Parenting

This Trick Will Make Decorating Easter Eggs A Million Times Easier

by Melissa L. Fenton
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You know why they call deviled eggs “DEVIL”ed eggs? Because when you go to peel a hardboiled egg, Satan practically shows up right there in your damn kitchen. I know this, because at no other time, do I cook something and use more profanity, violent motions, or show more frustration than when trying to peel a bunch of damn hard-boiled eggs!

Oh trust me, I’ve tried all the tips and tricks offered by esteemed chefs, cooking networks, and even the most Southern grandma I could find, all to learn how to make the de-shelling process a little more hassle-free, but to no avail.

I used different cooking methods, fiddled around with different lengths of cooking times, used old eggs, new eggs, fresh eggs from my girlfriend’s backyard chickens, and even all the free-range, grain-fed, non-GMO, “these damn hens are the happiest sisters on the block, and no egg they produce is defective, and that’s why this dozen costs $7.99” kind of eggs but still.

And now Easter is right around the corner, and my kids are already begging me to color and dye eggs with them (and then make all the hard-boiled egg things because I hate wasting food), and I just cannot. While I used to walk by the already-boiled and peeled hard-boiled eggs in the grocery store and think, “What lazy woman needs to actually buy hard-boiled eggs? I mean, can she not boil water?” now I make sure nobody is looking while I reach down and grab a bag.

Until now.

See, I’m one of those bonkers “I have discovered heaven, and it exists in my Instant Pot kind of women.

Yes, I drank the Kool-Aid and bought one of those suckers with dreams of 15-minute pulled pork sandwiches and 30-minute fall-off-the-bone pot roast. And let’s just say my dinner dreams have yet to be quashed. Everything I cook in that magical steaming (exactly what is going on in there?) pot comes out perfect. And I don’t even worry anymore that it’s gonna explode on my kitchen counter, taking out my eyeball and singeing my gray hairs while I stand over it. I’m pretty sure at this point I’m prepared enough to be the personal poster person of pressure cooking.

And then things got even freakin’ better.

Did you know you can boil eggs in your Instant Pot in like five minutes? And bonus: The shells practically fall off by themselves while peeling?

I’m serious.

Just this one Instant Pot feat alone makes this countertop appliance worth every damn egg-stravagant penny.

My “PLEEEEZE Mom, can we dye Easter eggs soon” begging kids have no idea what’s in store for them, because mama hit Costco yesterday, leaving with four-dozen eggs and a plan to dye those egg-cellent white beauties every color of the damn rainbow. And then I’m gonna take that 400-ounce jar of mayonnaise I bought, and we are gonna devil-egg some serious shit up in here! So suck it, Easter Bunny, ’cause this mama has got yo egg number.

Anyway…

How to hard-boil eggs in the Instant Pot.

Ingredients:

Eggs (up to 10 at a time) 1 cup of water

Directions:

Put your rack that came with your pot or a steamer basket in the pressure cooker. Add the water and the eggs. Make sure the water does not cover eggs. Lock lid in place, cook on “high pressure” for 5 minutes. Note: Test this out first with 1 or 2 eggs, as some people prefer a 6- or even 7-minute cycle. It all depends on what exactly you want the yolk to look like.

When the timer beeps, let the pressure release naturally for about 5 minutes. Then turn off the pressure cooker and do a quick pressure release. Immediately put eggs in an ice-cold-water bath to cool.

When cool, they are ready to be peeled or dyed! That’s it.

The time and amount of water is the same whether you are cooking 1 egg or 10.

Game changer.

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