i tried instapot vs. straight boiling water and boiling water wins. (always use enough water so that you'll have enough thermal mass that your will stay boiling once you drop in the eggs)
i always poke the, i use the device
and you shouldn't take the poker to the egg, rather all eggs come with the wider side up (where the air bubble is) so just take the egg poker to the carton and poke in 1 go. (i mean if youre gonna boil an egg, youre gonna do a carton or so)
and for me i like 7minutes total boiling time, but your time will vary with elevation, size of egg, even type/brand of egg will be different (i mixed kroger and publix eggs once and they looked differernt) (you have to see what time is good for you, with the eggs you have but be consistent)
then i prepare a huge bowl of ice water, i use a few packs of blue ice, but i still use a lot of ice, i found out the quicker you can thermal shock the egg from boiling to ice cold is where you can easily release the shell.
then after waiting a few mins, take the egg and smash the butt side (the one that was poked) against the table sink and it should peel right off. (if it didn't then you didn't use enough water and/or ice to thermal shock the egg fast enough, use more next time), and now my eggs never come out like quasimodo eggs
i have a vacuum container that fits 18eggs and do equal parts
1/2 cup
sake
soy sauce
mirin
i don't bother cooking the marinade, most ppl do, i believe that is b/c most ppl include white sugar in there, imo it's naturally sweet enough with the mirin and doesn't need more sugar, but if you believe it does, then thats when you do cook it.
vacuum container keeps the eggs nice for a week (and helps with marinade), wife and i eat 2 eggs a day.
really the best takaways i have is to use a lot of boiling water in the beginning for enough thermal mass so that you won't lose and can recover easily enough heat to keep it boiling for 7mins (or however long it is for you)
poke that hole
and then again use a lot of ice water to thermal shock the eggs to release the shell.