Before You Start: Please note that this recipe requires a marination time of 8 hours or overnight. Now, gather all the ingredients.

Combine ¼ cup soy sauce, ¼ cup mirin, ¼ cup sake, and 1 tsp sugar in a small saucepan.

Bring it to a boil, whisking it to dissolve the sugar completely. Once boiling, lower the heat and simmer for 1 minute. Turn off the heat. Set aside to cool completely.

Add 4 cups (1L) water to a medium saucepan or enough water to cover the eggs by at least 1 inch (2.5 cm). Bring the water to a full boil.

Then, remove 4 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell) from the refrigerator. Carefully and gently lower one egg at a time into the boiling water with a mesh strainer/skimmer or a ladle. When you add the first egg, set a timer for 7 minutes. Optionally, you can cook them 6–6½ minutes for a runny egg yolk and 8–9 minutes for a custard-like egg yolk.

Once all the eggs are in the saucepan, lower the heat to maintain a gentle boil. Keep the water simmering but not bubbling so strong that the eggs bounce around. During the first 3 minutes, gently rotate the eggs with chopsticks once in a while if you want to keep the egg yolks centered.

After 7 minutes, immediately remove the eggs and shock them in a bowl of iced water to cool for 15 minutes.

Once the eggs are completely cool, gently crack the shell at the wide bottom end of the egg and start peeling it vertically toward the pointy top. Dip the egg in the iced water a few times to help with the peeling. Once you peel one section vertically, the rest of the shell comes off easily.

Place the peeled eggs and marinade in a plastic bag. Remove the air from the bag and use a clip or rubber band to seal it right above the eggs to keep them completely covered in marinade. Refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. You can rotate the eggs occasionally if you like.

Remove the eggs from the marinade and cut them in half lengthwise. Enjoy these Ramen Eggs in bento, as a ramen topping, or as a snack sliced in half and sprinkled with furikake and shichimi togarashi.