Identifying Old Eggs - Here's How

By Hklbrries

You might be aware that old eggs are sold in the grocery store. How old? It's anyone's guess, but they didn't start putting sale dates on the egg cartons for no reason at all - they got complaints about eggs that weren't fresh.

The eggs's composition is 60% white (albumen), 30% yolk and 10% shell (calcium). The yolk is about 32% fat, 30% water, with 16% protein. It is rich in vitamins A and D and iron. The white is nearly all water, with 11% protein, no fat and a little riboflavin.

Whether you raise your own egg laying chickens or buy your eggs in the grocery store, here are four (4) ways to roughly determine the freshness of the eggs:

1. Put your eggs in several inches of water. Older eggs float or show more buoyancy, while fresh eggs readily sink to the bottom. There are thousands of pores in the shell which, over time, allow gases to escape from the egg and air to enter the egg. In time, the egg collects enough air so that it is buoyant in water and can float.

2. Judge the weight of the egg. You know how much a certain size egg should weigh. If it feels lighter than normal, then it's an egg that isn't fresh.

3. Crack open the egg and note the size of the air pocket inside the shell. No air pocket indicates a fresh egg. An air pocket the size of a teaspoon indicates an egg that is perhaps two to three months old.

4. Crack open the egg into a frying pan. If the white part is runny with some of it being even a bit watery, then the egg is older...

Ingredients

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Preparation

Step 1

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