How to tell an egg is hard boiled (2024)

FAQs

How to tell an egg is hard boiled? ›

Spin the egg on a flat surface and stop it suddenly with your index finger. If it stays still, it's hard boiled, but it's raw if it continues to wobble. Shine a flashlight through the egg. A hard boiled egg

Spin the egg.

A raw egg will wobble and spin slowly, because it's filled with liquid, while a boiled egg will spin very quickly and very easily. Try this now by getting out a raw egg and trying to spin it like a top, on the flat side of the shell.

The whites are firm but not rubbery and the yolks are cooked but still creamy. We'll share a fool-proof method to boil eggs on the stovetop, including how long to boil eggs so the yolks are cooked the way you like.

Put your finger briefly on the eggs to stop them spinning. When you take your finger away, the raw egg will continue to spin for a few more seconds, as the fluid inside is still moving. The hard-boiled egg will stop instantly.

How Can You Tell If Hard-Boiled Eggs Are Bad? The best way to test if your eggs are still good after you've boiled them is, again, the smell test. Basically, you'll notice the smell is off if an egg is starting to go bad. This is true for raw eggs and it's true for boiled eggs—the funk doesn't lie.

Overcooked hard boiled eggs have an unappealing greenish ring around the yolks. We want our yolks to come out sunshine-yellow, so transfer the eggs to an ice bath to stop the cooking process as soon as they come out of the pot. This step is also crucial for making hard boiled eggs that are easy to peel.

When an egg is boiled, the entropy increases because denaturation of proteins happens. They go from the helical form into random coiled forms.

Over-Hard. An over-hard egg is an over-easy egg whose yolk is completely cooked through. It starts as a fried egg that's cooked on one side, then flipped and cooked yolk-side down until the yolk is no longer runny. You can also order your eggs "over-medium" if you'd like it somewhere in the middle.

Bottom Line

After trying several methods to determine if an egg is cooked or not, there were a few that came out on top. Contrary to what you might have heard, hard-boiled eggs do not float—but they do act differently when you spin them or shine a flashlight through them.

Bring water to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to moderately high and cook eggs at a gentle boil, uncovered, 10 minutes. Pour off hot water. If using eggs right away, shake pan gently so eggs bump into one another (to crack shells).

What are the stages of hard-boiled eggs? ›

10 minutes: The early stages of a hard boiled egg, with just a smidge of softness in the middle. 12 minutes: A hard boiled egg with a lighter yolk. 14 minutes: Your traditional hard boiled egg with the lightest yolk and a firm white, but not overcooked.

To determine whether an egg is hard boiled or raw, spin it! If it spins round and round evenly, it is hard boiled. If it wobbles while spinning, it is a raw egg.

LPT- if you don't know if an egg is boiled or not, spin it on a flat surface. If it's boiled it'll spin like a top, if not it'll just wobble a bit and stop.

An egg can float in water when its air cell has enlarged sufficiently to keep it buoyant. This means the egg is old, but it may be perfectly safe to use. Crack the egg into a bowl and examine it for an off-odor or unusable appearance before deciding to use or discard it.

Bring water to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to moderately high and cook eggs at a gentle boil, uncovered, 10 minutes. Pour off hot water. If using eggs right away, shake pan gently so eggs bump into one another (to crack shells). Run cold water into pot to stop cooking.