Some people are too nervous for the spin test. I get it. You’ve already spent ten minutes boiling them, and you don’t want to toss a raw one across the room. In that case, use the water bath method. Just drop the egg in a bowl of cold water.
A hard-boiled egg will sink to the bottom and lie on its side like a lazy sunbather. A slightly older, but still cooked one, will stand upright on its end. A raw egg? It floats like a little buoy trying to escape. That’s because air builds up inside as it ages, and raw eggs are full of liquid gas.
But here’s a secret: floating doesn’t always mean raw. It can also mean the egg is very old. So use this trick as a general guide, not a hard rule. The spin test is much more reliable for the “is it cooked?” question.
