The Internet Can’t Decide Whether This Hard-Boiled Egg Instant Pot Hack Is Brilliant or Terrifying

Jelisa Castrodale
Jelisa Castrodale
Jelisa is a freelance writer who has covered food and travel, sports and pop culture for numerous publications. When she's not on deadline, she enjoys getting new passport stamps, collecting records and shouting at her beloved Liverpool Football Club.
updated Sep 20, 2019
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There’s a reasonably popular Reddit community called r/DiWHY where people post pics and videos of the kind of home improvements, craft projects, and life hacks that will make you scrunch your forehead and shout “Why would someone do this?!” at your own computer screen.

“Ever try fixing things on your own? Didn’t come out the way they were supposed to? Do you stand there questioning your whole life? If so, post your results here to DiWHY,” the subreddit’s description reads. Some of the questionable ideas that have recently been posted include a guy who used uncooked ramen noodles to fix a broken sink, a tutorial for turning your own hair into a makeup brush, and making a completely ineffective pepper shaker out of a plastic Kinder Egg. 

The Instant Pot Community on Facebook isn’t always DiWHY-worthy, but it does have its fair share of recipes and cooking tips that are completely bonkers — but also kind of brilliant. KIND OF. On Thursday, the group was blessed (???) with a suggestion for how to hard-boil a dozen eggs at once, without having to peel any of them afterward. 

“This was an idea I came up with awhile [sic] back,” the at-home chef wrote, before detailing the process, which involved cracking the eggs into a well-greased Jello mold, sliding it into an Instant Pot, and cooking it on high for between three and five minutes before hitting the Quick Release button. The resulting — and kind of terrifying  — “egg loaf,” as she called it, can then be quickly chopped to be used in egg salad or potato salad, or for icing and serving to your least-favorite coworker. (OK, no, she didn’t recommend that last thing, but you know you’re thinking about it.) 

Some of the commenters were totally into it, calling it “creative” or a “game changer.” Others imagined additional uses for it, like slicing the loaf vertically to use on salads or on egg sandwiches. (“It would be neat to fill it with chicken or shrimp salad for a party,” a woman whose parties I will never attend wrote). And some people were just unsettled by the whole thing. “I fundamentally do not understand the comments that act like this is a normal thing to do,” one guy responded.

So is it a brilliant, time-saving kitchen tip, or a r/DiWHY post that writes itself? That’s totally your call, and I’m not judging you either way. Well, unless you’re using one of those Kinder Egg pepper shakers, too — that’s just weird.