Three Easy Ways To Make Hard-Boiled Eggs
Can you use three easy ways to make hard-boiled eggs today? I used to make hard-boiled eggs by placing the eggs in a pan with cold water and then putting the pan on the stove to bring it to a boil. I would have to stand by to keep checking the pan because you know how it sometimes boils over, right?
Then I would turn the stove off and let it sit for 20 minutes. Next, I would drain the water and quickly rinse the eggs with cold water (complete with ice cubes). Not anymore, baby!
I’m updating this post today from 2018, boy how things have changed.
I Have Never Raised Chickens
A few of my friends raise chickens, and I applaud them. I buy my organic or regular eggs and make egg salad sandwiches or just eggs with salt sprinkled on them after I hard-boil or bake them.
You probably know by now that my favorite electric pressure cooker is the Fagor (now it’s called Zavor)
. I bought this one after attending a class, actually several classes by Chef Brad. He is amazing. If you ever have a chance to go to one of his classes, please go, you will love it!
My daughter has four kids at home and the six-quart pressure cooker is plenty big for her family. She uses her Zavor pressure cooker almost every night, literally. If you need a good egg salad recipe you may want to try mine below.
1. Hard Boiled Eggs In An Electric Pressure Cooker:
The first thing you do is put the cold eggs (I did 12 eggs) and one cup of water in the pressure cooker. One cup of water is the minimum amount of liquid that is required to cook any food in this brand of pressure cooker.
You can see the “lock” and the “open lock” on the pressure cooker above. You place the lid on and turn it and when it “clicks” you can see the “open lock”.
Then it is locked and ready to turn the dial on top to “pressure” or “seal” depending on the brand you have. Plug the pressure cooker power cord into an outlet and you are ready for the next step.
Pressure Cook for 5 Minutes
Now to cook eggs in this pressure cook it takes 5 minutes on HIGH. So, click the HIGH button until it says 5, and push START. Now here is where you must be patient.
You will see the “5 minutes” until the pressure is built up and starts cooking. Then you will see 5, 4, 3 minutes and so on until you hear it beep, this means it’s finished cooking. Mine says WARM when finished.
Please be careful with this next step. You can see: “pressure, “steam” and “clean”. You MUST NOT turn that dial without a hot pad, wash rag, tongs, or whatever on top of the lid. I place a rag to protect my hands from the hot steam. It is extremely hot steam.
I slowly release the pressure by turning the dial to “steam” with a wash rag over the dial and a pair of tongs. The steam is VERY HOT and will release under some pressure.
Step back and let it do its thing. Once the steam stops if you can turn the lid the pressure has been released. There is still a lot of steam when you turn the lid and lift it off. Please be careful, it’s hot.
You carefully lift the eggs from the pan with a slotted spoon or a regular spoon and place the eggs in a bowl with cold water and ice cubes. Or now pressure cookers have baskets to use while you pressure cook them. 6-Quart Pressure Cooker Basket
I let them sit for maybe ten minutes and then peel them.
Here they are peeled and ready to eat. You can use fresh eggs for many things. This is one of the easiest ways to make hard-boiled eggs.
2. Make Hard Boiled Eggs In the Oven:
Instructions:
Place the number of eggs you want to hard boil (bake) in a muffin tin. I take them straight from the cold refrigerator. If I’m going to turn my oven on I’m going to bake 12 eggs to fill my muffin tin. Today I only did six because I did so many other eggs in the pressure cooker. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. I put about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of water in each muffin cup, give or take.
If it’s one inch that’s fine. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and run cold water over the eggs. Add some ice cubes to chill the water faster. Now they are ready to peel! These are so easy to peel, I love them! You will never go back to standing and watching a pan boil to make them on top of your stove.
3. Make Hard Boiled Eggs In Your Sun Oven:
I wrote this article about five years ago about baking eggs in a Sun Oven, but I wanted to share it for those who may have missed it.
Sun Oven Instructions:
I preheated the Sun Oven to about 350 degrees. The way you preheat a Sun Oven is by opening up the shiny reflectors and facing the oven toward the sun. Just close the oven lid and lock it in place to keep the heat inside. It takes about 20-30 minutes to preheat to 350 degrees.
This time period will depend on when you have ideal sun rays in your location for using a sun oven. Typically I say between 10:00 a.m. and until about 2:00 p.m. The pans must be dark, not shiny or they will reflect the sun and heat away from the Sun Oven and the items you are trying to cook. My favorite Sun Oven: All American Sun Oven
Speckles after Cooking is Fine
I decided to add an extra 10 minutes to be safe. I “baked” the eggs for 40 minutes. The eggs get “speckles”…no worries. Those spots are normal, they look weird the first time you see them. I call them baking specks.
I like to use hand/finger heat-resistant gloves when using my Sun Oven because the glass door is very hot. The gloves are easier to use than hot pads, in my opinion. Heat-resistant gloves: #1 Oven Gloves – Extreme Heat
Plunge Eggs in Ice Water
I removed the eggs after baking and plunged them into cold water with ice cubes like you do when you use your kitchen stove. I waited another 10 minutes and peeled them. Yes, you will see a few tiny brown specks caused by “baking” them, but……wow this is so much easier!
One HUGE deal is the fact they peel easier! I love saving money on my power bill too! I really like, and suggest you try to use the items you have available for emergencies. This gives me confidence that the process will actually work when I’m under pressure to perform in an emergency situation.
Please Practice with Your New Equipment
If you have a Sun Oven or any new item to try out, do it now before you really need the experience of how things work, you’ll be glad you did! Picture trying to use your Sun Oven for the first time when the emergency has caused the power to go out.
We always try new appliances, food supplies, and other preparedness items at our house right when we get them so we have some experience under our belts.
Again, picture trying to bake bread or prepare some other vital food item at the time of the actual emergency without ever testing things first. I hope you try making hard-boiled eggs in your Sun Oven. If you don’t have one I highly recommend saving your money to buy one of these to save on your utility bills and be ready for any unforeseen disaster.
Please note: I only recommend a SunOven in areas where you get a lot so sunshine throughout the year.
Egg Salad Sandwich Recipe
- 8-9 hard-boiled eggs peeled and finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3/4 cup Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip Salad Dressing
- Salt & Pepper to taste
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Boil your eggs in a saucepan, pressure cooker, in the oven, or a Sun Oven outside.
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Drain the hot water, cover the cooked eggs with ice and water. Peel when cool.
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Chop the eggs as finely as possible. I use a chopper.
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Combine the eggs, mayonnaise, or Miracle Whip.
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Stir in the salt, pepper, and sugar. Serve on a bed of lettuce or make a sandwich with the mixture.
Final Word
I hope you enjoyed my post today on my three easy ways to make hard-boiled eggs. My family loves hard-boiled eggs, we buy at least 5 dozen eggs a week for our big family. Please stay safe. May God Bless the World, Linda
Again, great information. Really appreciate the info on the sun oven – I’ve tried several times to ‘hard-boil’ eggs in it but have had various outcomes. The oven was probably not hot enough when I popped them in. I will try again following your instructions. As for egg salad, I add finely chopped celery and green onion along with a dollop of mustard and of course mayonnaise. I don’t add any sugar as mayo is sweet enough for us.
One of these days I will purchase a pressure cooker – I am so curious about them. The only ‘experience’ with one that I have is seeing food splattered on the kitchen ceiling at an in-laws home many years ago. Of course, her pressure cooker was not modern with safety features but it left a lasting impression on me.
Hi, Ellen when you cook eggs in your Sun Oven or your conventional oven you may find a few brown specks. They are hot spots I guess but the eggs are still great. I got those when I did NOT put any water in the muffin tins. I’m going to go add you comment to the post. I’m going to try the chopped celery and green onions and dollop of mustard with the next batch of egg salad! Thanks so much! Do you have the brand Sun Oven International solar oven? I have two and use them all the time. Maybe I should do another post on how to use them. You would love a pressure cooker, oh my goodness they save you time and if you can afford meat (the prices are so high) it makes the meat so tender!!! Thanks again, Linda
Hi Linda, thanks again for another great post! I love my pressure cooker and never thought to do eggs in it. I guess I think they will explode inside!! And my hard boiled eggs hardly ever turn out right so I’m excited to try this.
Thanks again!
Shannon
Hi Shannon, Once you do the eggs in it, you will never go back to standing by the stove! You just set and forget until it beeps! Thanks for stopping by! Linda
Thanks for the tip on cooking in the oven. I always have trouble cooking eggs on stove top, and peeling afterwards. I am going to do this tomorrow as I am now missing egg salad. I put mayo, a touch of mustard, a little relish in it, a pinch of sugar – yum! But I will be trying the celery and green onion recipe…double yum. I am saving up for the sun oven.
Hi JoAnn, I have got to add your recipe to the post now! I love it when we share ideas with each other! I have never tried relish in my egg salad. Thanks for stopping by, Linda
Who would have thought that you could pressure cook eggs???!!!
Hi girlfriend! I love doing my eggs in the pressure cooker! They are so easy to peel! Have fun trying it! Hugs! Linda
Hi, I add dried chives and horseradish and a little chili powder with the mayo and mustard, and sprinkle the tops with paprika or smoked paprika because it looks so pretty!
My favorite way to cook them now is with an egg cooker my sweet husband bought me a few years ago like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-CEC-7-Egg-Cooker/dp/B0000A1ZN9/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1458769498&sr=8-6&keywords=cuisinart+egg+cooker
You pierce the fat end of the egg and place it pointy end down in the cooker with a measured amount of water in it, put the lid on and plug it in and switch it on. It takes about 15 to 18 minutes until it beeps and then I turn them into a pan of cool water and pick them up one at a time and crack them all over and drop them back in to the water. Then pick one up and start peeling. Capillary action has now put water between the membrane and the egg and they peel really easy. My other tips are to use filtered water or distilled as the cooker will last longer and I like my hard eggs just a little soft, so I use less water than the line on the cup/ piercer to make them just how I like every time!
I do not have enough sun for a solar oven, but I think they are really nifty! Thanks for all your great ideas!
Hi Jan, you know there are a lot if states that a Sun Oven would not work, I always ask how much sun do you have on average in your neighborhood. I vaguely remember seeing or hearing about an egg cooker. I am going to go add your tips to my post! I love it! Thank you, Linda
I put them in a pan of cold water with a little baking soda (about 1-2 tsp.), bring them to a boil and then put a lid on the pan and turn off the heat. 20-25 minutes later put them in cold water. The soda in the water makes them peel easily and they are perfectly cooked every time.
Hi Joellen, thanks for this awesome tip! I’m adding it to my post! I love new ideas!!! Thank you so much! Linda
Linda,
I use my Sun Oven for baking eggs all the time. I just set them out in a cardboard egg carton. Here in Arizona, in the summer time, it literally pays me to use the Sun Oven to cook as often as possible because otherwise I’d be using my gas range to boil water and heat up the house–placing an additional load on the Air Conditioning system. Seems silly to heat up a place just to pay to cool it down when we have loads of sun.
I’ll ditto Ellen C on adding mustard, diced celery and green onions to egg salad and i also leave out the sugar. One other thing I often add when the garden is producing is diced cucumber.
I’ll be baking eggs in my Sun Oven today. Tomorrow I’m baking Blueberry/Zucchini bread with the last of the zucchini I froze from last year’s garden.
Hi Raymond Dean, I love you comment! I love hearing you are using your Sun Oven so much! I better make my egg salad have a new twist!!! I do remember my mom putting pickle relish and hard boiled eggs in our tuna sandwiches. Life is good when we learn from each other! Happy summer, my friend, Linda
In my egg salad I also like to use finely chopped onion and sweet pickle.
and a rule of thumb I use, if it has salad in the name (i.e. chicken salad, tuna salad, egg salad) use “Miricle Whip Salad Dressing”
Hi Bruce, I have got to up my game with more add-ons to my egg salad. I love these tips! I will NOW remember Miracle Whip Salad Dressing. I need to add that to my post, thank you!!!! Linda
My family loves egg salad sandwiches and the pressure cooker has made it so easy! Now if the price of eggs would come down . . . One thing we always add is sweet pickle relish. It’s more like our deviled egg recipe but it makes them so delicious!
Hi Kay, oh, the pressure cooker was a game changer for sure! It’s so easy to make them! Oh, I love pickle relish, I will add some to my next batch. Linda
I am totally in learning mode – learning how to cook with gas!! I cannot and will not “bake” my eggs as the temperature is really finicky! I finally purchased an oven thermometer and had a minor success last night baking something. I needed a 375 oven and had to go up to 425 to get the right temperature. So I think oven baking eggs will need to wait A) until the oven and I get along better and B) when eggs are not an issue. I get my eggs fresh from my daughter but they recently lost several hens and with the size of family they have, they ran a bit short!! They just received a number of chicks to replace the lost hens but it will be some time before they produce!!
As for egg salad – I am a Miracle Whip user!! My recipe is simple – salt, pepper, MW, mustard. I have never added anything else even though I have had egg salad sandwiches with other things like chopped onion, pickles, etc. I just like mine pretty plain.
I have used my Instant Pot but was not very impressed. So, I stick with the top of the stove but again, I am cooking with gas now so I have a learning curve there as well. I may just have to go back to the Instant Pot.
Hi Leanne, I will be honest with you, I never liked the Instant Pot. There have been too many recalls and it’s not study to me. I gave the two I had away to people who wanted them before I heard about all the recalls. I literally use my Zavor pressure cooker every single day. I’m so sorry to hear you are having trouble with the gas stove. That’s so frustrating. Linda
Hi Leanne, I forgot to say I’m writing a post on my egg salad recipe. I will add mustard and chopped onions to the list. II only use Miracle Whip with mine too!!! Linda
Linda, after reading your original post I started using muffin tins with water to make hard boiled eggs in my Sun Oven. Using the tins and water greatly reduced the brown spots.
I make egg salad as I noted above but recently have been adding diced sweet banana peppers. It doesn’t add any heat but it does add flavor.
Also, since I have chickens I let my eggs with the bloom sit in my fridge for three weeks before I try hard boiling them–makes them peel much easier which is important if you are making deviled eggs.
HI Ray, thank you for the 5 stars my sweet, friend! Oh, I love sweet banana peppers, I’m adding that to my list for the egg salad recipe post. Love it! Linda