Hard boiled eggs! Hard boiled eggs! You have to get an Instant Pot just to make hard boiled eggs! Those are the words I heard over and over again from Instant Pot users as I began my deep dive into testing North America's trendiest kitchen gadget.
But I don't like hard boiled eggs. IT DOESN'T MATTER! YOU HAVE TO MAKE HARD BOILED EGGS BECAUSE THEY'RE SO EASY TO PEEL!!
Barf. O.K. fine, in the name of research I'll make hard boiled eggs in the Instant Pot so I can see how easy they are to peel.
As you may know, fresh eggs are much harder to peel because there's no air between the shell and the egg. So you end up chipping away tiny bits of shell until 3 hours later you've voluntarily admitted yourself to a mental institution where as luck would have it, they're serving egg salad sandwiches for lunch.
For my test I used both fresh (laid within the previous 3 days) and old (laid 2 months ago) eggs.
I cooked half of them in a pot on the stove and the other half I cooked in the BBQ. Just kidding. I cooked the other half in my Instant Pot (which I bought a month ago to see if this thing is all hype or hoax).
Here's how it went.
In case you couldn't understand that, basically all the eggs peeled the same.
The Instant Pot cooked eggs were slightly easier to peel but it was nothing anyone could legally brag about in a midnight infomercial.
These are the 2 cooking methods I used:
How to Make Hard Boiled Eggs in water
- Place eggs in pot of cold water and bring to the boil.
- As soon as pot boils, turn off the heat and let them sit until the water cools (around 15 minutes)
This is the method Signe Langford's uses in her book Happy Hens & Fresh Eggs which features me and my chickens.
How to Make Hard Boiled Eggs in an Instant Pot
- Add 1 cup of water to the bottom of the Instant Pot.
- Put a steam basket or trivet in the Instant Pot and add your eggs.
- Close the lid and set the manual timer to 8 minutes.
- When done, quick release the steam and handle the eggs when they're cool enough to touch.
- It will take longer than 8 minutes to cook the eggs because the Instant Pot has to come up to pressure before it cooks them.
THE RESULTS
WATER METHOD
With the water method all the eggs came out cooked perfectly and were moderately difficult to peel.
INSTANT POT METHOD
With the Instant Pot my first batch of eggs came out perfectly cooked but the second batch was very slightly undercooked (possibly because I peeled them while they were still very hot thinking this would make peeling them easier). It did not. The Instant Pot eggs didn't seem much easier to peel.
VERDICT
A couple of the Instant Pot eggs were slightly easier to peel than the water boiled eggs. But if I hadn't had it knocked into my head over and over again about how much easier these eggs would be to peel than regular cooked hard boiled eggs I never, ever would have noticed a difference.
For me it was a fail on both batches that I tried.
I know there are those of you who will dispute this, and I don't disagree. I've seen the videos! It's entirely possible that your hard boiled Instant Pot eggs burst right out of their shells and danced directly into the potato salad, but for me that's not what happened.
My eggs didn't dance. Angels didn't sing and rainbows didn't fart kittens.
Just when I thought I was leaning towards a recommendation for the Instant Pot this happens. Next week I will present you with my cheesecake results. It's pretty difficult to make a cheesecake that doesn't fart rainbows AND kittens so ...
Cathy
I'd wager that most of us use white or perhaps some shade of brown eggs.
Do you think that makes a difference? My neighbor gave me an electric egg cooker for Christmas, and after I quit laughing, I fell in love with it. (similar to this one)
Karen
Eggs, no matter what the colour of the shell are exactly the same. ~ karen!
Karen too
Hi guys, I love all of this egg talk. Boiled eggs are my favorite breakfast to go.
I am wondering however .... am I really the only person using this method to peel eggs? https://youtu.be/FkWISKfgqZ0
And there's an advanced method for two eggs https://youtu.be/4vWf7pa-OsU
lisa
That, was amazing.
Ann
Tried it with a somewhat fresh egg and it was a total fail. Probably works with the eggs you bring home from the store which are usually at least a couple weeks old, usually much much older
Nancy W
Like a lot of you said, it's the cold shock. Makes the eggs cringe inside...after the cold water bath, or ice bath if you're particularly hungry, roll the egg on the sink or the counter to crack the shell, and it should come right off. Under water is helpful too, to get a clean egg.
That instant pot is one of those gadgets to help one with a task that doesn't need any helping...!
Bob Larson
I use an electric pressure cooker it makes wonderful hard cooked egg's
1 cup water with the steamer tray place in eggs cook for 6 minutes let the pressure release do its thing then remove eggs with tongs (i make a lot at one time) i use a roaster pan cover them with ice shake the pan hard right to left or circle around so the eggs bang together about 1 or 2 minutes. when you take the lid off the eggs will slip out of the shells!
whitequeen96
I just put about 2 tsps. of salt in the water with the eggs on the stove. Then I bring it to a boil, turn off the water, and let them sit for about 8 minutes. I then run very cold water over them and peel them in the cold water. They just slip out of the shells.
Thandi
Woooooah. I had no idea there were so many opinions about the best way to make and peel boiled eggs. For me they're just things I have on toast. There may be Tabasco involved. Maybe a sprinkling of cheese. And always, ALWAYS, made by my husband. Roast a chicken beautifully? Sure! Bake an excellent cake? Certainly! Make a really great risotto that would bring a tear to your nonna's eye? You bet! Boil an egg? Nope nope nope. Fail.
TucsonPatty
I have nothing new to add to the egg cooking methods - I boil them and cold shock them and crack them all around under the water and peel them under water. What I am amazed about is Karen peeling all the eggs without cracking all the shell and peeling them without any moisture and the fresh ones peeled pretty perfectly, seems to me! The darned white coming off in chunks - death to a beautiful deviled egg! Karen - spell folk... f.o.l.k. Right? What do you call the white of an egg? Heeheehee. My one egg joke. Can't believe I've never told it to you before now. 😂
Mary W
Say white - now tell me what a cow drinks. LOL
Spell SPOT - now tell me what you do when you come to a green light. LOL
I love brain tricks. Thanks for a new one I can use to irritate my daughter and to make my grandkids crazy. I also tell them the same thing several times just to see their reaction. Growing old has some positive points.
Amanda
I'm also waiting on all of your experiment results before I take the plunge on an Instant Pot. I'm leaning less and less towards acquiring one, because like this egg experiment...I'm wondering why anyone would bother making hard boiled eggs this way? I mean, it's so easy to make a hard boiled egg on the stove and takes about the same amount of time, right? And, I suppose peeling eggs can be a bit of a challenge at times, but it's nothing I lose sleep over... like I said, I'm dying of curiously over your final verdict! I do like the idea of cooking beans quickly and just cooking dinner quickly in general, but I wonder if it's just hype? Very curious indeed. Thank you for conducting this experiment for all of us!
Diana Pearson
I recently discovered this tip for peeling hard bolied eggs and it seems to actually work. When ready to peel, crack each end of the egg on the counter. Blow hard into one end, then peel the egg. Be sure to check in the mirror for eggshell moustache.
Madeline
I use the Julia Child recipe: Put eggs in pot with water to cover. Bring to a boil and boil for 9 minutes, using a timer (at sea level). Rinse under cold tap water and immediately plunge into ice water bath. Leave until the ice has melted and the water is tepid. Peel eggs easily, and no unsightly sulfur ring. This gives perfect hb Trader Joe's jumbo brown eggs the way we like them, which is ever so slightly soft in the middle.
Valerie
I do not have an Instant Pot and probably won't acquire one.
For easy to peel hard boiled eggs I do what my grandmother and mother did:
put eggs in cold water into a pot and bring to a boil, you can turn down the heat a bit but continue to boil for 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and take to the sink and run cold water over the eggs for about 2 minutes and let the eggs sit in the cold water for about 10 minutes.
Hit the shell all around and the egg shell will peel off easily. The cold water immersion is the trick to having the egg shells peel off easily.
Paula
Soooo...have you figured out how to peel fresh hardboiled eggs, because if you have, I would love to know!
Patricia
The only way that I have found to get hard boiled eggs thst are consistently easy to peel is to use following method (I think it was ftom Kenji Alt-Lopez from Serious Eats; live that guy btw):
bring a pot of water to a boil and once boiling, gently lower your eggs, one at a time, into the water. I use a small ladle for this. Let boil gently for 12 minutes (that's how long it takes here in Calgary, but the timing mighy be different at lower altitude.) Run the eggs under cold water for a few minutes and then peel...works like a dream :)
Grace
That's exactly how I make them and I've never had a problem peeling them. I didn't know you could have a problem peeling eggs...
Ann
except it really really does not work with fresh eggs. Store bought eggs are always old before you even get them home. The shell is air permeable and the inside dehydrates slowly over time. Those eggs have more room between the membrane and the shell and it makes it so much easier to peel.
Ella
Exactly what I do as well except I gently pierce the big end first with a little gizmo call an "egg piercer". You can get them on amazon. No leaky eggs, no dreaded green ring. Fresh eggs, old (shudder) eggs. Same result and rarely tough to peel. Pressure cooker with dummy buttons indeed. LOL I'd rather spend my $$ on good cookware or more Rough Linen. Got my prooving cloth today!!
Gayle M
Two for one gadget--I use a cake tester to peirce the egg ends before steaming them for 16 minutes and plunging them in ice water. Works great.
dana
I made your best grilled cheese ever, Karen. Well, sort of. It was with Wonder Bread and Fuji Apples and ham and sharp cheddar, so really not your recipe. It was so good that we had it tonight with ham and Granny Smith Apple, sharp cheddar, on sourdough bc I had ham and didn't want to fry bacon. SO GOOD! The addition of the maple syrup is awesome.
Karen
Glad it worked out for you on both accounts. ~ karen!
Brenna
It's just a freaking pressure cooker with dummy buttons people.
Nancy Sanderson
Ha ha, best comment on this gadget yet!
Karen
Not exactly. It's a pressure cooker and a slow cooker and you can sauté in it. Plus I must say the yogourt feature is pretty outstanding. ~ karen!
Brenna
Ok then, if it can replace other kitchen gadgets, and do their job just as well, I might give it a chance. (But, why do I find it so annoying? Is it the name?) Thanks for the education Karen!
Susan Claire
I find it annoying too-maybe it's the name, I expect to see an infomercial at three in the morning about this thing, starring a smarmy host with a dentist-drill voice.
Laura
I thought adding vinegar to the water made eggs easier to peel.
Susan Alexander
I could not believe that I watched an entire video of someone peeling an egg ... and then ... watched additional eggs being peeled ... it was like watching grass grow ... in a good, but very strange way.
Music was fun.
What a strange, but quirky, happy group we are.
Nancy is correct. The 5-5-5 method works every time.
Robert East
What works for me is to boil the egg, crack the shell at each end and then soak them in water this allows water to seep into the shell, lubercating the space between the shell and egg. It's best if the membrane between the egg and shell is compromised as well.
Elaine
I do that too but, sometimes, still have to painstakingly remove each teensy bit of shell and waste a lot of the white part. I really appreciate Karen's research into this product!
Audrey
I see you used the spoon method on one of the eggs. I just heard about that one a few weeks ago. It really does work if you have an unusually difficult egg to peel. Also, peeling under water does wonders, IMO.
I don't have an Instant Pot. I was tempted, but will wait for further reviews. Thanks Karen!
Suzanne Herbruck
Always, always peel eggs under warm water, even old ones, and yes vinegar helps. From an old fart who HATES peeling eggs, but likes egg salad.
Nancy
Try the Instant Pot famous 5-5-5 method for eggs: Five minutes on "Manual", then let sit in pot for 5 more minutes, then release the steam and put them in ice water for 5 minutes. Perfect every time; I made some this morning
Monica
Yeah... I think having to get up and change settings every 5 minutes to make a 15-minute egg isn't worth it to me. It's one thing if I am saving time or taking some onerous action out of the sequence, but for me I'm just not inclined to get an instant pot based on what I've seen.
Heidi
That's not change settings. It's set the timer for 5 minutes. Let them stay in there for 5 more minutes after done pressure cooking. Release the pressure and put them in water or ice water for 5 minutes. Or just 1 minute, or 20 minutes. Whatever floats your boat.