I eat a ton of eggs. They’re the ultimate breakfast (or supper!) food and most of my baking recipes call for at least one egg. So, of course, we go through eggs pretty quick. Sometimes they’re farm eggs from my friend’s hens and other times I purchase them from the store.
But regardless as to how many eggs I eat, there’s always at least one instance where I find an egg and don’t know how old it is. Maybe it was stuffed in the back of the fridge or perhaps it was found at the back of the coop nest under some bedding. Either way, there is a super quick and easy way to test how long it’s been sitting there without having to crack it and risk that horrible rotten egg smell.
My method:
- Find a bowl deep enough to totally submerge an egg
- Fill the bowl with at least four inches of room temperature water
- Carefully set the questionable egg in the water.
- If it sinks it’s fine to eat
- If it slightly tips up with one end on the bottom, then it’s still good to eat, but needs to be used asap
- If it floats then the egg is no good and needs to be thrown out
Anytime I’ve had an egg in the fridge for a while or I get eggs from friends, I always do this method to check and see which ones need to be used first. Then we do a huge batch of scrambled eggs or shipwreck!
How to test if an egg is hard boiled
While we’re on the topic of checking eggs, I also have quick method for telling if an egg has been hard boiled or not. While I don’t personally care for hard boiled eggs all that much, my mother does and we always had hard boiled eggs in the fridge when I was growing up. I can’t tell you how many times I was not paying attention and accidentally cracked a hard boiled egg while baking. Oops!
Finally, my father showed me a quick method to test before you break that shell. You set the egg on its side on a flat surface like a table or counter top and spin it. If the egg spins like a top, it’s cooked. If it does not, then it’s raw. Piece of cake!
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