Ramen Egg

• servings: 4 eggs
• active time: 15 mins
• total time: 8 hours

Ingredients

4 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell) (refrigerated; use slightly older eggs, which are easier to peel)

For the Marinade

¼ cup soy sauce

¼ cup mirin

¼ cup sake (or water)

1 tsp sugar

Directions

Before You Start: Please note that this recipe requires a marination time of 8 hours or overnight.

Gather all the ingredients.

To Make the Marinade

In a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients for the marinade: ¼ cup soy sauce, ¼ cup mirin, ¼ cup sake, and 1 tsp sugar.

1. Bring it to a boil and whisk it a few times to let the sugar dissolve completely. Once boiling, lower the heat and simmer for 1 minute. Turn off the heat. Set aside to cool completely.

2. To Make the Soft-Boiled Eggs: Add 4 cups (1L) water (for 4 eggs) to a medium saucepan and bring it to a boil. There should be enough water to cover the eggs by at least 1 inch (2.5 cm). Once at a full boil, take out 4 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell) from the refrigerator. Carefully and gently lower one egg at a time into the boiling water with a mesh strainer/skimmer or a ladle. When you add the first egg, set a 7-minute timer. You can cook them 6 to 6½ minutes for a runny egg yolk and 8 to 9 minutes for a custard-like egg yolk.

3. Once all the eggs are in the saucepan, lower the heat to maintain a gentle boil. Make sure the water is simmering, but not bubbling so strong that the eggs bounce around. If you want your egg yolks to be centered, gently rotate the eggs with chopsticks once in a while for the first 3 minutes.

4. After 7 minutes, immediately take out the eggs and shock them in iced water for 15 minutes.

5. Once the eggs are completely cool, gently crack the shell at the wide bottom end of the egg and start peeling it vertically toward the pointy top. Dip the egg in the iced water a few times to help with the peeling. Once you peel one section vertically, the rest of the shell comes off easily.

6. To Marinate the Eggs: Place the eggs in a plastic bag and add the marinade to the bag. Why am I recommending a plastic bag? With a plastic bag, we don‘t have to use a lot of marinade to submerge the eggs. This marinade is used only one time for food safety reasons, so it’s most economical to prepare no more than the amount you need. If you use a container instead of a bag, it requires more marinade to submerge the eggs.

7. Remove the air from the bag and use a clip or rubber band to seal the bag right above the eggs. This way, the eggs are completely submerged in the marinade. Refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. You can rotate the eggs occasionally if you like.

8. To Serve: Remove the eggs from the marinade and cut them in half lengthwise to serve. Use a piece of string, fishing line, or cheese cutter (that‘s what I used here) to cut the eggs in half cleanly. Enjoy the Ramen Eggs in bento, as a ramen topping, or as a snack sliced in half and sprinkled with furikake (rice seasonings) and shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice). If you want to warm up the eggs, soak the bag in warm water to bring up the temperature faster.

9. To Store: Keep the Ramen Eggs refrigerated at all times. Do not freeze as the texture of eggs changes when frozen (with the exception of tamagoyaki). The ramen eggs will get saltier the longer they marinate, so take them out from the marinade after 12–24 hours (depending on your preference). Enjoy the ramen eggs within 3–4 days if your eggs are soft-boiled. If your eggs are hard-boiled, you can keep them in the refrigerator for up to a week. For food safety reasons, I do not recommend reusing this marinade with new boiled eggs. You can repurpose this marinade as a seasoning sauce for your stir-fried or simmered dishes but use it soon.

Notes

Important Tips & Tricks to Make Ramen Eggs

Tip #1: Cook the marinade

To make the marinade, I highly recommend cooking it for 1 minute after boiling. This ensures the sugar dissolves and the alcohol evaporates, leaving only the natural umami and sweetness in the sauce.

Tip #2: Add vinegar and salt when boiling eggs

If you don’t have a particular method of cooking boiled eggs, try adding vinegar and salt to the boiling water before you add the eggs.

I’ve tried many different approaches and was shocked at the 100% success rate with the vinegar and salt method when peeling eggs. The peels come off perfectly every time.

Have you tried it? Do you use any “trick” to make boiled eggs? Please share your method in the comment below.

Tip #3: Use refrigerated eggs

Using a fine-mesh sieve/strainer, gently lower your eggs straight from the fridge into the (already) boiling water and lower the heat slightly to a simmer.

Tip #4: Cook 7 minutes from the first egg in boiling water

Start setting the timer for 7 minutes from the first egg submerged in boiling water. It takes about 30 seconds or less to submerge all four eggs (set the timer for 6 minutes and 30 seconds if you start the timer when you finish submerging all the eggs. Little adjustment matters!)

I use large American eggs for this recipe, and knowing that egg sizes vary in different parts of the world, you might need to adjust the cooking time slightly.

Tip #5: Shock the eggs in ice water

Shock the boiled eggs in ice water immediately and let them chill for at least 15 minutes. I use the same ice water to dip the boiled eggs a few times when peeling them. Water goes into the gap and helps peel easily.

Tip #6: Marinate the eggs overnight

I prefer that you could marinate the ramen eggs for just a few hours or overnight. I can make ramen the next day while the eggs stay marinated in the fridge, waiting for their appearance.

I’d stop marinating around after two days, or it gets salty. Also, soft-boiled eggs should be consumed in 3-4 days.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 egg
• Calories: 90
• Total Fat: 5
• Saturated Fat: 2
• Cholesterol: 186
• Sodium: 311
• Total Carbohydrate: 2
• Dietary Fiber: 0
• Total Sugars: 2
• Protein: 7