Q&A for How to Tell When an Egg Is Boiled

Fill a bowl with cool water and place the eggs into the water. If they float, they are bad and should be discarded. The ones in the bottom are good. If you are worried you won”t be able to tell or that some might be in the middle, have no fear: some eggs will not lay on their side at the bottom “fresh zone”, and kind of nod up, but still stay at the bottom. These are about a week old, but still good.

When the egg is still warm, pat or roll the egg on a countertop. Starting at one end, peel in a circular motion.

If an egg floats to the top at any point, it means the egg has gone bad and you should discard it.

Yes. Cook it for another minute or two, and keep an eye on it.

As long as the white is firm, the egg can be eaten with a soft yolk. Eggs are specifically prepared with runny yolks for certain dishes, like Ramen noodles. You can re-boil them, but you risk turning your eggs rubbery.

Yes. Boil the eggs, remove the shells, then refrigerate the eggs until you plan to eat them.

It depends if you want hard or soft eggs. Hard boiled eggs take no more than 8 minutes from boiling, and soft take about 3.5 minutes. Mostly, practice makes perfect, as all eggs are different sizes.

Use about 2 tablespoons of salt in the water when cooking them. The shells will come right off, even with fresh eggs.

I would say no more than 6 or 7 days in a tightly closed container, just for the freshness factor.

You can use them in salads. If you cut them into cubes, you can also make a great egg sandwich by adding mayonnaise and spices to taste.

What I do is boil the eggs using cool tap water (adding a tablespoon of salt can help make shells easier to remove), turn to medium-high heat until it's a rolling boil, then let sit for 10 minutes. Put them into a bowl of ice water for 10 minutes, which makes the whole egg contract. Next, put them two at a time into the still-hot water for 1 minute to expand the shell, but not the egg inside; this allows easier removal of the shell, as the inside is smaller than the shell now. Keep adding cold eggs to the warm water two at a time as you peel them.

1 week in the fridge, 2 days if not refrigerated but not in the sun. In the sun, 6 hours max.

Out, because the color absorbs more when warm, and it doesn't stick as well if the egg is cold.

Spin them. The raw one will wobble and stop because of the liquid inside. The hard boiled will spin freely.