coffee jars. We're always up for learning a new way to crack eggs, so here's how you can mimic Harris' technique: Take an egg in your dominant hand and give it a firm but gentle smack against the side of the bowl. Then, stick your index finger into the middle split to help push that separation wider apart, moving the top and bottom of the shell apart by spreading your thumb from the rest of your fingers. The egg yolk and white should drop easily into the batter.

Most importantly, when trying it, keep your fingers curled a bit around the bottom of the egg shell when cracking. This cushions the yolk so it doesn't split, and also creates a barrier between the egg and the surface you're whacking it against so no bacteria gets onto the egg and therefore into your batter or food. Once you have the safety aspect down, you're free to practice your Vice Presidential egg-splitting skills. Just be warned: It will take practice to nail one-handed egg-cracking technique, so don't give up too soon.