Success: Homemade Ajitama

I ate at Tatsu Ya Ramen not too long ago. One of my favorite aspects of the ramen is always the ajitama, the soaked soft boiled eggs. I love that those eggs pack a decent amount of flavor and, overall, really enhance the ramen. I found a recipe online here at the Ramen Walker's blog. I really just used the recipe for the sauce bath minus the ginger and the leeks because I didn't feel like going out to buy them. I always have garlic on reserve though.

Soft boiled eggs were going to be the tricky demon here. It sometimes doesn't occur to me that the difference between a soft boiled and hard boiled egg is more a matter of a minute and not half a second. Scrolling through the comments, "anonymous" commented on a good procedure for the soft boiled eggs:

AnonymousSeptember 28, 2010 9:10 AM

you should put in the eggs when the water is boiling for 6 minutes. then, dump them in the cold water bath (mixed with a bit of white vinegar). proven and tested so i'm sure will work for you 100%

I wanted to give myself the best shot at not messing this up so I defaulted on that procedure. I also learned that when it comes to the art of peeling soft boiled eggs, it's best to peel the narrow end first. It seems that as more peel comes off, a vacuum  is created and the odds of peeling more of the egg off is higher, there's usually a dip in the egg at the wider end, so that alleviates the suction created. Fewer casualties.

Three days later

That tip on soft boiling really did the trick. I'd wash them off with water though because they really are seasoned. Anyway, 30 minutes after that 

Homemade Ramen!

I can't believe they charge $1.50 for each egg - possibly half egg! They were good, but I think I'd decrease the soaking time to decrease the salt uptake. Flavor-wise, they were on point, so I'm happy.