Is There a Way to Tell If an Egg Is Hard-Boiled before Cracking It?

Want to know which eggs in the fridge are raw and which have been hard-boiled? If you spin one on the counter, the hard-boiled egg will spin smoothly and quickly, rather like a top. The raw egg, on the other hand, will wobble and spin more clumsily. The reason for this difference is that the inside of the hard-boiled egg is solid, so it all moves together as one entity. The inside of the raw egg, of course, is a liquid blend of yolk and egg white, which are all swirling at the same time. Because the yolk and egg white have different densities, the raw egg will wobble in a decidedly side-to-side, uneven motion.

What to look for in an egg:

• The color of an egg's yolk is determined by a hen's diet. The more grain a hen eats, the more vibrant the color of the yolks in the eggs she lays.
• Egg whites that are cloudy indicate that the egg is very fresh. Clear egg whites indicate that the egg is aging.
• The blood sometimes seen in an egg comes from the rupture of small blood vessels in the yolk. It does not mean that the egg is unsafe to eat.