Cracking a Raw Egg

This video was created for individuals who are blind or visually impaired.
Cracking a Raw Egg
Task Analysis
1) Wash your hands with soap and warm water.
2) Prepare your workspace. I like to work over a jelly roll pan to catch possible spills. I place a wet cotton dish cloth, towel or face cloth in the bottom as it works like a gripper so that cooking tools and containers don’t slide around as I use them. For cracking eggs, I like to crack the egg into a small glass dish so that I can check it for shells before cooking or using it in a recipe. If you have low vision, ensure that the color of your dish cloth contrasts with the color of the dish. This makes it easier to see items in your workspace.
3) Place the raw egg or eggs on your work surface. The dish cloth will keep it from rolling away.
4) Grasp the egg firmly on the long sides, not the pointed ends.
5) With your palm facing down towards the surface you are working on (and this can be a jelly-roll pan like I’m using, the table, or even the inside of a large dish), firmly tap the egg to crack the shell. Why not use the edge of a dish? Because the egg has a membrane on the inside of the shell. The membrane is like a thin skin that keeps the bits of shell together. As long as you don’t break the membrane at this point, you should be able to pull the two halves apart without having egg shell drop into your dish.
6) Using all of your fingers and thumbs, grasp the egg with the pointy ends towards the palm of each hand. Ensure that the tips of your thumbs are touching or almost touching at the place where the shell is cracked. Be sure that your egg is overtop of the small dish.
7) Use both thumbs to gently pull away from each other so that the egg shell breaks into two and the egg drops into the dish.
8) If someone who is sighted is nearby, this person can scan for bits of egg shell that have dropped into the dish. If not, you may need to feel around with your fingers.
9) Dump the egg into a pan or other dish that you are using to prepare your recipe. Discard the egg shell.
10) Place all items used for cracking the egg into soapy water. Wash your hands well before continuing with other kitchen duties. Wash your work surface if it wasn’t placed into the soapy water. Raw eggs can contain Salmonella, which is a kind of bacteria that causes food poisoning, so this step is very important to remember when working with raw eggs.