I thought it would be a great idea to try to make hard boiled eggs in my electric steamer that I use to steam vegetables.

There are lots of people who have tried this and they all say that a steamer makes the best hard boiled eggs, better than boiling the eggs in water.

So I gave it a try today and here's my exact procedure.

 

  1. Turn on an electric steamer and wait for the steam to reach its maximum intensity.
  2. Add refrigerated eggs.
  3. Let the eggs steam in the steamer basket for 16 minutes.
  4. Cool the eggs in an ice or cold water bath (if desired).

I experimented with steaming the eggs for 12, 16, and 20 minutes. 

At 12 minutes, the egg whites were fully cooked. The yolks were not runny, but were translucent rather than opaque.

At 16 minutes, the egg yolks were no longer translucent, but were fully opaque and a nice looking yellow color.

At 20 minutes, the bright yellow color of the yolks started to fade.

I'll stick with 12 minutes for steaming hard boiled eggs because I don't even eat the yolks. If I want to eat yolks, I will steam the eggs for 16 minutes though.

I noticed that, as others have pointed out, steamed hard boiled eggs are easy to peel and steaming the eggs doesn't result in unsightly colors in the yolks as boiling them sometimes results in.