Buzz
I'm always amazed by the endless ways eggs can be prepared and savored. Even within the world of scrambled eggs alone, I have three favorites (super slow, whipped using an immersion blender, and blended with cheese). Lately, I've been obsessed with hard-boiled eggs. I enjoy deviling them (of course), wrapping them in miso, and now, I'm completely hooked on these crunchy, nutty, irresistibly tender seven hour eggs. (Quick tip: they don't actually take seven hours.)
You might have encountered these dark brown, hardboiled eggs known as 'Korean sauna eggs,' or perhaps 'huevos haminados' if you're familiar with Sephardic cuisine. They are, at their core, eggs that have been slow-cooked for a long time. As Harold McGee explains in *On Food and Cooking*, this extended cooking process happens when 'the quarter-gram of glucose sugar in the white reacts with albumen protein to generate flavors and pigments typical of browned foods.' The result? A toasted taste that’s pretty wild. The whites become incredibly delicate, while the yolk becomes rich and almost fluffy in texture.
Boiling eggs for seven hours might not sound appealing to most people, but thanks to the magic of the Instant Pot, you can prepare these delicious, toasty eggs in under two hours. (McGee *made his in just an hour*, but he was using a pressure cooker that operates at 15 psi, whereas the Instant Pot reaches a pressure between 11 and 12 psi.) To make your own, you'll need:
Eggs—enough to form a single layer at the bottom of your Instant Pot insert
Water—enough to cover the eggs
2 teaspoons of kosher salt
Allow the eggs to reach room temperature for about an hour—this helps prevent cracking during cooking—then place them in the Instant Pot insert. Cover with water, add the salt, and seal the pot, ensuring the release valve is set to 'sealing.' Select 'Manual' or 'Pressure Cook,' set to 'high pressure,' and adjust the time to 90 minutes. Once the cooking is complete, manually release the pressure, carefully remove the hot eggs from the insert (using tongs or a spider), and place them in an ice bath to cool completely. Peel them, enjoy them, or maybe even deviled them. (When I see an egg, I devil an egg. It’s just who I am.)
