They are very easy aren’t they? I always use mayo (lightly) in my deviled eggs. Never have usEd Miracle Whip ever. Just a matter of personal preference I guess. I use dry mustard and a touch of diced pickles and some pickle juice. Sometimes I spice them up with jalapeño, sometimes a slice of olive. Depends on what else I am serving.

I did HB eggs 2 days ago and then green beans in the IP for my dog. for deviled eggs I used to add a packet of Arby's horsey sauce in it. I haven't made those in a few decades either.

kathsgarden, it's not magic or anything you can't do with a regular pan. What separates the egg white from the shell is high heat from the start. With a steamer basket or tray in a conventional saucepan in which water is first brought to a boil, the result is the same. Also, in a pinch, gently dropping raw eggs into boiling water also results in easy to peel hard-boiled eggs. though the shells may crack.

The key is to not overcook them so that the yolk stays yellow and doesn't lose flavor and appearance by changing grey. With a conventional pan after 15 minutes, that's done with an immediate dunk and spending 10 minutes in an ice bath.

Elmer, I have to disagree with your steaming method. This is not the way I steam my eggs and they are prefect and peels just fall off every time. With my method, I put the cold water in the pan and the basket on top of the pan with the eggs cold out of the fridge. I have the pan uncovered and turn the burner on to make the water come to a gradual boil because if you do not, the peels will crack from the sudden heat hitting the cold eggs. Then once the water is boiling, I turn it down and cover the eggs and cook for 20 minutes for hard boiled eggs. I then put them in cold water and peel right away, as soon as they are cool enough to handle. The yolk is nice and yellow and fully cooked.

I make mine the same as Annie - and she's right about the freshness of the egg factoring into the 'peelability' -

We use the steamer method and peeling is much easier. I think it's because we start with eggs at room temp. When eggs are done, we peel and eat. We don't store boiled eggs.

Annie, try bringing the fresh farm eggs to room temp before steaming. It helps.

Well I'll chime in with yet another opinion, lol. I think what makes the difference is very quickly cooling the hot eggs, instead of permitting a gradual cool down.

Specifically, I put four or six eggs from the fridge into a saucepan, cover them with water, bring to a boil for 3 minutes, turn off the burner, cover the pot for 10 minutes, then scoop and plunge eggs into ice water OR pour eggs into a colander and hold the colander under running water until eggs are cool to touch.

Kathsgrdn, thank you for the updates on your new Instant Pot. I'm getting one for Christmas, and look forward to experimenting with it. So fun to hear of your "adventures" with the IP :)

I love anything new or "the latest". I keep thinking I want one just as a cooking toy. :0) Thanks for the cooking story. I have yet to buy one.

I don't have (nor want/need) an Insta-pot but I make perfect, easy to peel hard boiled eggs by pretty much the same method as arkansas girl: cold eggs, cold water, bring to a rolling boil then turn off the heat and let sit for 15 minutes, then into a cold water bath.

Easy-peasy and they turn out perfect every time!

I got a gc for Amazon a few years ago that was an unexpected gift, so I decided to treat myself to something a bit frivolous - I bought a little electric egg cooker. It makes 7 eggs at a time and every one has been perfect every time. They cook in it and then I drop them all into a bowl of cold running water.

My information about methodology comes from Cooks Illustrated, a source I've respected and subscribed to for over a decade. The folks there take a scientific and iterative approach to understanding the science of what happens with processes applied to food. Here's their summary. Note they found using a pressure cooker was slightly less consistent in outcome than steam or boiling water. Directly from their article about their experiments:

Science: Blame the Membrane

Most cooks assume that when an egg is difficult to peel, it’s because the shell is sticking to the egg white. But it’s the membrane between the shell and the white that’s really the problem. When an egg is very fresh or when it’s cooked slowly, the proteins in the white bond to the membrane instead of to one another, and the membrane becomes cemented to the white and impossible to peel away. The solution: Plunging the eggs directly into hot steam, which causes the egg white proteins to denature and shrink, reducing their ability to bond with the ­membrane.

Well, I don't care if Cooks Illustrated said it or not...I'm here to tell you that if you put a cold egg in hot water, the peels will bust opened and you will have a ruined egg...period, end of story! Ask me how I know! HA!

If you hoped to put an egg directly in boiling water or over hot steam, it would at least have to be room temperature to not bust opened.

The way I described making mine gives me fall off the egg shells!

Kathsgrdn, I'm curious. How long did it take the eggs to cook in the instant pot?

I put cold eggs and cold water in a pot and bring to a boil. Turn heat down and boil 12 minutes. Then they get a quick dunk in cold water (just enough so that they can be handled without burning fingers) and are peeled right away while still warm. I find that when I peel them while warm, the shells and membrane come right off.

Elmer, I learned about the “put the eggs in cold water, bring to a boil, cover, turn off the heat, wait 10-12 minutes” method from Cook’s. I suppose they might change their discoveries from time to time; I learned it a few years ago.

^^ Ditto! It is also the method one finds most recommended for "perfect hard boiled eggs" - Martha Stewart, Food Network, the American Egg Board, various food blogs.

I like soft boiled eggs - what my family calls shell eggs - for breakfast but length of cooking time is critical with these. So that is always a hot/boiling water immersion for a set a amount of minutes (usually 3). Almost without exception at least one will crack (even if at room temperature) and ooze whites out into the boiling water! OK for a shell egg but not acceptable for a hard boiled one, which is why I will never use a boiling water method for hard boiled eggs.

Dawnincal, 5 minutes cooking time, 5 minutes releasing steam (you don't do anything just let it sit) and put into ice water for 5 minutes. I used to put int water, let boil, turn off stove and let them cook for 20 minutes. They came out perfectly except that they weren't always easy to peel and they weren't nearly as easy as these were. Maybe if I let them sit in the ice water for 5 full minutes before starting the peel them would have made a difference, I never did that just started peeling right away under cold water.

I need to make some boiled eggs.

Love my Instant Pot.

I made Scarborough chicken in it today. So quick and so tasty.

This is about the only thing I will pull out my instant pot for. Last year I was making a lot of eggs to dye for Easter so I was doing both stove top and IP methods. The eggs from the IP came out consistently perfect, the stove top ones, not so much. I finally abandoned the stove top method and just did them in batches in the IP.

I suspect the reason there is such a possible difference in time might be due to elevation. A pressure cooker takes that factor away.

I made Panera's copycat Turkey Chili in mine tonight and served it to my recipe club. I browned the meat, sauted the veggies, then added everything together and it was delicious!