25 ms·

I think part of the article that's getting glossed over is: "A refrigerated egg, no matter the source, will be good for four or five weeks. Unrefrigerated eggs

I think part of the article that's getting glossed over is: "A refrigerated egg, no matter the source, will be good for four or five weeks. Unrefrigerated eggs are best used within a week, though they may be fine for two." So, one would want to refrigerate eggs (washed or unwashed) anyway if they're not all going to be used immediately.

ricardobeat 10y ago
Or just not buy them if they are not going to be used immediately. Eggs quickly lose their quality (try poaching a week-old or refrigerated egg). I understand this may be unrealistic for car-dependant US households that have no option but to shop in large batches...
- paulddraper 10y ago
  I think it's the non-car dependent folks that (good or bad) have "no option". I far prefer shopping for two or three weeks at a time, refrigerating fruits, vegetables, and milk.
  - sampo 10y ago
    > I think it's the non-car dependent folks that (good or bad) have "no option". In cities people typically have a grocery store within 5 to 10 minutes walk from home.
    - iak8god 10y ago
      > In cities people typically have a grocery store within 5 to 10 minutes walk from home. That really depends on the city, and on which part of the city one lives in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert Because I can afford to do so, I choose to live in a nice walkable neighborhood where I do have a grocery store within walking distance, but this is absolutely not the case in most poor urban neighborhoods, including many areas of my city.
      - trome 10y ago
        The USDA's Food Desert definition is total bullshit, for example, you could drop me nearly anywhere in Tukwila, WA and I could be in a large grocery store within 10 minutes of walking. If we include smaller stores, I can be in a store buying eggs, milk, fresh veggies & fruit of higher quality than Costco or Whole Paycheck in a 6 to 7 minute walk, and pay with EBT at any of them (if I qualified). This is exactly why attempts to tackle this supposed "food desert" problem have fallen flat on their face. These areas aren't food deserts, they just don't have a mega-store every other block, thus they are incorrectly classified as a food desert. With some basic cleanup, the USDA could focus on areas that are actual food deserts, where there is a need and their efforts won't go to waste. Edit: removed extra comma.
        Spooky23 10y ago
        Mileage varies. In my city, the poor neighborhoods are a 30 minute bus ride from a proper grocery. It's a 10 minute drive max. Most people there get food from a bodega type place.
        trome 10y ago
        Thats the thing though, a "proper" grocery in most HN readers minds is a large supermarket. Most actual groceries aren't sold by chains though, bodegas, corner delis, green grocers, and an assortment of Asian, Mexican and other small grocers sell a huge chunk of the fresh fruit and vegetables here in the US, since they have the upper hand when it comes to location, price and quality. That being said, many are quick to dismiss them since they don't have the nicest/largest stores, or the most advanced systems. By doing so your ignoring reality, as that is how most people get their food, hence why they (generally) accept EBT.
        Spooky23 10y ago
        In my state, almost everyone takes EBT. Even farmers markets. A proper grocery in my mind sells produce, dairy, a locally appropriate fresh meat selection and dry goods. In an urban market, these type of stores are 15,000-30,000 sqft. We have a few markets like this in my city, but they are in nicer areas. Poor folk have corner stores that are <3000 sqft. We don't have the Asian produce markets or Mexican markets that you are thinking of. They generally don't sell produce, and if they do they low quality and 2x expensive. We had a crisis about a decade ago because 80% of these stores were temporarily shut down after the owners were arrested for accepting food stamps for heroin. They aren't nice places that anyone chooses to do business with.
    - inferiorhuman 10y ago
      San Francisco is quite walkable by American standards but certain areas are very lacking. For example the southeast portion of the city has a dearth of hospitals and the Tenderloin and Bayview neighborhoods have a startling lack of grocery stores.
      - trome 10y ago
        The southeast could definitely have a dearth of hospitals (I think everyone should live near a hospital within a few minutes of them, esp. with San Francisco traffic), but Tenderloin has a grocery store (with fresh veggies, eggs, milk, etc) on nearly every block, with many having TWO. I get that quite a few people refuse to shop anywhere that isn't 70+k sqft, like Costco or Whole Paycheck, but these areas are not food deserts.
        inferiorhuman 10y ago
        No, The Tenderloin does not have grocery stores on every block. They have liquor stores (corner stores, bodegas, whatever you wanna call them) that typically have a mediocre selection of fresh produce (if any at all). It's not about having a large floor plan, it's about access to fresh food. The Bayview sees the same thing, although as SFGate points out Fresh and Easy did try. They failed too. http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Tenderloin-struggles-to-get-local-grocery-store-3203485.php http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Tenderloin-struggles-t...
    - apsec112 10y ago
      Not in the US. San Francisco is one of the US's densest cities, and eastern SoMa is one of its densest neighborhoods, right next to downtown. It's about a square mile, and there are no real grocery stores in it at all (east of 4th St).
      - trome 10y ago
        What are you talking about? East of 4th in SoMa I count 7 grocery stores, and if your unwilling to shop at anything sub-70k sqft, there are two. Most of the neighborhood east of 4th is within 1 to 2 blocks of a grocery store (with eggs, fresh fruit/veggies, and other essentials), and within 4 blocks of a megastore like Whole Paycheck or Costco if you really want their prepackaged crap. This is just like the whole "Food Desert" scheme by the USDA, where they try to create stores in areas with local grocers already. For example, they define Tukwila, WA as a food desert [1], yet there are multiple places within the area they defined that stock fresh food and are EBT approved (Seafood City, 99 Ranch, Costco, Cash & Carry, etc). This is why the attempts to get rid of these supposed deserts fall flat. Those that need or want to shop local already do, at places others like yourself ignore cause they feel they aren't of high enough caliber. 1 - https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas/go-to-the-atlas.aspx https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-...
  - Pxtl 10y ago
    When I'm biking a lot I tend to make a small grocery store trio daily instead of a huge one weekly.
  - kgermino 10y ago
    That seems backwards to me. When I lived in suburbia grocery shopping was always a "trip" 5+ min drive, find a place to park, walk through the parking lot into a large store, etc. Grabbing even one thing meant at least 15 min of overhead so you'd usually try to stock up. Whereas now I can be inside of three convenience stores and a full service grocer within 3 minutes of walking. If I drive I pass several other full grocers on the 8min/2.5 mile trip home. This is in Milwaukee, not a NY or Sf type of place. Most people in my neighborhood still drive everywhere, you just don't have to.
  - mercer 10y ago
    I've never considered that shopping habits might play a role in the whole US/EU wash-or-don't discussion. Where I live most people go to the supermarket regularly. I go almost daily, for example. As a result, stuff doesn't need to have a very long shelf life (and refrigerators here are, to many of my American friends, hilariously small).
- tptacek 10y ago
  Refrigerated eggs poach fine; if they didn't, nobody in the US would have decent poached eggs. :)
  - mikekchar 10y ago
    They are harder to make, though. The albumins break down over time, leading to a more liquid egg white. This, in turn causes the egg to spread out more when you are poaching them. Making a perfectly round poached egg by dropping it into a pot of salted, simmering water is very difficult if the egg is less than a few days old. That's why Starfrit sells egg poachers. BTW, I don't know about the US, but in Canada, the supply chain often delivers eggs to the store that are 2 weeks old, so it's quite likely that most people have never cooked with a fresh egg before in their life.
    - jonomw 10y ago
      Thanks for making me realise why I stopped liking poached eggs. I was just using old eggs. And I have heard similar things about the supply chain in the US. However, I have had a fresh egg that was no more than 24 hours old (I think younger) and I didn't really notice a difference. Then again, I think it was scrambled, so I don't know if you can tell anyways.
      - mikekchar 10y ago
        Personally, I can't tell the difference in flavour between a fresh egg and an old egg. Texture is the only thing I've noticed. Though, for instance, that can be quite important in some egg dishes like tamagoyaki. For flavour, a much bigger difference can be seen from the diet of the hen. Grain fed battery hens have pretty bland eggs. I obsess about my tamagoyaki, so I'm willing to go to some extremes to get good, fresh eggs.
        lostlogin 10y ago
        If you know anyone with chickens, get an egg off them. The difference between the eggs and store bought, free range, is night and day. I don't know why, but the yolk is orange for starters. It may have been due to the species of chicken I suppose?
- VLM 10y ago
  I'd propose as an amendment that you're on to something that its cultural, but probably much less controversial in that its merely a simple sorting system. Does it never expire? Looseleaf tea, sugar, honey, spices, salt ... that goes in cabinet. Does it expire/rot eventually no matter if its hours or months? Simple, all that stuff goes in fridge. No need to ponder or remember or search two places. If its eternal its stored over there, if its not eternal, it is not. This has obvious cultural side effect with my people have large fridge and only really use maybe two kitchen cabinets unlike recent trends in American kitchen remodeling where the average kitchen has a relatively modest (stainless steel, of course) fridge with about thirty kitchen cabinets presumably full of butter and eggs and milk or something. There are even more cultural issues... I've met people who claim to hate the taste of walnut oil because they've been conditioned to believe the only walnut oil that exists is rancid bitter and gross so people like that who none the less for some weird reason like bitter rancid oil will naturally store their oil on the shelf to maximized its awfulness, although I store mine in the fridge and its delicious even though I have to warm it each time I cook with it (ditto butter). Perhaps there are people acclimated to rotten eggs such that they would actively dislike fresh eggs. Kinda like how beer gets skunky after a couple days exposure to sunlight in a closed bottle, there are probably people who actively like skunky beer.
  - greedo 10y ago
    Spices lose their potency fairly fast. Obviously they don't need to be refrigerated in their ground state, but they definitely expire in the sense of usability.
  - tmnvix 10y ago
    Bread in the fridge?
LordWinstanley 10y ago
I live in UK and never keep eggs the fridge. They easily keep for a couple of weeks or more. So I think the "use within a week" advice is over-cautious. Handy tip, if you want to know if an egg's good* or not, without breaking it: pop it in a tall glass of cold water. If it sinks, it's fine. If it floats it's gone off. [*'good' as in 'still fresh'. Unfortunately it won't tell you if it's full of salmonella, or not!]
- helthanatos 10y ago
  I refrigerator eggs and keep them for months.
- to3m 10y ago
  I live in the UK too... it's not that unusual to buy unrefigerated eggs with a use-by date of a month hence. You can leave them out, then hard boil them on that date, and they'll keep in the fridge for at least another week. I've always ended up eating them by that point though. (I generally buy duck eggs rather than chicken eggs, though. Don't know if they last longer.) FUN FACT: a couple of years ago I saw a Twitter thread between two British comedians/columnists/something/etc. trying to out-mock one another, and "I bet you refrigerate your eggs" was one of the lines.
  - fencepost 10y ago
    As a side note on boiling eggs: older eggs are sometimes preferred for boiling because they're easier to peel, but if you're working with fresh eggs consider steaming them instead. Get the pan or steamer up to temperature, add eggs with a slotted spoon, cover, steam ~12 minutes, transfer to an ice bath to chill at least 5 minutes, peel. For extra large or jumbo eggs, probably add a minute. Adjust to taste for future batches, 11-12 minutes should be cooked but still a bit darker in the center of the yolk.
    - kranner 10y ago
      Or get one of these egg cookers: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=egg+boiler https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Da... They make perfect steamed eggs every time. Easy to peel too.
BugsJustFindMe 10y ago
"may be fine for two" sounds extremely pessimistic. I live in France, and we regularly eat eggs that have been sitting on the shelf for a month and they taste good and nobody gets sick.
- Retric 10y ago
  Milk used to kill a lot of people yet many would drink it without issue for decades. So, your sample size is a little small in the grand scheme of things.
  - spatulon 10y ago
    OK, here's another sample. The eggs I bought yesterday (I'm in the UK) have a "best before" date printed on them of 4 March, i.e. 2 weeks.
    - tyldum 10y ago
      That is due to EU regulations. We used to have 4 weeks on eggs in Norway, but was forced to limit it to 2 weeks. Apparently it was all about salmonella risk, even though that is very rare in our eggs.
      - kwhitefoot 10y ago
        I've learnt something today. I don't think I have ever looked at the expiry date on eggs here in Norway and I've been here over thirty years! I definitely keep eggs for longer than two weeks unrefrigerated.
  - stordoff 10y ago
    2-4 weeks seems reasonable. The eggs we got sometime this week (UK) have a Best Before date of 5th March (and the Best Before only indicates when they start to lose their quality - they remain safe to eat for some time after that).
- Al-Khwarizmi 10y ago
nilidah 10y ago
Eggs fresh out of a chicken will last for ages. Months even. The only reason people keep eggs in the fridge is because of how long they've already been out. Also, egg quality is very poor, you can't eat raw eggs in the US for example.
- trome 10y ago
  Exactly, I don't get why people are downvoting you. Egg quality in the US is terrible, instead of culling salmonella infected flocks, we wash away the protective coating of the egg and potentially spread the salmonella into the egg itself. In Europe and many other countries, their version of the USDA have teams that regularly test flocks droppings for salmonella, and where it is found, the whole flock is culled and the section of the farm is cleaned and left fallow. They also have cleaning rooms where the farmer/workers change into salmonella free suits prior to interacting with the flock. Hence why Europe has fewer issues with salmonella, its very rare in eggs over there.
  - pvaldes 10y ago
    To be honest, I think that all the "external protective cuticle" part is faked. Eggs have a porous shell. You can't rubb anything from the surface of a still warm and clean fresh egg.
- X86BSD 10y ago
  Who knows. As I said those who grew up in a rural setting know that things like raw milk are incredibly delicious and good for you. The absolute diluted sweetened garbage they label as "milk" in the store is vomit inducing. Same thing with the lies the federal government spews about eggs. Which when you have your own chickens you realize that one, eggs are not white, ever wonder how they get white? You should, and the yolks are a bright orange not yellow and taste so much better. It's like looking at a farm raised salmon fillet in the store sitting next to a wild salmon fillet. The farm raised is pale and sick looking. There is a reason the government has lied to you about eggs and raw milk "safety". It's not about safety it's about protecting massive agribusiness. Period. People before refrigeration and the FDA in the country were not dying from raw milk and unrefrigerated eggs. Downvoting me for this is ignorant. It's a fact. And half the people from the U.K. posting are telling you basically the same thing about eggs I said. Store bought eggs in the US are sickly and gross. Eggs from your own chicken or a neighbors keep for a very long time unrefrigerated.
travmatt 10y ago
I regularly eat eggs over two weeks old as well. If they've been out ~month I'll float test them before cooking.
lloydde 10y ago
When my youngest child was a baby and I was binge watching tv while comforting her, I found myself watching a doomsday preppers show. There I learned by oiling eggs they could be stored months. http://www.offthegridnews.com/off-grid-foods/preserving-eggs-for-the-long-term/ http://www.offthegridnews.com/off-grid-foods/preserving-eggs... looks to have confirmed the reality tv show: "[eggs] will, however, eventually develop an off-flavor, and this off-flavor is especially pronounced in eggs stored at 34°F for more than four months". Tonight I also came across "best way to preserve raw eggs is to store them in a solution of slaked lime (you can find it at a building supply store) and water, which, in his test, had a 100 percent success rate after eight months" http://modernfarmer.com/2016/08/bizarre-ways-keep-eggs-fresh-without-refrigerator-years/ http://modernfarmer.com/2016/08/bizarre-ways-keep-eggs-fresh...
- 13of40 10y ago
  I wonder if you could just hard boil them, then coat them with something like paraffin.
  - ohyes 10y ago
    You could cover them in glitter and acrylic then hide them for children.
    - kleer001 10y ago
      ... and then find them a month later after they turn into little stink bombs
- ZainRiz 10y ago
  If you preserve the egg in lime, ash, and a few other ingredients for long enough, the egg turns into a "Century Egg" with an almost jello like look and consistency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg Tastes kinda gross though (but I might be biased)
  - brisance 10y ago
X86BSD 10y ago
I would love to see the actual science on this. I think the quote is absurd. And anyone who grew up in a rural setting knows it's absurd and a total falsehood. Eggs taken straight from a chicken and left out will be fine for quite a while. What do you think people in the country did before refrigerators? This is the same absurd nonsense that led to fedgov screaming raw milk was the devil. Lies lies and more lies.
MatthewWilkes 10y ago
I'd always heard that you shouldn't store unwashed eggs in the fridge, as the cold can cause them to contract, which makes it more vulnerable to infection if parts of the cuticle are damaged. It sounds like this isn't actually true?
kwhitefoot 10y ago
Eggs keep perfectly well at room temperature for weeks in northern Europe. I never refrigerate eggs, they just sit in a tray of twenty on the counter.
oliwarner 10y ago
No. Unwashed eggs may have muck on the surface. Germs can't enter the egg while it's dry. That's essentially both sides of the game, there. Putting a mucky egg in a moist environment (like a fridge) provides a transmittable medium. Doesn't matter that it's cold, it's not cold enough to kill (eg) salmonella. That enters the egg and may be a significant enough volume to cause its consumer problems.

ricardobeat 10y ago

Or just not buy them if they are not going to be used immediately. Eggs quickly lose their quality (try poaching a week-old or refrigerated egg). I understand this may be unrealistic for car-dependant US households that have no option but to shop in large batches...

paulddraper 10y ago
I think it's the non-car dependent folks that (good or bad) have "no option". I far prefer shopping for two or three weeks at a time, refrigerating fruits, vegetables, and milk.
- sampo 10y ago
  > I think it's the non-car dependent folks that (good or bad) have "no option". In cities people typically have a grocery store within 5 to 10 minutes walk from home.
  - iak8god 10y ago
    > In cities people typically have a grocery store within 5 to 10 minutes walk from home. That really depends on the city, and on which part of the city one lives in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert Because I can afford to do so, I choose to live in a nice walkable neighborhood where I do have a grocery store within walking distance, but this is absolutely not the case in most poor urban neighborhoods, including many areas of my city.
    - trome 10y ago
      The USDA's Food Desert definition is total bullshit, for example, you could drop me nearly anywhere in Tukwila, WA and I could be in a large grocery store within 10 minutes of walking. If we include smaller stores, I can be in a store buying eggs, milk, fresh veggies & fruit of higher quality than Costco or Whole Paycheck in a 6 to 7 minute walk, and pay with EBT at any of them (if I qualified). This is exactly why attempts to tackle this supposed "food desert" problem have fallen flat on their face. These areas aren't food deserts, they just don't have a mega-store every other block, thus they are incorrectly classified as a food desert. With some basic cleanup, the USDA could focus on areas that are actual food deserts, where there is a need and their efforts won't go to waste. Edit: removed extra comma.
      - Spooky23 10y ago
        Mileage varies. In my city, the poor neighborhoods are a 30 minute bus ride from a proper grocery. It's a 10 minute drive max. Most people there get food from a bodega type place.
        trome 10y ago
        Thats the thing though, a "proper" grocery in most HN readers minds is a large supermarket. Most actual groceries aren't sold by chains though, bodegas, corner delis, green grocers, and an assortment of Asian, Mexican and other small grocers sell a huge chunk of the fresh fruit and vegetables here in the US, since they have the upper hand when it comes to location, price and quality. That being said, many are quick to dismiss them since they don't have the nicest/largest stores, or the most advanced systems. By doing so your ignoring reality, as that is how most people get their food, hence why they (generally) accept EBT.
        Spooky23 10y ago
        In my state, almost everyone takes EBT. Even farmers markets. A proper grocery in my mind sells produce, dairy, a locally appropriate fresh meat selection and dry goods. In an urban market, these type of stores are 15,000-30,000 sqft. We have a few markets like this in my city, but they are in nicer areas. Poor folk have corner stores that are <3000 sqft. We don't have the Asian produce markets or Mexican markets that you are thinking of. They generally don't sell produce, and if they do they low quality and 2x expensive. We had a crisis about a decade ago because 80% of these stores were temporarily shut down after the owners were arrested for accepting food stamps for heroin. They aren't nice places that anyone chooses to do business with.
  - inferiorhuman 10y ago
    San Francisco is quite walkable by American standards but certain areas are very lacking. For example the southeast portion of the city has a dearth of hospitals and the Tenderloin and Bayview neighborhoods have a startling lack of grocery stores.
    - trome 10y ago
      The southeast could definitely have a dearth of hospitals (I think everyone should live near a hospital within a few minutes of them, esp. with San Francisco traffic), but Tenderloin has a grocery store (with fresh veggies, eggs, milk, etc) on nearly every block, with many having TWO. I get that quite a few people refuse to shop anywhere that isn't 70+k sqft, like Costco or Whole Paycheck, but these areas are not food deserts.
      - inferiorhuman 10y ago
        No, The Tenderloin does not have grocery stores on every block. They have liquor stores (corner stores, bodegas, whatever you wanna call them) that typically have a mediocre selection of fresh produce (if any at all). It's not about having a large floor plan, it's about access to fresh food. The Bayview sees the same thing, although as SFGate points out Fresh and Easy did try. They failed too. http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Tenderloin-struggles-to-get-local-grocery-store-3203485.php http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Tenderloin-struggles-t...
  - apsec112 10y ago
    Not in the US. San Francisco is one of the US's densest cities, and eastern SoMa is one of its densest neighborhoods, right next to downtown. It's about a square mile, and there are no real grocery stores in it at all (east of 4th St).
    - trome 10y ago
      What are you talking about? East of 4th in SoMa I count 7 grocery stores, and if your unwilling to shop at anything sub-70k sqft, there are two. Most of the neighborhood east of 4th is within 1 to 2 blocks of a grocery store (with eggs, fresh fruit/veggies, and other essentials), and within 4 blocks of a megastore like Whole Paycheck or Costco if you really want their prepackaged crap. This is just like the whole "Food Desert" scheme by the USDA, where they try to create stores in areas with local grocers already. For example, they define Tukwila, WA as a food desert [1], yet there are multiple places within the area they defined that stock fresh food and are EBT approved (Seafood City, 99 Ranch, Costco, Cash & Carry, etc). This is why the attempts to get rid of these supposed deserts fall flat. Those that need or want to shop local already do, at places others like yourself ignore cause they feel they aren't of high enough caliber. 1 - https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas/go-to-the-atlas.aspx https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-...
- Pxtl 10y ago
  When I'm biking a lot I tend to make a small grocery store trio daily instead of a huge one weekly.
- kgermino 10y ago
  That seems backwards to me. When I lived in suburbia grocery shopping was always a "trip" 5+ min drive, find a place to park, walk through the parking lot into a large store, etc. Grabbing even one thing meant at least 15 min of overhead so you'd usually try to stock up. Whereas now I can be inside of three convenience stores and a full service grocer within 3 minutes of walking. If I drive I pass several other full grocers on the 8min/2.5 mile trip home. This is in Milwaukee, not a NY or Sf type of place. Most people in my neighborhood still drive everywhere, you just don't have to.
- mercer 10y ago
  I've never considered that shopping habits might play a role in the whole US/EU wash-or-don't discussion. Where I live most people go to the supermarket regularly. I go almost daily, for example. As a result, stuff doesn't need to have a very long shelf life (and refrigerators here are, to many of my American friends, hilariously small).
tptacek 10y ago
Refrigerated eggs poach fine; if they didn't, nobody in the US would have decent poached eggs. :)
- mikekchar 10y ago
  They are harder to make, though. The albumins break down over time, leading to a more liquid egg white. This, in turn causes the egg to spread out more when you are poaching them. Making a perfectly round poached egg by dropping it into a pot of salted, simmering water is very difficult if the egg is less than a few days old. That's why Starfrit sells egg poachers. BTW, I don't know about the US, but in Canada, the supply chain often delivers eggs to the store that are 2 weeks old, so it's quite likely that most people have never cooked with a fresh egg before in their life.
  - jonomw 10y ago
    Thanks for making me realise why I stopped liking poached eggs. I was just using old eggs. And I have heard similar things about the supply chain in the US. However, I have had a fresh egg that was no more than 24 hours old (I think younger) and I didn't really notice a difference. Then again, I think it was scrambled, so I don't know if you can tell anyways.
    - mikekchar 10y ago
      Personally, I can't tell the difference in flavour between a fresh egg and an old egg. Texture is the only thing I've noticed. Though, for instance, that can be quite important in some egg dishes like tamagoyaki. For flavour, a much bigger difference can be seen from the diet of the hen. Grain fed battery hens have pretty bland eggs. I obsess about my tamagoyaki, so I'm willing to go to some extremes to get good, fresh eggs.
      - lostlogin 10y ago
        If you know anyone with chickens, get an egg off them. The difference between the eggs and store bought, free range, is night and day. I don't know why, but the yolk is orange for starters. It may have been due to the species of chicken I suppose?
VLM 10y ago
I'd propose as an amendment that you're on to something that its cultural, but probably much less controversial in that its merely a simple sorting system. Does it never expire? Looseleaf tea, sugar, honey, spices, salt ... that goes in cabinet. Does it expire/rot eventually no matter if its hours or months? Simple, all that stuff goes in fridge. No need to ponder or remember or search two places. If its eternal its stored over there, if its not eternal, it is not. This has obvious cultural side effect with my people have large fridge and only really use maybe two kitchen cabinets unlike recent trends in American kitchen remodeling where the average kitchen has a relatively modest (stainless steel, of course) fridge with about thirty kitchen cabinets presumably full of butter and eggs and milk or something. There are even more cultural issues... I've met people who claim to hate the taste of walnut oil because they've been conditioned to believe the only walnut oil that exists is rancid bitter and gross so people like that who none the less for some weird reason like bitter rancid oil will naturally store their oil on the shelf to maximized its awfulness, although I store mine in the fridge and its delicious even though I have to warm it each time I cook with it (ditto butter). Perhaps there are people acclimated to rotten eggs such that they would actively dislike fresh eggs. Kinda like how beer gets skunky after a couple days exposure to sunlight in a closed bottle, there are probably people who actively like skunky beer.
- greedo 10y ago
  Spices lose their potency fairly fast. Obviously they don't need to be refrigerated in their ground state, but they definitely expire in the sense of usability.
- tmnvix 10y ago
  Bread in the fridge?

LordWinstanley 10y ago

I live in UK and never keep eggs the fridge. They easily keep for a couple of weeks or more. So I think the "use within a week" advice is over-cautious. Handy tip, if you want to know if an egg's good* or not, without breaking it: pop it in a tall glass of cold water. If it sinks, it's fine. If it floats it's gone off. [*'good' as in 'still fresh'. Unfortunately it won't tell you if it's full of salmonella, or not!]

helthanatos 10y ago
I refrigerator eggs and keep them for months.
to3m 10y ago
I live in the UK too... it's not that unusual to buy unrefigerated eggs with a use-by date of a month hence. You can leave them out, then hard boil them on that date, and they'll keep in the fridge for at least another week. I've always ended up eating them by that point though. (I generally buy duck eggs rather than chicken eggs, though. Don't know if they last longer.) FUN FACT: a couple of years ago I saw a Twitter thread between two British comedians/columnists/something/etc. trying to out-mock one another, and "I bet you refrigerate your eggs" was one of the lines.
- fencepost 10y ago
  As a side note on boiling eggs: older eggs are sometimes preferred for boiling because they're easier to peel, but if you're working with fresh eggs consider steaming them instead. Get the pan or steamer up to temperature, add eggs with a slotted spoon, cover, steam ~12 minutes, transfer to an ice bath to chill at least 5 minutes, peel. For extra large or jumbo eggs, probably add a minute. Adjust to taste for future batches, 11-12 minutes should be cooked but still a bit darker in the center of the yolk.
  - kranner 10y ago
    Or get one of these egg cookers: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=egg+boiler https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Da... They make perfect steamed eggs every time. Easy to peel too.

BugsJustFindMe 10y ago

"may be fine for two" sounds extremely pessimistic. I live in France, and we regularly eat eggs that have been sitting on the shelf for a month and they taste good and nobody gets sick.

Retric 10y ago
Milk used to kill a lot of people yet many would drink it without issue for decades. So, your sample size is a little small in the grand scheme of things.
- spatulon 10y ago
  OK, here's another sample. The eggs I bought yesterday (I'm in the UK) have a "best before" date printed on them of 4 March, i.e. 2 weeks.
  - tyldum 10y ago
    That is due to EU regulations. We used to have 4 weeks on eggs in Norway, but was forced to limit it to 2 weeks. Apparently it was all about salmonella risk, even though that is very rare in our eggs.
    - kwhitefoot 10y ago
      I've learnt something today. I don't think I have ever looked at the expiry date on eggs here in Norway and I've been here over thirty years! I definitely keep eggs for longer than two weeks unrefrigerated.
- stordoff 10y ago
  2-4 weeks seems reasonable. The eggs we got sometime this week (UK) have a Best Before date of 5th March (and the Best Before only indicates when they start to lose their quality - they remain safe to eat for some time after that).
Al-Khwarizmi 10y ago

nilidah 10y ago

Eggs fresh out of a chicken will last for ages. Months even. The only reason people keep eggs in the fridge is because of how long they've already been out. Also, egg quality is very poor, you can't eat raw eggs in the US for example.

trome 10y ago
Exactly, I don't get why people are downvoting you. Egg quality in the US is terrible, instead of culling salmonella infected flocks, we wash away the protective coating of the egg and potentially spread the salmonella into the egg itself. In Europe and many other countries, their version of the USDA have teams that regularly test flocks droppings for salmonella, and where it is found, the whole flock is culled and the section of the farm is cleaned and left fallow. They also have cleaning rooms where the farmer/workers change into salmonella free suits prior to interacting with the flock. Hence why Europe has fewer issues with salmonella, its very rare in eggs over there.
- pvaldes 10y ago
  To be honest, I think that all the "external protective cuticle" part is faked. Eggs have a porous shell. You can't rubb anything from the surface of a still warm and clean fresh egg.
X86BSD 10y ago
Who knows. As I said those who grew up in a rural setting know that things like raw milk are incredibly delicious and good for you. The absolute diluted sweetened garbage they label as "milk" in the store is vomit inducing. Same thing with the lies the federal government spews about eggs. Which when you have your own chickens you realize that one, eggs are not white, ever wonder how they get white? You should, and the yolks are a bright orange not yellow and taste so much better. It's like looking at a farm raised salmon fillet in the store sitting next to a wild salmon fillet. The farm raised is pale and sick looking. There is a reason the government has lied to you about eggs and raw milk "safety". It's not about safety it's about protecting massive agribusiness. Period. People before refrigeration and the FDA in the country were not dying from raw milk and unrefrigerated eggs. Downvoting me for this is ignorant. It's a fact. And half the people from the U.K. posting are telling you basically the same thing about eggs I said. Store bought eggs in the US are sickly and gross. Eggs from your own chicken or a neighbors keep for a very long time unrefrigerated.

travmatt 10y ago

I regularly eat eggs over two weeks old as well. If they've been out ~month I'll float test them before cooking.

lloydde 10y ago

When my youngest child was a baby and I was binge watching tv while comforting her, I found myself watching a doomsday preppers show. There I learned by oiling eggs they could be stored months. http://www.offthegridnews.com/off-grid-foods/preserving-eggs-for-the-long-term/ http://www.offthegridnews.com/off-grid-foods/preserving-eggs... looks to have confirmed the reality tv show: "[eggs] will, however, eventually develop an off-flavor, and this off-flavor is especially pronounced in eggs stored at 34°F for more than four months". Tonight I also came across "best way to preserve raw eggs is to store them in a solution of slaked lime (you can find it at a building supply store) and water, which, in his test, had a 100 percent success rate after eight months" http://modernfarmer.com/2016/08/bizarre-ways-keep-eggs-fresh-without-refrigerator-years/ http://modernfarmer.com/2016/08/bizarre-ways-keep-eggs-fresh...

13of40 10y ago
I wonder if you could just hard boil them, then coat them with something like paraffin.
- ohyes 10y ago
  You could cover them in glitter and acrylic then hide them for children.
  - kleer001 10y ago
    ... and then find them a month later after they turn into little stink bombs
ZainRiz 10y ago
If you preserve the egg in lime, ash, and a few other ingredients for long enough, the egg turns into a "Century Egg" with an almost jello like look and consistency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg Tastes kinda gross though (but I might be biased)
- brisance 10y ago

X86BSD 10y ago

I would love to see the actual science on this. I think the quote is absurd. And anyone who grew up in a rural setting knows it's absurd and a total falsehood. Eggs taken straight from a chicken and left out will be fine for quite a while. What do you think people in the country did before refrigerators? This is the same absurd nonsense that led to fedgov screaming raw milk was the devil. Lies lies and more lies.

MatthewWilkes 10y ago

I'd always heard that you shouldn't store unwashed eggs in the fridge, as the cold can cause them to contract, which makes it more vulnerable to infection if parts of the cuticle are damaged. It sounds like this isn't actually true?

kwhitefoot 10y ago

Eggs keep perfectly well at room temperature for weeks in northern Europe. I never refrigerate eggs, they just sit in a tray of twenty on the counter.

oliwarner 10y ago

No. Unwashed eggs may have muck on the surface. Germs can't enter the egg while it's dry. That's essentially both sides of the game, there. Putting a mucky egg in a moist environment (like a fridge) provides a transmittable medium. Doesn't matter that it's cold, it's not cold enough to kill (eg) salmonella. That enters the egg and may be a significant enough volume to cause its consumer problems.