Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Eggs

Calling all egg lovers! Here’s everything you’ve ever wanted to know about your favorite protein. Let’s get cracking! Boo!

Here at TheCookful we love eggs. It’s one of our favorite topics. If you’re looking for specialized tips and tricks on cooking and preparing eggs, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s dive right in to some egg-cellent fun facts about everyone’s favorite versatile food, the egg.

How Can You Tell if an Egg is Fresh?

If you’ve got some eggs that are just past the expiration date, there’s a sure fire way to be able to tell if they’re spoiled or not. Simply fill a glass with water and drop your egg in, fully intact. If the egg sinks to the bottom, then you’ve got a fresh egg. If it floats, then you should throw it out immediately because it has spoiled.

Why does this work so well?

Egg shells are porous by nature, meaning air can easily pass through. When an egg is fresh it means that less air has seeped in through the shell, making it less buoyant leading to it sinking. A rotten or spoiled egg will have a far higher concentration of air inside the shell, and thus it will float like a tiny white raft.

How Do You Poach an Egg?

I’m going to very briefly run through this process. For a more detailed look, see our guide to Becoming a Poached Egg Expert.

• Cover a mixing bowl with a sieve and crack your egg into it. The excess white will seep down into the mixing bowl, leaving you with a tighter well formed egg that will hold its shape better.
• Lower your sieve into a pot of gently simmering water. (Barely bubbling)
• Poach for four to five minutes. The longer you leave it in, the more solid the yolk will become.
• Remove the egg with a slotted spoon or spatula. Serve immediately or transfer to a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process.

How Do You Perfectly Crack an Egg?

Cracking an egg perfectly so that it falls into a bowl without any shell shards to scoop out can be daunting. It’s natural to try and crack an egg on the side of your bowl and open it that way. It’s typically the way you see it done on television. But this is a recipe for disaster. You want to break the egg along the center, so that there is one clean crack, which you can then pull apart with your fingers.

This is best done on a smooth flat surface, such as a table or counter top.

For a more detailed account, check out our article on How to Perfectly Crack an Egg.

Can Basting Be Used to Cook Eggs?

It sure can! Just melt some butter in a pan over medium heat, crack an egg into a custard cup, and slide the egg into the butter. Then, once the edges begin to turn white, throw in a tablespoon of water, cover the pan, and let the steam work its magic!

For a more detailed look at this process click here.

How Can You Tell if an Egg is Raw or Hard Boiled?

If you have a hard boiled egg and a raw egg, is there a way to tell which is which without cracking them? They look the same, they feel the same. There’s no difference in weight. So, how can you figure out which is which?

The answer is both easy and fun. Spin them.

A raw egg will spin slower and will wobble. A hard boiled egg will be faster and more steady. Why? Because a raw egg is liquid inside, while the hard boiled egg is solid.

This post originally appeared in May 2018 and was revised and republished in April 2021.