The German Egg Gadget With a 38-Letter Name Nobody Can Remember

What's going on

In Germany, a lot of kitchens have a small metal gadget that looks like nothing anyone outside the country has ever seen: you set a little ball at the top, let it (or give it a shove) drop, and it's supposed to crack a perfect ring around the top of a soft-boiled egg so the shell just lifts off. One person shared a photo of theirs, admitting they've never been totally sure it actually works, and the replies turned into a long, slightly chaotic explainer thread.

Turns out plenty of people — Japanese and otherwise — have stood in front of one of these things at a German breakfast table too intimidated to touch it, or bought one abroad only to find out gravity alone doesn't generate enough force to actually crack the shell. On top of all that sits the gadget's official German name: a single 38-character word that nobody, German or not, seems able to hold onto.

Comments

Behold Germany’s weird kitchen weapon: a metal contraption that’s supposed to cleanly crack open a boiled egg’s shell. Not sure it actually works, but my German in-laws use it pretty much every time.

ドイツ食卓の珍兵器「ゆで卵の殻にスパッと切れ目を入れるはずの金属工具」です。効果のほどは疑問だが、ドイツ実家では割といつも使っている！

View on X

First time I saw one was at a German hotel in the early 80s. I thought “maybe you shake it to make a sound?” lol and just quietly pretended I hadn’t seen it after that lol. When people don’t understand something, or it’s inconvenient, they just act like it doesn’t exist. Way too risky to go shaking it around lol.

最初にみたのが1980年代前半のドイツのホテルでで、「なにか振って鳴らすやつかな」ｗと思って、あとはみないふりをしていたのを今思い出しましたｗ。人は都合が悪いか、あるいはわからないことは、見なかったことにするのです。振ったりなんかリスクありすぎてしませんｗ。

Back when I did a summer school in the UK, the Europeans ate their boiled eggs with a spoon, and when us Japanese peeled ours by hand they looked at us like we were doing something amazing. Honestly this gadget was the amazing thing to me. (couldn’t figure out how to use it) Also had a whole conversation that was just “pass the salt.”

昔、イギリスにサマースクール行った時、ヨーロッパ人たちはスプーンでゆで卵食べてて、我々日本人が指で皮剥いて食べてたら、すごくアメージングな顔されてた。こちらからしたら、この機械のがアメージングな体験でしたわ。（使いこなせなかった）「塩取ってくれ」って会話した思い出。

This! Was at the breakfast hall on a reporting trip to Germany with Tanaka-san and Ohki Tsuyoshi — had no idea how to use it and wasn’t even sure a beginner was allowed to touch it, so I just stood there watching with envy.

これ！田中さん、大木毅さんと行ったドイツ取材旅行で、ホテルの朝食会場にあったんだけど、使い方がよく判らないし、初心者が使って良いモノかも判らんので、指を咥えて見送ったヤツだ～。

Oh? So you’re supposed to add force to the ball instead of just letting gravity do it? Bought one while stationed in Germany, fully expecting “German engineering surely calibrated the gravity drop to be perfectly optimized” — nope, not nearly enough power to crack a shell. Guess I should’ve given it a shove.

あら？コレって重力任せではなく勢いをつけて鉄球をぶつける道具だったのですか？ドイツ駐在時代に買ったのですが、『ドイツの科学力なら、重力で最適な勢いになるよう調整されているハズ』との期待を裏切り、卵の殻を割るほどのパワーは出ませんでした。勢いつければ良かったんか…。

This thing’s actually in a decent number of German homes. The British method (which is how I learned it) — tapping all the way around a soft-boiled egg with a spoon to crack it, then scooping it out — got called “barbaric” by Germans. But hey, this gadget doesn’t always crack it clean either!

これ、比較的多くのドイツ人家庭にある道具で、スプーンで半熟ゆで卵の周りを一周カンカン叩いてヒビを入れてザクっと掬い取って食べる英国式（私が英国で覚えたやり方）はドイツ人に「野蛮」と言われた...でもスパッとうまくいかない時もあるぞ！

As a kid I used the type where you squeeze both sides and a little tooth pops out, but as an adult I just crack it with a spoon 🥄 My parents bought one of these as a souvenir and actually use it. Was surprised how many households don’t eat boiled eggs this way — wonder if it still makes a good souvenir 🥚

子供の頃は両脇を挟むと歯が出るタイプのものを使っていたけど大人になってからはスプーンで割っている🥄これは両親がお土産に買っていって使っているこうやってゆで卵を食べないご家庭が多いことに驚いたけど、お土産に喜ばれるはかなぁ🥚

I’ve seen pictures of it and read explanations before but still don’t really get how it works — the Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher! It’s the Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher, of all things…!

画像は見たことあって解説も読んだことありながらもイマイチしくみがわかってないEierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher！Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacherやないか…！

Exactly right. “Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher” is basically the phrase “device that creates a predetermined breaking point in an eggshell” forced into a single word — you could call it a prime example of German you can bust out to sound chuunibyou (a Japanese term for the kind of overly dramatic, edgy phrasing teenagers love to show off) 😆

そうなんですよ。Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacherっていうのは「卵の殻に仮の切断線を入れる器具」という表現を強引に一単語にしたもので、「すぐ使える中二病ドイツ語」の一種と申せましょう😆

🇩🇪 Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher…… the name I will never manage to remember 😆 Can’t even remember the Japanese translation, “eggshell-breakpoint-inducer,” either lol

🇩🇪Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher……名前をいつまでも覚えられないやつだ😆日本語訳の卵殻破断点誘発器も覚えられない笑

View on X

Way back when I listened to a German language course on the radio, the instructor said “German kitchens have all sorts of single-purpose cooking tools.” Guess this is one of them. Just crack the egg on the edge of the table or your forehead, come on.

昔、ラジオでドイツ語講座を聴いてた時、講師の方が「ドイツのお台所には調理用専用道具が多数ある」とおっしゃってた。これはそのうちの一つか。卵なんかテーブルの角かおでこでわりゃいいじゃん。

Feels like something Hercule Poirot would use. And the fact that there’s a dedicated plate just for boiled eggs before you even get to this thing — that’s so very European.

エルキュールポワロが使ってそうその前にゆで卵専用皿があるところがヨーロッパって感じします

Is THIS why Count Cagliostro (the villain of the classic anime film The Castle of Cagliostro*)* could crack his boiled egg so cleanly!?

カリオストロ伯爵がゆで卵をきれいにカットできてたのはこれを使ってたから⁉︎

It showed up in The Castle of Cagliostro too, didn’t it!

カリオストロの城でも、登場していましたね！

Tonight’s Friday Road Show (a long-running Japanese TV slot for broadcasting movies) is airing The Castle of Cagliostro — there’s a scene where the Count eats a boiled egg with a spoon. The reason it cracks so cleanly is a tool: a German-made egg cracker that drops a weight to pop the shell. It’s called the Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher. Thirty-eight characters! There’s no way I’m remembering that!

今夜の金ロー「カリオストロの城」伯爵が『スプーンでゆでたまご食べる』シーンが出てきます。キレイに割れているのはある器具を使っているから。ドイツ発で普及したたまご割り器でおもりを落としガツンと割ります。名前はEierschalensollbruchstellenverursacherなんと38文字！とても覚えられない！

My French version of the weapon has a spring on it.

うちのフランス兵器はバネが付いてます

View on X

Oh, so it’s sold as an “eggshell breaker”? Noted, learned something today.

エッグシェルブレーカーっていう商品名なのか、ちぃおぼえた

This….! Feels like it’d be right up there with the bus’s “stop request” button (a button Japanese kids famously love mashing) — little kids are gonna beg to drop the ball (and get bored of it within a week).

これは....！バスの「降ります」ボタン並に小さい子どもはボールを落としたがるのではなかろうか（そして早晩飽きる）。

They’ve got one at the place in Kinosaki Onsen (a hot-spring town famous for its onsen-cooked eggs) where you make the hot-spring eggs ☺️ Not the ball-drop type, but I own one just for eating those.

城崎温泉の温泉たまごつくるとこに置いてあるね☺️ボールを落とすタイプじゃないけど、温泉たまご食べる用に持ってるわ

Genuinely curious, which is actually easier and more convenient — eating with this tool, or just peeling it normally like Japanese people do…? (First time seeing this thing 👀)

実際のところ、この道具を使用して食べるのと日本人の様に普通に剥いて食べるのはどっちが食べやすくて便利なんでしょうか…？(初めて見ましたこの道具👀)

I own one of these. The base part is spring-loaded — is it heresy to use it on a raw egg?

これ持ってます台座のほうがスプリング状になってるのですが生卵に使うのは邪道ですか？

What actually happens once you use it? Doesn’t it spill everywhere?

使った結果、どうなるんですか？　こぼれたりしないのですか？

The shell doesn’t just pop right off, so I crack the line first, then peel it off over a bowl before the contents come out. If the shell’s thin it can fail, and sometimes a bit of shell gets in there… I could crack it one-handed too, I just wanted to try this thing out.

殻はすぐにパカっと取れるわけじゃないので割れ目を入れてから容器の上で取り除いて中身を出してます殻が薄いと失敗する＆破片が混入する時もありますが…片手で割れないことも無いんですが使ってみたくて

Thanks! I pictured the ball hitting with the same force as in the video and just smashing the whole shell, but I guess that’s not how it goes.

ありがとうございます。動画のような勢いで玉をぶつけると、殻ごと壊れるイメージでしたが、そうじゃないんですね。

Basically never get the chance to use it, but it’s on my wishlist.

使う機会ほとんど無いけれどほしい物リストに入れてある。

Forget the tool, I’m way more distracted by that plate that seems to exist purely for boiled eggs.

それよりゆで卵に特化していると思われる皿に目が行く

Saw this online before. Probably top-3 material for “did you seriously mobilize the nation’s entire engineering prowess just for this?” What would Japan’s equivalent even be? It’d have to be an electric appliance, but maybe the rice cooker — a device whose entire job is cooking rice, and yet new models keep coming out. Honestly kind of insane when you think about it.

以前ネットで見たことある。たぶん世界でトップ3には入るだろう「そのためだけに国の技術を結集してつくったのか？」のやつ。日本だとなんだろう。電気製品になっちゃうけど炊飯器かな。お米を炊くだけの商品なのに今も新型出つづけるとか、冷静に考えると狂ってる。

My take

Apparently it's called the "Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher." Everybody got it memorized now?

#Funny #Culture #Food

Source & translation note

Comments loosely translated for tone. Reactions collected from Togetter and X threads.

View original thread →