Boiling eggs seem simple, but it can get confusing. For example, how do you know when boiled eggs are done?
It all depends upon the type of egg texture you desire. If you are a half-boiled egg lover, its cooking time will be half that of perfect hard-boiled eggs.
Hard-boiled eggs need 14 minutes to cook, and soft-boiled need to cook for 5-7 minutes.
Remember, if you boil it for more than 14 minutes, then it will be overcooked, and the yolk will appear chalky.
Perhaps you do not like it. So, be careful about boiling duration. You can test the raw, boiled egg with a simple spinning test.
The hard-boiled egg stops quickly, but the raw egg takes 1-2 seconds to stop its spinning.
Here’s How You Can Tell When Eggs Are Boiled
To cook a perfectly hard-boiled egg is not as easy as we can say. Sometimes it is soft enough that we can’t peel it, or sometimes it is hard enough to eat it. Here’s all you need to know to tell how do you know when boiled eggs are done.
All you need is a perfectly cooked egg so that you can eat or peel it perfectly. Mostly for a hard-boiled egg, you need to cook it for 10-15 minutes.
After that, you can check it to know that whether it has boiled perfectly or need more cooking. For checking, you can cut it or can simply use a thermometer.
For example, you want to cook a hard-boiled egg, and then you can follow the following procedure for perfect cooking.
Bring a pot and fill it with water. Heat it until water is boiled, and put eggs in hot water for cooking. Now keep eggs in it for 8-14 minutes.
Coldwater is a great choice for this purpose. Put eggs in cold water and heat them for 15 minutes. You have some of the options here.
- If you will cook for 8 minutes, then there is a distinct white egg with golden yolk.
- Boiling for 12 minutes will give a perfect hard texture.
- If you will boil for more than 14 minutes, then there would be chalky yolk.
If you are cooking more than one egg, then you need to check them individually. Please take one of the eggs in a deep spoon and check it. If it is hard enough, then the rest of the eggs are also done.
Cut Boiled Egg For Checking
After taking it away from the stove, you need to check it from inside. Wash hot eggs with cold running water so that you can easily peel them.
Now crack the surface to remove the outer shell.
Cut it with the help of a knife into two halves. If, after cutting, egg white are distinct from each other, retaining their perfect shape or color, then it has cooked perfectly.
But if your egg yolk has liquidity, then it is half-boiled. If it is somehow blackish, then it is overcooked.
Some people like to eat half-boiled eggs so they can have them easily.
But if you want, hard-boiled, then put it back to the boiling water to cook for a few seconds more. And if it is overcooked, then you should remove it immediately to prevent further boiling.
Another way is to put overcooked eggs directly into a pot having ice cubes or chilled water in it so that you can immediately prevent it fir further heating.
Use Of Thermometer
A thermometer is a great tool to measure temperatures, and it can certainly be used to check whether your egg is done. Take the egg out of the boiling pot with the help of a spatula.
Take a thermometer, and with its pointer end, pinch it deep inside it. This pointed tip should reach the yolk.
The yolk temperature should be 158–170 °F (70–77 °C). If it is below, then it is half boiled, and you need to cook it more.
If it is higher than the given temperature, then take it away from the heat because it is already uncooked.
So, we discussed various methods to check that whether the egg cooked perfectly or not. You can use any of the methods which are feasible to use.
How Long Should You Boil Eggs?
It all depends upon the type of egg you like. If you like a half-boiled egg, then it will take a different time, and if you like a hard-boiled egg, then you have to cook for a different duration.
For cooking half-boiled egg having firm yolks or yellow yolk, just put eggs in boiling water and cook it for exactly five minutes if you want runny yolks. But if you want a little bit of cooked yolk, not wholly, then you need to cook it for seven minutes in the cooking process.
Remember that a half-boiled egg is difficult to peel, and most of the time, it is impossible to peel it. Just take a spoon, make a small hole into the half-boiled egg and eat the running texture with a spoon.
If you want to cook a hard-boiled egg, then rapidly boil it for 14 minutes. Cook on medium-high heat.
How do you know when boiled eggs are done? Remember cooking it for more than 14 minutes will make it overcooked, and its yolk will become chalky. No worries, you can still eat it if you want.
How To Tell If An Egg Is Hard Boiled?
It is hard to differentiate the raw egg and hard-boiled eggs because of the same appearance. You can simply perform a simple test to differentiate it.
Keep egg on a counter and spin in. While spinning, put your finger softly over it to stop it.
Now, if your egg is hard-boiled, then it will stop immediately, but if the egg is raw, then it will take some time to stop spinning. The best way is to label the egg tray with cooked or uncooked.
How To Tell If An Egg Is Half Boiled?
The same technique is used for checking the half-boiled egg as we used for the hard-boiled egg. Both can be used interchangeably, and you can notice the comparison.
Spin them over a table and let them stop on their own. The hard-boiled egg will stop immediately or after some time. But the half-boiled egg will take fitted spins before stopping. So this is how you can differentiate between them.
How To Tell If An Egg Is Soft Boiled?
It can be tested easily without cracking. All you need to do is to put it on a table and spin it. If it spins continuously even after you stop spinning, then the egg is hard-boiled, having a soft yolk.
But if it stops after 1-2 seconds, then the egg is a soft boil. A soft-boiled egg has creamy yolk.
Tips For Boiling Eggs
Obviously, boiling an egg is not a hard task to do, but this simplest task can grant you messy results if it is not done properly. So you can use the following tips during the boiling process for having perfection in your task.
- Add salt to boiling water. It will help in peeling eggs easily.
- Put hard-cooked eggs immediately into ice cubes, ice baths, or a bowl of ice water if eggs are overcooked in order to prevent further heating.
- Put boiled egg in a glass and shake it in circular motions or quick spin. It will peel off the outer Eggshells on its own. It should be a sharp twisting motion or gentle shake in the heavy-bottomed pot for 30-60 seconds.
- Cover the boiling pot with a lid to increase the internal temperature of warm water. It will help in cooking quickly. For example, for a hard-boiled egg, you do not need to cook for 14 minutes. It can give you results even in 12 minutes with the perfect texture. Because it will work on the principle of the pressure cooker for medium-boiled eggs
- After removing them from the stove, you can wash them with running cold tap water for preventing overcooking or put them in a bowl with ice water for a slow cool-down process. The container with ice water will provide a cold water faucet in the form of Coldwater Ice.
- If one of the eggs in the boiling egg is cracked and creates a mess for others. You can put half tbs of vinegar in it. It will help in cooking cracked eggs perfectly without being messy.
- You should wash eggs with tap water before putting them into boiling pots because there may be attached feces of hens. These harmful bacteria can make their path reach inside your body if not removed properly. Ultimately, it can cause health issues.
Conclusion – How Do You Know When Boiled Eggs Are Done
We’ve gone into detail about the question “how do you know when boiled eggs are done”. Cooking boiled egg seems the simplest task, but it is only easy to say than actually performing it. Everybody can boil an egg but cooking a perfectly boiled egg with a desirable texture is a tough task. It would help if you cooked it for different durations.
For example, for a hard-boiled egg, you need to cook it for straight 14 minutes, but for a half-boiled egg, you are supposed to cook it for 7 minutes.
Also, remember if you cook it for more than 14 minutes, then it will become over-cooked, and the yolk becomes chalky.
You can check the raw, cooked, half-cooked egg with a simple spinning test. Hard-boiled egg spins slight and half-boiled spins for more time.
Also, there are some of the tips that you can follow while cooking, such as using salt in boiling water for easy peeling or use of vinegar for cracked egg cooking, etc.
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