“Put all your eggs in one basket and then Watch That Basket!” ~ Andrew Carnegie, American industrialist. (1835-1919)
Everything you need to know about egg safety.
Last week I had a few eggs with small cracks in them and it made me wonder if the eggs were still good. So I decided to do some research.
Harold McGee, author of On Food & Cooking (Canada, UK), states that Hannah Glass gave this practical advice to cooks around 1750, and it’s still valid today — a “way to know a good egg, is to put the egg into a pan of cold water; the fresher the egg, the sooner is will fall to the bottom; if rotten, it will swim at the top.”
I found this wonderful site that answered many of the questions I had about eggs. You will discover:
- Several ways to test for freshness.
- Can you eat a fertilized egg?
- What are blood spots?
- What are those stringy strands of egg white around the yolk?
Another reason it is helpful to know if your egg isn’t really fresh is that slightly older eggs are easier to peel when hard boiled. On Slates Culture Blog, Glenn Froning, advisor to the American Egg Board, advised that eggs that have been laid 7 to 10 days earlier are the easiest to peel. So about a week after you bring those eggs home, they are perfect for hard boiling.
Finally, egg safety is also important. To learn about:
- Storage
- Handling
- Freezing
- Proper food temperatures for cooked eggs
- And, much more
Check out this article from the Egg Safety Center.
PS: My cracked eggs were discarded per the advice from the Egg Safety Center.
[...] For egg safety, check out my prior post. [...]