An important component of a good bowl of ramen is the ramen egg, aka ajitsuke tamago, which is a marinated boiled egg, a seasoned egg. The eggs are boiled until somewhere between a soft boil and a hard boil where the whites are set and the yolks are partially set, custard like, rather than runny or hard. To get this amazing custard like textured yolk you boil the eggs for 6-7 minutes and then plunge them into a cold water bath to stop the cooking process. The eggs are peeled after cooling and then they are marinated in a salty and sweet mixture of soy sauce, sake, mirin and sugar until they have absorbed the flavour and turned a light to dark brown colour. Once ready these ajitsuke tamago are perfect in a steaming bowl of ramen or for breakfast, lunch, a snack, in a salad, etc. Given how easy it is to make these eggs, you’ll want to have a few on hand in the fridge all the time!
Hard boiled eggs marinated in a sweet and salty soy sauce based marinade!
You can make these ramen eggs without mirin.
These ramen eggs are so easy to make and so convenient to keep in the fridge for use in ramen, adding to salads, sandwiches, or just snacking on them by themselves!
Ajitsuke Tamago (Ramen Eggs)
Tasty marinated soft boiled eggs with custard-like yolks that are perfect for ramen or, breakfasts, snacks, lunches, salads, etc.
ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup sake
- 1/2 cup mirin *
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 12 eggs
- water for boiling
- water, cold for cooling
directions
- Heat the water, soy sauce, sake, mirin and sugar in a sauce pan until the sugar has dissolved and cool completely.
- Fill a large pot with water, bring to a hard boil, add 4 eggs and cook for 6 minutes before transferring them to a large bowl filled with cold water until completely cool. Repeat for remaining eggs.
- Peel the eggs and place them in a large ziplock bag with the marinade, seal and let marinate overnight in the fridge.
Note: You can omit the mirin.
Tip: Use leftover marinade from chashu pork which will also have all of the pork juices to add even more flavour!
Thank you for this recipe! I have successfully reproduced the results and I am quite delighted!
This is much easier than I thought. I always assumed they used a sous vide or something fancy to achieve that runny yolk. From now on, I am boiling my eggs for 6-7 minutes. Thanks for sharing!
Nice knife!
oh… so easy and delicious. I love this recipe. Thanks you!
Tasty marinated soft boiled eggs
What can I substitute for the sake???
You can substitute one of: dry sherry or Chinese rice wine or water for the sake.
How long do these keep in the fridge?! Should I take them out of the liquid? Thanks
I store them in the liquid but you can store them without. I try to finished them within a week. Enjoy!