The easiest way to make your ramen experience a full-on dining event is to add a perfect ramen egg. It's definitely important to start with a high-quality pack of instant ramen like our ridiculously good craft ramen, but adding an egg should be a no-brainer.
There are a ton of variations on Ramen Eggs, and a crazy amount of different ways to prepare them. Whether you are simply soft boiling or poaching your eggs onsen tamago style, having a ramen egg at the ready will make your instant ramen experience a ton more enjoyable. This is a follow-up on our roundup of egg-making methods that we posted here.
Ramen and Soft Boiled Eggs.
You can use lots of different types of eggs in your ramen, from hard-boiled to poached, to sous-vide "onsen" style eggs. But, there is really only one way to go about creating a perfect ramen egg if you are truly serious about your ramen experience, and that is soft boiling.
Unlike hard-boiled eggs, soft-boiled eggs start in hot, boiling water and cook for a very specific amount of time to achieve a perfect, slightly runny, almost jammy egg yolk that is ideal for the perfect ramen egg.
Making Ramen Eggs in Advance.
One of the nice things about ramen eggs is how well they work in different recipes and applications around your kitchen. It's. pretty big waste of time to only prepare 1 or 2 ramen eggs at a time, and in general, it's easy to prepare a larger amount of soft-boiled eggs as opposed to just a few.
By making them in batches of 6 you can ensure you always have a perfect ramen egg at hand in case a hardcore craving for a bowl of Mike's Crazy Good Craft Ramen hits you.
The most important thing to remember when storing soft-boiled ramen eggs in your refrigerator is to use an air-tight container. Refrigerators are repositories of smells and keeping your ramen eggs fresh and pristine with the best flavor possible is super important. You can use a ziplock bag if you want but they don't offer much in the way of protection so be careful.
Tips for Making Soft Boiled Eggs
Making soft-boiled eggs is stupid easy. All you really need are some high-quality eggs, organic if possible, some boiling water, and some ice. There are a few tips or tricks that make it even easier. Keep these things in mind when your soft-boiling eggs and you'll be able to create the perfect ramen egg every time.
1. Keep the timer handy.
The key to a perfect ramen egg is a slightly undercooked yolk. If you want a truly runny yolk you'll want to boil the eggs for 6 minutes exactly, but for the perfect ramen egg, you want them slightly more cooked. The ideal cooking time for the classic ramen egg is 6 minutes and 30 seconds. This allows the yolks to set up slightly, gives them a jammy texture, and adds a lot of texture to your ramen.
The most crucial part of this equation is the use of a timer. Yeah, you can estimate the time using a clock, but given the fact that we all carry supercomputers in our pockets, it's just easier to go ahead and open the clock app to set a timer.
2. Use a spoon or ladle to place the eggs into the pot.
When dropping your eggs into boiling water it's important to do so gently. If you drop them too violently the eggshells can crack allowing the white to seep out and creating a less than ideal finished look to your eggs.
While appearance doesn't change the flavor, if you want your ramen looking as tight as possible, keeping your ramen eggs consistent and even is key.
It's best to place an egg carefully on a spoon or ladle and place it gently into the boiling water to prevent cracking or blowouts.
3. Keep the water at a simmer.
Once you've carefully dropped the eggs into your pot of boiling water you're going to want to reduce the heat to a simmer. A rolling boil should look like a thunderstorm, with lots of movement, agitation, and a ton of bubbles. While this can be great for cooking pasta or blanching veggies, it's not the best for cooking eggs.
A simmer will look like a gentle boil. Like boiling water's younger better-looking cousin who likes animals and wants to be a veterinarian.
The point of using a simmer is you maintain boiling temperatures without smashing the crap out of your soft-boiled eggs.
Soy Sauce Seasoned Ramen Eggs(Ajitsuke Tamago)
One of the most traditional, and hands down tastiest ways to employ the use of ramen eggs is to go with the seasoned version. Ajitsuke Tamago or Seasoned Eggs are a ramen shop staple, and almost every bowl of restaurant ramen you'll ever consume will feature a seasoned egg in some form.
The seasoning phase for Ajitsuke Tamago happens after the eggs have been boiled and cooled. You can go about seasoning the eggs in a few different ways depending on the final look and flavor you want to achieve.
1. Classic Seasoned Eggs.
The first and easiest way to season your soft-boiled ramen eggs is to peel them and once they have fully cooled and Then submerge them in a mixture of soy sauce and mirin. The mixture of soy sauce and mirin gives the eggs a sweet and salty flavor that's highly addictive. Keeping seasoned eggs around can be dangerous, it's way too easy to eat them as a snack and then have none left over for your next bowl of mind-blowing craft, instant ramen.
2. Speckled/Dinosaur Style.
While the classic seasoned ramen egg is one of the tastiest eggs on planet earth, there is a way to make it even crazier. By carefully pinching and cracking the shell of the cooled eggs and then submerging them into the marinade you can give the ramen eggs a marbled/speckled pattern. This is also a great way to control the salt/seasoning level of your eggs.
If you submerge the eggs for too long in the marinade you run the risk of ruining all of your hard work. The salt and mirin mixture can give the eggs a salty/sweet flavor that is great in measured amounts. By leaving the shells intact and allowing the marinade to slowly seep into the eggs you can let the eggs stay submerged in the marinade longer without worrying about it being over seasoned when you get around to making your next bowl of Mike's Crazy Good Craft Ramen.
How to make the perfect ramen egg.
1. Bring a pot of water to a boil.
2. Once the water is boiling carefully place the eggs into the boiling water using a spoon or ladle to avoid cracking them.
3. Cook the eggs for 6 minutes and 30 seconds.
4. Once the soft-boiled eggs have finished cooking, transfer them to an ice bath and let them cool before peeling.
5. After the eggs have cooled, peel them and immerse them in a marinade of soy sauce and aji mirin.
6. Once the eggs have marinated for 2-5 hours remove them from the marinade and keep them refrigerated until you are ready to use them in your next bowl of ramen.
Perfect Ramen Egg Recipe
These crazy addictive soft-boiled eggs make the perfect addition to your next bowl of Mike's Crazy Good Craft Ramen. Whether you're rocking out with a bowl of fried garlic chicken, spicy pork tonkotsu, or savory miso flavor, a perfect ramen egg with a soft-boiled egg yolk is the best way to build out your bowl.
Ingredients:
3-4 Large Eggs
4 cups water
Ice water bath
Optional Marinade
1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup aji mirin
Method:
- In a sauce pot, bring the four cups of water to a boil.
- Rinse the outside of the eggs with cool water and then slowly submerge them in the simmering water. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the eggs and prevent splashing.
- Cook the eggs for 6 minutes and 30 seconds.
- Once the eggs have finished cooking, remove them from the boiling water and submerge them in the ice bath.
- Once the eggs are chilled enough to handle, remove them from the ice bath and peel the eggs.
- Peel the eggs and save them in the refrigerator in an air-tight container until your next ramen craving hits.
- If you want to go with the marinated version of the ramen egg, carefully crack the outer shell of the eggs lightly and place them into a ziplock bag.
- Pour the soy sauce and mirin into the bag and squeeze out any excess air before sealing the bag and placing it in the refrigerator overnight.
- You can marinate the eggs for as long as you want before using them but they will get saltier the longer they sit in the soy sauce mixture.
- After the eggs have finished marinating you can remove them from the soy sauce mixture and keep them in an airtight container until you are ready for a fresh bowl of fire instant ramen.
