PanAmPost: A few years ago, I bought some fresh eggs from a friend who owned chickens. They were wonderful. I’m not fussy about the topic so I can’t say that I go out of my way to get fresh eggs. I’ll take them when I can get them. However, I’ve long been intrigued by her instructions to me: “they do not need to be refrigerated.”
This struck me as weird. I guess I thought they would spoil if they are left out or maybe gradually become a chicken or something. She assured me no, and her explanation was compelling. If eggs have never been refrigerated, they don’t have to be. Commercial eggs are, so that’s why we put them in the fridge.
Sounds right. But it turns out that the story is actually more complex. No surprise: the real answer has to do with government regulations over whether eggs should be washed. In the United States, the government mandates washing eggs before commercial sale. In Europe, egg washing is forbidden by law. MORE
Well, that explains why Evan McMullin’s head is so clean.
All I know is my mother (born 1918) was raised on a farm. When we were growing up, we raised chickens (today they would be called free range). My job was to go collect eggs from the nests. You did NOT want to miss any of the eggs because they would get rotten quickly. Mom always washed the eggs because they usually had chicken shit on them, and she always refrigerated them.
A great general conclusion at the end of the article. With which my liberal friends will certainly disagree – ‘without gubbermint cats and dogs would be living together!!!’
@TonyR, your Mom probably rinsed the poop off, not scrubbing or using detergents. The eggshell is a porous membrane.
Also I’ve been told, even if you refrigerate eggs they taste better if you cook them from room temp.–leave them out the night before for a better breakfast omelet. Cooking (denaturing) the proteins abruptly makes them more rubbery.
I have hens and they can get dirty…muddy if it rains. I don’t wash the eggs until I use them. No need in destroying that barrier. A fresh egg will last fine at room temp for 30 days. Once in the fridge, it must go back into the fridge. They last 60 days. Store bought eggs are normally 30 days old when they get to the store. Mine are eaten long before 60 days.
My parents used to oil their eggs in Florida before sailing around the Bahamas. 6 dozen oiled eggs sitting in the bilge, in the tropics for months on end. You know they are bad when they float in fresh water.
My grandparents also left butter on the table.
I pull eggs from the coop and crack them right in the pan. Sometimes I rinse them off, crack in half and do the back-in-forth shell deal to throw away the whites, then suck down the yolk raw; it’s really the best way to eat them since oxidation in the pan creates cholesterol. Any abundance that isn’t eaten right away goes in the fridge for when the neighbor pays 5 bucks a dozen, or I give them away. In the summertime we don’t refrigerate.
Hens shitting in their egg nests? Sounds like Congress.
Eggs in Europe can be gross bc you will find feathers and poop in the carton. I always put them in the fridge bc I can’t think of a better place for them. Anyway, if they are being cooked doesn’t that kill the germs?
I’ve got goose eggs sitting out on the kitchen counter as we speak. Delicious. And you only need one for a meal.
all fridges sold around the world have an egg compartment , just take them out a few hours before use to go to room temp , then they cook even
I refrigerate my eggs and I throw them out 8 days after I buy them. Remember Europe has had very nasty plagues and I do not want to be like Europe
Phuck Europe
People of Great Britain used a room off of the kitchen that was not refrigerated called a larder so they are asking to get sick.
I prefer pysnaky eggs, see beautiful eggs at the link
http://blog.mistymills.com/egg-art/
We had (in the ’50s) an egg machine that sanded and candled each egg. Chicken ranch, 10 thou layers, 10 thou fryers.
remember soaking a hard boiled egg in vinegar over night? it would bounce like a ball or you could squeeze it in a bottle…..
I had a college roommate who worked as a security guard at a big egg farm in California. They stored pallets of eggs out in the summer sun (90F and up) for several days before packaging and shipping. I make sure my store-bought eggs are well cooked. I believe they insist on refrigerating eggs in Britain, while the French prefer storing at room temperature. I guess the key rule is, use them or lose them.
I had some laying hens that kept my weeds down, and left us some eggs for the first five or six years (the last one died after 12 years). The kids would find caches of eggs, sometimes close to 100, until we found all their hiding places. Poultry are fun to have around, but they are prodigious poopers.
AC – I’m in the U.K. they don’t refrigerate eggs. Also, when visiting Spain every egg had a double yolk which seemed gross.
Filthy People- I think they do look to get sick. I’m very clean and my son still managed to catch Scarlet Fever if you can believe that. .iKids in general are crawling all over floors and never wiped or changed.
The government has to put its foot in everything. At least One World Government would bring consistency in egg regs.
You need to know if your eggs are not
coated for in country US use, or export
eggs (coated). It’s on the label. The
difference is large. Both come refrigerated,
but both act differently when received.