How to Tell if an Egg is Fresh or Bad?
Have you been waiting for your eggylicious Sunday to savor your taste buds with the delightful taste of those buttery omelets? We are too! But wait, are you sure that the eggs you bought last weekend are still fresh?
How to determine if the eggs are still good to eat? Here are some tips to know if the egg is bad or still edible. In case they are rotten, would you use them in your head instead to enhance the growth? (No, please don’t)
#1. How To Tell If Eggs Are Bad Through A Water Test
The easiest way to test if the eggs are fresh or not is by floating them in cold water. Drop the egg into a glass or bowl filled with water. A good egg would sink to the bottom and settle on the side of the glass. A lesser fresh egg would sink too but will stick to the end. It is edible but needs to be consumed as early as possible.
A bad egg keeps floating on the surface and should be straight forward tossed in the bin. This happens because the eggs are permeable and let the liquid inside them evaporate with time. An aging egg has larger air spaces making it buoyant.
#2. How To Tell If Eggs Are Bad After Boiling Them
If you were too hungry to sink your eggs in cold water, don’t worry, hot water has its charm. One can determine if the egg is rotten even after it’s boiled. A fresh egg takes time to uncover itself (we meant that its peel is hard to remove), whereas the old ones do not shy away. The rotten or expired eggs have lighter peels, and their shells slip off easily! So make sure you throw these away.
#3. How To Tell If Eggs Are Bad Without Cracking Them
Apart from the floating test that we mentioned earlier, there are some other ways to test if the egg is bad without cracking it.
• Shake It Like Shimmy
Shake the egg before cracking them up. If you can hear the liquid whooshing inside the egg, then it is bad news. The egg has gone bad. The good ones aren’t that noisy.
• Take The Smell In
If you have an expert nose, then try smelling the eggs before bringing them to a boil. A bad egg will have a foul odor. The smell will be pungent and acidic. Throw that thing right away.
#4. Get Cracking
An older egg tends to lose out on its integrity. Once cracked open, it travels greater distances on the plate. This happens because a bad egg gets watery and hence becomes very flowy.
#5. Hot And Cold Are Not Good For The Egg
Once the egg is left in the refrigerator, it gets accustomed to the temperature. Exposure to the hot room temperature can cause it sweating. Sweating creates bacteria which can enter the egg through its pores. Although if you bought your eggs unwashed and unrefrigerated, they could be stored at room temperature. Quite accommodating, aren’t they?
#6. Check The Expiry Dates
If you are not a kitchen expert and prefer to stick to easier methods, then look around for the packaging of your eggs. The packet displays the date of manufacturing and the expiry dates as well. It could be written as:
• Best before — “best-before, “use-by,” “best-by” and “use-before” refer to the period till when the eggs are in their best shape, consuming them after that might not be a good idea although you can still consume them within two weeks following the mentioned date.
#7. What’s With The Color?
Once the egg is cracked, you can test its freshness just by looking at its whiteness. A fresh egg will have a white that is rigid and stays around the yolk, whereas the rotten ones will have the whites spread out all over.
