How to Tell If Hard-Boiled Eggs Are Still Good

Whether baked, scrambled, fried or poached, eggs make for a healthy, balanced start to any day. However, if your goal is to prepare them for your weekly meal prep, then frying up eggs ahead of time just won't do. Instead, hard-boiled eggs will be your golden yellow ticket since they can be cooked in batches, they last in the fridge for up to a week and they are perfectly fine eaten cold.

The trouble is, because hard-boiled eggs aren’t cooked with the yolk cracked open, it can become quite the guessing game as to whether or not your hard-boiled eggs are cooked enough and if they are still good after a few days of being cooked. Luckily, there are some signs for which you can look.

One of the easiest ways to tell if hard-boiled eggs are done cooking is by spinning them in the water. What you are looking for is an egg that doesn't wobble when spun as well as an egg that stops spinning almost immediately when you press a finger to it.

If the egg isn't cooked enough, it will spin slowly and wobble due to there being raw egg fluid inside.

Another way to tell if hard-boiled eggs are done cooking is to use a food thermometer. Press it into one of the eggs, and if it reads between 158 and 170 degrees Fahrenheit, then they should be ready to remove from the heat.

There’s been a lot of speculation as to why eggs float when cooking and whether this means that a hard-boiled egg is done cooking. It turns out that it simply means that the egg is old but still good to use.

Also, if you happen to cut open a hard-boiled egg and see a green ring around the yolk, it’s not bad per se. It just means that you overcooked it.

The answer is yes, as long as they are medium- or soft-boiled eggs. For example, to cook the perfect soft-boiled egg, you would need to cook it for five minutes. Any less than that, and you are stepping into dangerous territory because the egg is most likely undercooked. You should never eat a raw egg, as this can lead to salmonella.

Eggs are a universally beloved food for a reason: They come with a ton of benefits.

Good for weight loss: A large hard-boiled egg only contains 78 calories and is high in protein, making it the perfect healthy snack to chow when hunger strikes. Eggs have even been found to boost metabolism by burning more calories in the body through a process called the thermic effect on food.

Good for the hair: You may have heard of using eggs as a main ingredient in homemade hair masks, but there are also benefits of eating boiled eggs for your hair. You can thank the vitamins in eggs for that, especially the B vitamins such as biotin, which is responsible for healthy hair and nail growth.

When stored in the refrigerator, hard-boiled eggs can last for up to one week peeled or unpeeled. So, your best bet is to date them when they go into the fridge so you don’t forget how long they’ve been in there.

If you do happen to forget to date them, though, you can still sniff for an unpleasant odor, as this indicates a spoiled egg. You may also find black or green spots on your eggs. If you do, do not eat them. This may be the result of bacterial or fungal contamination.