For ➏6 free range eggs at room temperature
small enameled cast iron pot with lid
Take the eggs out of the fridge about 1 h to get to room temperature.
Preheat your oven to 77°C (or as low as it will go).
Fill the pot with water and heat over the stove until your thermometer reads 68°C. Gently lower the whole eggs into the water, cover with the lid and place the whole thing in the oven.
This is where it gets a little tricky. You want to slowly raise the temperature of the water from 68 to 71°C. Any cooler and the egg won’t cook, any hotter and you’ll have a soft boiled egg (not the same as a slow cooked egg). For my oven, this means setting it to 77, and putting the pot in for 45 m. If your oven doesn’t go down to 77, you’ll need to check the temperature of the water periodically and turn off the oven, then turn it back on to try to keep the temperature under 71.
When ready, you can keep the badge for a week in the fridge.
The traditional way to eat them is for breakfast covered in seasoned bonito dashi.
Put them in just about anything. In noodle soups, donburi’s, butternut squash soup, or on fried rice. Or on the Japanese pasta carbonara.
To serve, just crack it open into a small bowl and cover with a splash of salted dashi.
Slow cooked eggs, 'onsen tamago' in Japanese means egg in hot spring, as the temperature of a hot spring at 77°C is the ideal cooking temperature to slow cook an egg, where the yolk stays creamy and the white turns into custard.
