The fresh and the old eggs do not look the same in the bowl when you crack them. The fresh ones look go great; the yolk is perfectly round and the white can be whipped up into the fluffiest meringue.
The safest way for you to choose fresh eggs is if you buy them from the local farm. At its territory, they are the freshest and have the highest quality.
The eggs from the local farm are being sold so quickly that the local farmers do not have the need to use the tricks that the egg industry uses to prolong their freshness.
Some of these tricks include partial freezing and cold storage that last for weeks before they are placed at the supermarket shelves and sold as fresh.
If you buy organic eggs from some store for healthy food, like for example Whole Foods, it does not necessarily mean that the eggs you get are fresh. it is always possible for you to get some old eggs.
These eggs do not have the same taste as the fresh ones, they taste a bit worse, and they do not poach finely into the ideal egg shape that sits so pretty on top of a slice of toast or bread or an English muffin.
Do you have doubts about the eggs that you buy? You think that they are not really that fresh?
if you do, we present you two clues, which you should use in order to determine whether the eggs you buy are truly fresh or if you should change your egg source as suggested by Kenji Lopez-Alt, the chief creative officer of Serious Eats.
The Julian Date Tells the Tale
Every carton of eggs that is being sold in the stores in the United States needs to be stamped with a number. This number is called the Julian Date and should vary between 000 and 365.
It shows the day of the year that the eggs were cleaned and packed into the carton we talk about. For example, if the number stamped on the carton is 000, it means that the eggs in that carton were packed on January 1, and if the number on the carton is 213, it means that the eggs were packed on august 2.
The thing is, the higher the number on the carton, the fresher the eggs are. It would be for the best if the number is higher and as close as possible to the date of the day you buy the eggs on.
Take care that the difference is not higher than a few days or a week. Do not confuse the date to the right of the Julian Date with the Julian Date, because that is the expiration date of the eggs and is usually up to six weeks after the eggs were packed.
For instance, if the stamped number on the egg carton is 015 Feb 28, this means that the eggs were packed on January the fifteenth and they can be sold until February 28, which is a month and a half later.
Do you think that anybody wants those eggs, which are six weeks old, and the store still sells them legally as “fresh”? you are right, nobody wants them.
The Float Test For Fresh Eggs
Another way that can help you test the freshness of the eggs you buy is to carefully put the egg in a cup of water. If the egg is fresh, it will sink and it will stay flat lengthwise at the bottom of the cup.
If the egg is not fresh, if it is older, then most likely it will float completely. If the egg is semi-fresh, it will stand up on one end and it will not lie flat at the bottom. This is caused by an air pocket in the fat portion of the egg. This pocket is getting bigger in size as the egg gets older.
Why Fresh Eggs Are Important
Just like with any other food, the fresher the eggs are, the better. Not only when it comes to taste, but when it comes to nutrition as well.
We are sure that you do not want eggs that have been semi-frozen and in cold storage for weeks before you even get them home only to prolong their shelf life? It is not a good option for sure, especially if you are soft boiling the eggs and using them for your baby. You probably know that the baby’s traditional first food is the warm, liquid yolk.
Another thing is that the fresh eggs are more easily separated. You can separate a nice, perky yolk pretty easily using your hands only, without a drop mixing in with the white, which can ruin your macaroons for example.
In the end, the fresh eggs are also much easier to poach. The fresher the egg is, the tighter its white is, and also, the yolk retains its shape better as it cooks, if the egg is fresher. If you are into Eggs Benedict for example, than you will probably want to ensure that the eggs you buy are as fresh as possible.
If you also know some trick for determining the freshness of the eggs or some kind of tip, we would be glad to hear it, so do not hesitate to share it with us and other people and leave a comment in the comment section.
