The Hard Boiled Eggs In The Oven Phenomenon

Whew—want to meet some excited people? Google "hard boiled egg oven," or Bing it if you're on a PC. You too can get swept up in the greatest improvement to cooking since red quinoa: oven-baked hard-boiled eggs!!! For some reason, this topic is an over-punctuated one, and fraught with indiscriminate capitalization:

People are really excited about oven-baked eggs. As they should be. Oven baked eggs, purportedly:

1.) taste as good or better than boiled
2.) can be baked in the oven!!
3.) instead of boiling!!

Not one to fight a sound argument, seven eggs are baking in my oven as I type. I have high hopes for this oven-baked thingie because hard-boiled is the only way to eat eggs. Scrambled eggs look like scrambled placenta (cuz they are). Ditto for omelettes, quiche, poached, over easy . . . I'm feeling queasy even typing these dishes . . . but hard-boiled, now there's a yummy way to chow down on some embryonic fluid.

And ladies—yes, most of these oven-baked egg aficionados are ladies—if I may dial up the egg goodness even further: please consider free-range, organic, brown, oven-baked eggs. I was shocked how many photos demonstrated the egg-baking process with white eggs. Say no-no-no-no way to white eggs! White eggs from the grocery store will taste like Tupperware after your first time with an organic brown egg.

I interrupt this post to report that eggs baking in the oven give off that gross cooking egg smell (fellow egg-avoidants will know what I'm talking about), whereas we all know that hard-boiling eggs produces no smell. Mark that as a pro or con, depending on your predilection. Oh, hello! How could I have forgotten to tell you the recipe: cook the eggs for 30 minutes at 325 degrees.

Behold the glory of the oven-baked egg:

I'm told not to worry about the spots, not that I would've, but in case you are—don't. And yes, the muffin tin is the suggested container. I suspect the reasons are mostly aesthetic in the way that Pinterest users love order and things that fit nicely into slots.

It's very late, so I will conclude this post in the morning with a taste test.

MORNING UPDATE: The eggs did not peel any easier than hard-boiled, contrary to many enthusiasts' claims. Here is a photo of the peeled egg, whole and cut. I am not a fan of the two brown spots or the big air dimple at the bottom of the eggs. Aesthetes sigh.

They are drier than hard-boiled eggs and maybe even a little tougher. In a blind taste test, I probably could not tell the difference, but I don't plan to switch to oven baking my eggs any time soon unless I need 50 or so for an egg-dying party. And if I tell you I'm hosting an egg-dying party, please send me to a psychiatrist at once.