Here's What Happens If You Overcook Hard-Boiled Eggs

After painstakingly prepping and combining all of your ingredients, there's nothing worse than realizing you accidentally overcooked your dinner. While overcooking a ribeye won't ruin it, overdoing your food often means you're stuck ordering takeout. If you do choose to chow down on the dish you cooked for too long, you'll be dining on a meal depleted of most of its nutrients due to it being overheated.

Despite how disappointing overcooking any dish is, some foods are undoubtedly easier to overcook than others. When you think of foods to be wary of overcooking, like rice and pasta, boiled eggs are probably at the very bottom of the list. However, despite being a dish where you're supposed to simply leave eggs in boiling water for a specific amount of time, boiled eggs are just as vulnerable to overcooking as any of your other favorite foods. Luckily, there are a few ways to know if you've let your eggs boil for too long.

The first sign that your boiled eggs were left on the stove for too long is if the yolks are a strange grayish color or seem to be falling apart. Instead of a gray color, you might notice that over-boiled eggs have a green-colored yolk instead. Overcooking at a high temperature causes a chemical reaction between the sulfur in the egg whites and the iron in the egg yolk, causing green ferrous sulfide to form. The other big indicator that your eggs boiled for too long is if they smell like sulfur after you peel them. If you find that your eggs are showing signs of being overcooked, know that it isn't bad for you to eat them, but they won't taste good.

To avoid over-boiling your eggs in the future, take them off the stovetop after the water starts to boil. Place a lid over the pot and allow the eggs to cook without heat for a minimum of 10 minutes and a maximum of 15. However, if you still prefer to leave your eggs on the burner, be sure to dump them in cold water as soon as they have finished cooking to stop the eggs from continuing to cook from their own heat. With these tips, you can cook perfect boiled eggs every time.