One of my favorite things to get at Japanese ramen shops is the ajitsuke tamago, a perfectly soft boiled marinated egg, with the center still a creamy, runny custard. I didn’t know how to make one until I came across a tutorial on Serious Eats.
It seemed easy enough, so I immediately set to making my own. Well, it wasn’t as easy as it seemed in the tutorial, as evidenced by the entire box of eggs I went through. But I finally came up with a decent homemade version, though not nearly as pretty as the ones I get at the restaurants.
But practice makes perfect so I plan on trying a few more times until I get it completely right. The nice thing is that you can make a few and refrigerate them and eat them over a few days.
The hardest part is figuring out when your eggs are cooked to the desired doneness. Serious Eats says exactly six minutes. But I found my eggs were still too unstable at 6 minutes. It’s a matter of trial and error, and I’m sure it will vary for each person.
Once you figure out the timing for the egg, the rest is pretty simple. You peel the egg carefully (it really helps if you add some vinegar when you boil the egg and if you use a spoon to remove the eggshell), then you dunk it in marinade.
I would have loved to use some thick tsukemen broth or some leftover marinade from the Chinese five spice soy sauce chicken I sometimes make, but I didn’t have any on hand, so I used the recipe provided in Serious Eats. It needed some adjusting because I found the sauce too sweet. If you have some tsukemen broth or have just made a batch of five spice marinated chicken, those broths will work best because it has the richness of the meat and bones which the quickie marinade option does not.
You dunk the eggs for a few hours, but no more than 12 according to the SE article. SE’s method for keeping the entire egg under the marinade so that the eggs don’t float up is to place a paper towel on top. I ended up using a few spoons to weigh down my eggs (one per egg). Sorry I don’t have step by step photos. But there were so many trial and errors that it made it difficult to document. Once I get it down smoothly, I might update with some photos.
Ajitsuke Tamago
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup sake
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup mirin
- 1 or 2 tbsp sugar depending on your taste
- 6 eggs
- 2 tbsp vinegar for boiling
Instructions
- Combine water, sake, soy, mirin, and sugar in a medium bowl and whisk until sugar is dissolved. Set aside
- Bring 2 quarts of water and vinegar to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Lower to medium heat once it comes to a boil. Pierce a tiny hole in the bottom of each egg carefully with a thumbtack. This prevents the egg from cracking. Place eggs into boiling water along with egg timer. Cook until egg timer reaches a soft boiled stage.
- Remove eggs and run under cold water. Gently place cracks into egg. Remove a little bit of shell from one end. Using small sharp spoon, use to get between egg white and egg shell and remove rest of shell with spoon. You should be able to get most of the shell off in one maneuver.
- Put eggs into bowl with marinade. Use spoons or other devices to weight down each egg to keep entire eggs submerged under. Refrigerate and marinate at least four hours and up to 12. Discard marinade after 12 hours. Store eggs in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Serve with ramen.
Notes
- Recipe slightly Adapted from Serious Eats
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
Hello! This lokks great and I’m ready to try it (: I have made Ajistuke Tamago once before, but I have a feeling that this recipe will taste a lot better considering the one I tried had only mirin, soy sauce and water! I am curious though, does the type of sake matter, will it change the taste?
Thanks!
I’ve actually been meaning to play around with this recipe again. I would think the type of sake can have some difference since the sake is not cooked down at all. So for example, you probably want to stay away from sweet sakes.
Hey Kirby,
Always wondered how to make ajitsuke tamago, but after reading your article I feel a little bit insecure about trying it- do you think it’s worth it or is it kind of like puff pastry- you can buy great puff pastry rather than struggling to make your own. In any case I think it looks delicious, I don’t think it looks better in the restaurant- yours look absolutely great!
Well it’s not too hard to make and for me, it’s actually quite hard to find restaurants that serve the egg so it was worth it for me to try making it. If you have easy access to this egg at restaurants then maybe it’s not worth the effort.
I wonder if using sous vide to cook the eggs would give you something a little more consistent?
Oh yes, definitely. I would just use sous vide machine if I had one, but I don’t. haha
I love these eggs too, and have been wondering how they’re made. It seems so easy! Also love the panda chopstick rest.
I can’t seem to get my eggs to come out of the shell completely whole. The ones at the restaurants are always blemish free, but my egg white has small cracks from when I cracked the shell since the egg white is so delicate. But yeah, it’s not that hard once you figure out the timing for the eggs to reach a soft boil.
The eggs look great – but I love that panda chopstick rest!
haha, thanks! I’m in love with it too. I got it through jbox https://www.jbox.com/tag/panda_chopstick_rests
Though I could have sworn after I bought it, I found it somewhere in the US but I can’t remember where.