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Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

nytimes.com

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Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#81

Post by Pxtl »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #46
tptacek wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Refrigerated eggs poach fine; if they didn't, nobody in the US would have decent poached eggs. :)

Nobody in the cities or suburbs. Raising one's own chickens for eggs or getting eggs from friends with chickens is popular in rural areas.

Many cities are launching urban chicken programs to allow people to keep their own coops. I figure if you're going to allow dogs in all their kid-biting, sidewalk-pooping, late-night barking glory, why not allow chickens in the city?

Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#82

Post by URSpider94 »

A friend with chickens sent me this article a long time ago: http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/how-to-store-fresh-...

Summary: unwashed eggs are edible for up to eight weeks on the counter, and can go much longer than that if refrigerated. Washed eggs go bad more quickly, but should still be ok for a couple of months. The hard part is, you really have no way to know how long it's been since a store-bought egg was laid.

Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#83

Post by CM30 »

Wait, this is seen as an American thing?

Because I'm from the UK, and most people I know here store boxes of eggs in the fridge. That's how we've done it for decades, and that seems to be the 'norm' where I live. Certainly never seen any eggs laid out in a bowl on a table or worktop.

Maybe it's a regional thing here?

Edit: Just checked online a bit. Seems like it's a matter of individual opinion here, based on this Guardian thread:

https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-26...

The Daily Mail run a 'study' about it:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2421530/So-eggs-frid...

And there's a Yahoo News UK article saying not to:

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/never-put-eggs-in-the-frid...

Certainly doesn't seem like a unanimous difference between countries.

Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#84

Post by fencepost »

to3m wrote: post #42
LordWinstanley wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!]

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 Twitte…

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.

Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#85

Post by Jgrubb »

My wife bought our chickens mainly on how pretty the basket of eggs would be on the counter. This is this weeks haul that we didn't eat - https://imgur.com/a/T9x4K.

If you have the room, I highly recommend them as pets. They're quite cool and very low maintenance, and they make the best eggs you've ever had.

Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#86

Post by nickpsecurity »

Pxtl wrote: post #81
nickpsecurity wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody in the cities or suburbs. Raising one's own chickens for eggs or getting eggs from friends with chickens is popular in rural areas.

Many cities are launching urban chicken programs to allow people to keep their own coops. I figure if you're going to allow dogs in all their kid-biting, sidewalk-pooping, late-night barking glory, why not allow chickens in the city?

I didnt know about that. Thanks for telling me. Makes plenty of sense.

Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#87

Post by Cyph0n »

Jgrubb wrote: post #85

My wife bought our chickens mainly on how pretty the basket of eggs would be on the counter. This is this weeks haul that we didn't eat - https://imgur.com/a/T9x4K . If you have the room, I highly recommend them as pets. They're quite cool and very low maintenance, and they make the best eggs you've ever had.

Yep, agreed. My uncle has >10 chickens back home. They live in the countryside, and chickens are excellent at "taking care of" dangerous insects. The eggs are amazing too, so it's a win-win.

Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#88

Post by pavel_lishin »

Jgrubb wrote: post #85

My wife bought our chickens mainly on how pretty the basket of eggs would be on the counter. This is this weeks haul that we didn't eat - https://imgur.com/a/T9x4K . If you have the room, I highly recommend them as pets. They're quite cool and very low maintenance, and they make the best eggs you've ever had.

My parents considered it, but heard that they attract snakes.

Also, what do you do with the eggs you don't eat?

Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#89

Post by adevine »

desdiv wrote: post #58
LordWinstanley wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!]

Isn't this covered in the article? >In Europe and Britain, the opposite is true. European Union regulations prohibit the washing of eggs. The idea is that preserving the protective cuticle is more important than washing the gunk off. UK eggs are unwashed, thus still have their protective cuticles and thus can last much longer unrefrigerated. GP's quote only applies to American eggs, which are washed.

No, I understood the article to state that washed eggs shouldn't be stored unrefrigerated at all (except to bring up to room temp just before cooking). The "1 week for unrefrigerated eggs" referred to eggs that still had their cuticle.

Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#90

Post by Jgrubb »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #88
Jgrubb wrote: post #85

My wife bought our chickens mainly on how pretty the basket of eggs would be on the counter. This is this weeks haul that we didn't eat - https://imgur.com/a/T9x4K . If you have the room, I highly recommend them as pets. They're quite cool and very low maintenance, and they make the best eggs you've ever had.

My parents considered it, but heard that they attract snakes. Also, what do you do with the eggs you don't eat?

We've been mostly at a balance of production/demand and only occasionally given them away to friends. Now that the days are getting longer and the "new flock" that we got last spring is hitting maturity we're going to have to start putting more effort into giving them away or start selling them. It's common to see a cooler at the end of the driveway with fresh eggs for sale in the area I live.

re: snakes - not so far, and the other comment about them keeping potentially dangerous insects (ticks) in check is right on. Hawks and foxes are more the concern as predators around here, we've lost a few to foxes in the last two years.

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