Instant Pot Review: Eggs

Today’s post is all about one of the hottest appliances on the market.  The Instant Pot.  You’ve probably heard all of the hype and wondered, like me, if it’s really as impressive as they tout.  Pressure cooker, slow cooker and steamer are just a few of the “all in one” features the Instant Pot boasts.

Lucky for me I received one this past Christmas from my husband so I got to see for myself.  There are currently four models offered and they all have their own unique features but we chose the Ultra 10-in-1 model because it offered a yogurt setting which was important to me.

The first thing that struck me when I opened the package was that it seemed very well built.  Nice sturdy base and lid and, most importantly, a stainless steel pot.  There are a few copycat pressure cooker appliances on the market now but they all had a teflon coated pot.  That’s a no go for me and it should be for you too.

So after the unpacking I wanted to jump in.  This was way too exciting to wait but what to cook? Being post holiday, I didn’t have a lot of ingredients on hand so I went with something that I know we eat frequently on our gut healthy diet and something that has always been a bit of a thorn in my side.  Boiled eggs!

The Ultra 10-in-1 has a specific setting for eggs so I dove right in.  See, boiled eggs have never, ever come out right for me.  I’ve tried every trick and tip out there and I’ve always ended up with greenish, dry yolks and/or a terrible time peeling because the membrane sticks to the egg.  Yeah, it’s a wonderful feeling to lose half of your egg because it’s stuck to the shell.  Not.  Because of my difficulties with boiled eggs I’ve even bought pre-boiled eggs from the store to make it easier but always found them rubbery and lacking in flavor.

Here goes nothing.  I have and egg setting on the Ultra model so that’s where I decided to start.  First things first before cooking with any Instant Pot.  Liquid!  You MUST add the required liquid as specified by your instruction manual to your pot.  Mine requires 2 cups so I put my two cups of water in, added my rack and placed my uncooked eggs on top of the rack.  I was able to fit a whole dozen in.  One point for the Instant Pot already.

Next up was securing my lid, plugging it in and picking my settings.  The picture below shows the egg setting with a 4 minute cook time.

And we’re off.  To wait. Not a long wait but what I want you to take away from this is that the cooking time doesn’t necessarily mean the WHOLE cooking time.  The cooking time that you set, in this case 4 minutes, is the time spent cooking under pressure.  The Instant Pot has to come up to pressure first before it can begin its cooking time.  The warm up time can vary based on the amount of food in the pot as well as the temperature of the food.

Steam! Now we’re getting somewhere.

When my 4 minute cooking time was done I had a decision to make.  Release the pressure manually or allow it to release naturally.  Given that I was cooking eggs I decided to release manually.  Being a bit of a chicken and knowing steam was involved I elected to wear an oven mit while I released the steam.  The sound and sight of the steam along with the slight sulphur smell from cooking eggs took me back to my first time seeing Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park.  Now I want a vacation.

I manually released the steam until the float valved released and to view the results.

Looks like everyone survived.  I admit that I half expected to see a dozen beautiful pasture raised eggs exploded everywhere when I took the lid off.

Time to ice bath.  Even though I haven’t always had reliable results from ice bathing boiled eggs before I feel it’s critical to getting the membrane to remove from the egg.

I let them chill out (hehehe…see what I did there) for about 10 minutes before I started to peel.  Oh boy.

Here comes the real test.  Will they peel well?  Will the yolk be green or dry?  Drum roll please……

Tah-dah!!!!!  Look. At. These. Beauties!!!!

So pretty!! No kidding, I did a little happy dance right there in my kitchen.  With half a deliciously boiled egg in my mouth.  Mmmmm, mmmm!

Just a little sprinkle of Himalayan pink salt and I had myself quite a delicious, and healthy, snack.

Now, as the above settings photo shows I currently use a 4 minute setting.  I found that cooking at the default 5 minutes the whites are cooked thoroughly but the yolks were just a touch dry for my taste.  When I switched to 4 minutes cooking time the yolks came out smooth and creamy.  Just what I wanted!

So….does the Instant Pot stand up to it’s claims?  In the egg round it’s a resounding YES!! Not having to wait for water to boil water just to end up with mediocre eggs was definitely a wonderful treat.

Sign up for email updates and stick with me to find out what will be my next challenge for the Instant Pot?  Will it be soup? Meat? Yogurt?  Lets see what kind of paces we can put this baby through.

Have you tried the Instant Pot out?  Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.