That’s called “roasted” or “oven-baked” hard-cooked eggs, and it’s often done. Said to make the egg whites fluffier and less rubbery than wet-cooking them, but I haven’t tried it.
You can also air fryer eggs for an easy “set it and forget it” batch cooking with consistent results:
Here’s the science behind perfect (and perfectly peelable) hard-boiled eggs.
So, the key is to dehydrate the membrane between the egg and the shell. That’s why older eggs work well. Baking them works well too. I always did it that way before I had the Instant Pot. The pressure cook method is nearly as foolproof, and I can get more eggs in there, so I generally do that now.
For baking: Place one egg in each cup of a muffin tin. Bake for 20-30 minutes, depending upon the doneness level you prefer. Some folks preheat the oven, but I found some eggs crack going in hot. I put them in a cold oven, and take them out after 30 minutes. With my oven that gives the perfect egg. Anyway, run cold water over them when they’re done and bang them in the fridge.
For Instant Pot: Set to Steam, and turn off hold warm function. Add 1 cup water and a pinch of salt. Put in steamer basket and load with eggs. I can fit about 30. Steam on low for 1 minute. (It will take about 15 minutes to get up to pressure.) Then quick release. Get eggs into cold water as quickly as possible.
I pretty much do that, but no ice bath. I just run cold tap water into the pot until it is hand tolerable, then I crack and peel the eggs under water, being careful to puncture the membrane in one spot. I then remove them to a bowl and slice and eat them immediately.
I like my hard-boiled eggs still a little warm, medium-hard with slightly molten centers and I only ever eat them immediately with a little salt (sometimes pepper) after cooking. They’re a sort of a quick spur-of-the-moment thing when I have a few eggs in the fridge and the urge strikes.
I don’t really like cold hard-boiled eggs in anything - I particularly detest them sliced in salads. I find the texture icky when ice cold for some reason.
Cholent/hamin, the traditional Jewish sabbath stew, often has whole unpeeled eggs in it that are baked in the oven along with everything else. The egg whites usually end up deep brown, mainly due to the onions in the stew.
I’l share my method, which helps the peeling somewhat, but gets the yolks exactly perfect every time. The tip for peeling is to add a couple tablespoons of baking soda to the water the eggs are boiled in. Also, letting the raw eggs “age” a few weeks in the refrigerator helps loosen the membranes, or just buy the oldest ones on the shelf (within reason, obviously you don’t want spoiled eggs, but the store ought to be pulling the ones that are truly risky).
Anyway, this is how I get perfect eggs every time (perfect meaning the yolk is golden and is maybe a tiny bit gooey in the center). You’ll need an infrared thermometer for one step.
- Fill a pot with 12 eggs and enough cool tap water for a half inch of overhead (this is important for hearing the boiling point) and 2 tablespoons of baking soda (important for peeling).
- Put the lid on and wet it so there’s a wet seal
- Heat under high heat for 6-9 minutes until the lid breaks seal and starts to rattle, and you’re also listening for the rumbling of the eggs bouncing (that’s why the water overhead and the wet seal of the lid).
- Cut off the heat and remove the lid for the hot soak. Let it sit for 3-4 minutes depending if you want the yolk more or less gooey.
- After the initial hot soak, adjust water temp for the warm soak. Get your infrared thermometer and add tap water to bring the boiled water down to 156 degrees F, or 69 degrees C. Use a spoon to mix the water to ensure your temperature is right, this is the most important step. Work quickly, adjustment to warm water temp should only take 15 seconds at most.
- Having adjusted temperature, put the lid back on, and set a timer for 6 minutes. Here you can cheat and pull an egg early and slice it in half for a quick yolk check if you’re picky about the yolk, but it’ll almost always be right.
- After 6 minutes or a satisfactory doneness check, start the cooling soak, do a full water change from hot to tap. Throw in another tbsp of baking soda. No ice needed.
- During the cooling soak, peel off a tiny section of shell and membrane off each egg and drop it back into the sodafied cooling bath. This lets the water get under the membrane for easier peeling. The baking soda helps water infiltrate under the membrane, adding wetness and slipperiness for easier handling and cleaner peeling.
- After peeling, one more rinse to wash off the baking soda. There’s scarcely enough to affect the flavor, this is more for thoroughness.
I usually get perfect yolks and peels like this, though if the eggs are super fresh and have tight membranes, there’s not a lot that can ensure a nice smooth peel. Just try to source your eggs from the back of the shelf with the closer expiration dates, old eggs peel easiest, this is the most important tip for peeling.
I’ve not tried this at higher altitudes, I’m at about 1000 feet above sea level, but I think the method would need a whole lot of tinkering because of how the boiling point is the cue for cooking length. A lot more measuring would be needed. My strategy here is simply not to relocate to Colorado or anywhere at altitude.
Alternatively, you could just call them “hard-cooked” eggs.
That’s what Alton Brown does.
I just put water in a pot with a steamer insert, put the eggs in once it’s boiling, steam for 15 minutes (large eggs), immediately dump the water and add ice water. I give the pot a good shake and let it sit until the ice is melted. Every single egg peels easily whether it was fresh or old.
Mr. Party Pooper here: Walmart sells 6-packs of already boiled eggs and THEY’RE ALL PERFECT! I don’t know how they do it! A tad pricey, I’ll admit, but boiling/peeling eggs is a Sisyphean task.
You can find that (hard cooked and peeled eggs) in many supermarkets.
I’ve purchased single hard boiled eggs at airports, as a nice cheap protein hit, but while they are fine, they always taste slightly preserved. Sodium benzoate? Anyway, they are fine, but not something I’d want to serve at my seder.
Are the supermarket ones any better?
Yeah, well, I knew that, but HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
Puzzlegal, I think they’re excellent. But once you open the package, use them up soonest.
Thank you.
So what is the significance of hard boiled eggs in the seder?
I heard of a technique years ago for getting perfect, easy to peel hard boiled eggs by breaking the membrane of the raw egg without breaking or piercing the shell-- tap the blunt end of the egg with the back of a spoon until you hear an audible ‘snap’, which supposedly is the membrane breaking (careful not to hit the egg too hard and break the shell).
I don’t know if this method is actually effective, but I mention it because it sounds similar to the OP’s method of membrane breaking without being as invasive and tricky as piercing the shell. I mentioned this technique in another hard boiled egg thread a few years ago, and another poster borderline ridiculed this method as being made-up BS. The couple times I tried it, it seemed to help, but I’ve never tried a systematic test of this method, like snapping the membranes of (X) large number of eggs, not snapping the same number of eggs, marking, cooking and peeling them. I can attest that if you tap a raw egg that way you will hear an audible ‘snap’ sound. Whether it actually results in easy peel eggs every time, I can’t say for sure.
Now I’m curious all over again and I want to test this, but I only have about a half dozen eggs on hand and I don’t want to hard-boil them all.
It symbolizes the whole circle of life thing - birth, obviously, but eggs were traditionally a mourning food in Judaism, so you’ve got death, too.
I’ve always assumed it was the same as the eggs at Easter. Passover is a spring festival, after all.
I think Alessan 's post basically confirms that.
Whenever I can get eggs on sale I get one or two dozen (or an 18-pack) and after they’re in the refrigerator for a week I hard-boil a dozen; my usual technique is to just put them in a big pot with enough water to cover, heat until boiling and let them sit in the boiling water for about 5-10 minutes. Then I empty the pot and refill it with cold water and let the eggs cool. The boiled eggs go into the fridge in a carton labeled “hard-boiled”. I cut them into salads, or mash them up into tuna or ham salads. It’s been a long time since I’ve made deviled eggs, or just eaten plain hard-boiled eggs.
On a side note, when I was in college the student cafeteria put out bowls of hard and soft boiled eggs in the shell. I would take four or five soft eggs and shell them into a bowl, picking out the one or two that were over-cooked (there was always at least one), add a little milk and butter, season with salt and pepper. After eating them I would sop up the bowl with toast.