Determining Egg Freshness - Tip of the Day

by Monika Bartyzel, Posted May 27th 2009 @ 9:00AM

Have no idea how old your eggs are? It's not too hard to figure it out!

Like any other food, eggs lose their freshness the longer we wait to eat them. Luckily, there are a couple of techniques you can use to determine just how fresh your eggs are. We've already told you the first one, which is simplicity personified -- drop an egg into water and see if it floats. If it does, it's time to buy new eggs.

There's also a way to determine the egg's approximate age -- just look inside. As Get Cracking explains, eggs start losing moisture as soon as they are laid, and as they age, the distinct elements of the egg begin to soften and become "flabby." So, crack it into a saucer and take a peek:

Fresh Eggs -- The yolk will be plump and round, and there will be two distinct layers of the white.

10-12 Days Old -- The yolk will obviously flatten and have less definition between the layers of white. (The perfect eggs for hard-boiling!!)

21-28 Days Old -- There will be no definition between the white layers, as they will have blended together.

Filed Under: Tip of the Day, Ingredients
Tags: egg freshness, EggFreshness, eggs