Cracked! Soft, Medium, and Hard Cooked Eggs in the Pressure Cooker

An excellent and reproducible way to prepare hard boiled eggs that peel easily. This approach requires a pressure cooker with both low and high pressure settings. The eggs are positioned upright (fat ends down) by setting them in little stands - either the cap from a drink bottle, or in my case, a shot glass. Six minutes of low pressure followed by five minutes of natural release, and the eggs are perfect.

Apparently pressure is used by the industry for the hard boiled eggs that you see in convenience stores, and that always peel perfectly. The pressure apparently redistributed the air pocked at the base so that it surrounds the entire white. As eggs age, they dehydrate slightly, leading to a bit of a gap (which is why older eggs always peel better than fresh). This approach even works with an egg mere hours from the chicken.

I used one of my hard boiled eggs to make an easter chick. Prepared a deviled egg filling that was not too soft - a squirt of yellow mustard and a spoon of olive-oil mayo. A bit of carrot and black olive filled in the roles of beak and eye, respectively. This poor chick barely got its picture taken, as 14-daughter couldn't wait to eat it. Happy easter!