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Ajitsuke Tamago

Runny in the middle and marinated for 12 hours in Japanese flavourings, these soft-boiled eggs will make your ramen look and taste like the real deal.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and sake work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and 35 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Makes 6
Cook10 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, soy (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Put the light soy sauce, mirin, sake and caster sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then simmer 1 minute. Set aside to cool completely.

  2. Bring a pan of water to a rolling boil. Lower in the eggs with a spoon and boil for 6 to 7 minutes so the yolks stay soft but the whites are fully set and reach 160°F (71°C).

  3. Move the eggs straight into a bowl of cold water for 2 minutes to stop cooking. Peel them gently, keeping the yolks intact.

  4. Put the peeled eggs in a clean container or zip-top bag and pour the cooled soy mixture over them so they are fully covered.

  5. Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight, turning the eggs once so they colour evenly. Halve and serve cold.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Egg + saketop 24% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Egg + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together122,252 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sauce + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,144 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sake + sugartop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together126 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sauce + saketop 16% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together46 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs