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Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

nytimes.com

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Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#151

Post by zhte415 »

to3m wrote: post #106
zhte415 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boiling or steaming eggs for 12 minutes results in a tough white and dry yolk. Just put them in a pot, not large, with enough water to cover the eggs and no more. Cold water. Add heat, high, and heat to boil for no more than a minute. Remove and put in cool/running water. Results in non-plastic whites and soft yolks. Though, I prefer poached or scrambled. For boiled, quail eggs are great (and, where I live, also chea…

That's for soft boiling, surely? Hard-boiled eggs are usually left in for longer. What I do for mine: put in cold water, place on medium heat until water begins to boil (~9 mins), deactivate hob and leave for 12 mins, rinse with cold water, dry and place in fridge, leave for 12-18 hours at least. When ready to eat: peel off shell, remove skin that's left near the air pocket, stuff in piehole. (They're fine to eat imm…

A little more than soft-boiled, but far from green-tinged yolks; this way the egg isn't runny but still soft and golden butter-like, not yet chalky. Water takes about 2-3 minutes to boil (gas). Cooking room-temperature eggs, not refrigerated, room temperature is about 20-22C.

Why on earth do you put them in a fridge for 12-18 hours? Serious. Are you at a catering company that does these in mass?

Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#152

Post by kleer001 »

ohyes wrote: post #149
13of40 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if you could just hard boil them, then coat them with something like paraffin.

You could cover them in glitter and acrylic then hide them for children.

... and then find them a month later after they turn into little stink bombs

Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#153

Post by roryisok »

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.

I live in Ireland, in the EU, and I'm fairly sure all the eggs in supermarkets here are washed. There's never a spot of dirt on them. And we always refrigerate, as does everyone I know

Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#154

Post by yourapostasy »

If this interested you, then you might also be interested in water glass, or sodium silicate [1]. It is still used today by some sailboat crews to keep fresh eggs on board without refrigeration for up to five months, without resorting to powdered eggs.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_silicate#Food_preservat...

Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#155

Post by Spooky23 »

trome wrote: post #122
iak8god wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In cities people typically have a grocery store within 5 to 10 minutes walk from home. That really depends on the city, and on which part of the city one lives in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert Because I can afford to do so, I choose to live in a nice walkable neighborhood where I do have a grocery store within walking distance, but this is absolutely not the case in most poor urban neighborhoods, inclu…

The USDA's Food Desert definition is total bullshit, for example, you could drop me nearly anywhere in Tukwila, WA and I could be in a large grocery store within 10 minutes of walking. If we include smaller stores, I can be in a store buying eggs, milk, fresh veggies & fruit of higher quality than Costco or Whole Paycheck in a 6 to 7 minute walk, and pay with EBT at any of them (if I qualified). This is exactly why a…

Mileage varies. In my city, the poor neighborhoods are a 30 minute bus ride from a proper grocery. It's a 10 minute drive max.

Most people there get food from a bodega type place.

Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#156

Post by zhte415 »

pmoriarty wrote: post #112
zhte415 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boiling or steaming eggs for 12 minutes results in a tough white and dry yolk. Just put them in a pot, not large, with enough water to cover the eggs and no more. Cold water. Add heat, high, and heat to boil for no more than a minute. Remove and put in cool/running water. Results in non-plastic whites and soft yolks. Though, I prefer poached or scrambled. For boiled, quail eggs are great (and, where I live, also chea…

Soft-boiled eggs don't seem to be cooked enough to kill salmonella. The FDA's advice is to "cook eggs until yolks are firm" .[1] [1] - https://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm077342...

FDA guidance is good for not getting poisoned. When you know how to cook/eat or appreciate someone that does, it is already redundant.

Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#158

Post by brokenmasonjars »

Whenever I buy eggs from the store I refrigerate them. My chickens and ducks however I don't bother with. Eggs don't last long around my house, have a few labradors who I feed a home cooked diet in which eggs are a daily item.

I think the washing/not washing discussion is interesting. It really highlights a difference in food approaches between the US and EU. One of the things that really annoys me about the US is the raw milk stuff. I live in PA so I can get raw milk pretty easily; live a mile from a raw milk farm that's been in business since 1840 or something. This farm has a good track record, some others don't. I remember in Mike Pollan's Netflix's documentary series the part about the cheese nun and the FDA. The FDA individual simply stated that in France the practices are much more rigorous than the US. Why can't we develop a system that allows raw milk from farmers who follow similar procedures? Why can I still not buy raw milk cheese under so many days old directly from France? The ban probably angers me more than anything since I'm really big into cheese and raw milk cheese from France tastes better than pasteurized stuff. Raw milk itself I'm content with since I get it from the farm nearby. It's what I grew up on, whenever I have milk from other sources the differences are night and day. The differences in food approaches is interesting.. and really shows how far the US has gone off track. Not to mention the damn ban on tonka beans.

Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#159

Post by webignition »

roryisok wrote: post #153
desdiv wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I live in Ireland, in the EU, and I'm fairly sure all the eggs in supermarkets here are washed. There's never a spot of dirt on them. And we always refrigerate, as does everyone I know

My brother in law is a small-scale farmer in Wales and produces chicken and duck eggs. I've previously discussed egg washing with him.

My understanding from such conversations is that eggs in the EU are definitely not washed.

Supermarket caged-hen eggs are generally clean in appearance due to the lack of items that might otherwise stick to the them.

I have found free range supermarket eggs, on the other hand, to sometimes have small features stuck to them.

I'm not sure what accounts for the generally clean appearance of supermarket eggs. Maybe eggs are brushed in some manner to remove obvious dirt. But the washing of eggs is certainly not a legal practice in the EU.

Re: Why Do Americans Refrigerate Their Eggs?

#160

Post by m-i-l »

CM30 wrote: post #83

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 G…

According to the BBC article "Ketchup debate: To chill or not to chill..." [0] from a few days ago, the NHS advice states eggs are "best stored in the fridge as they will be kept at a constant temperature".

[0] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38907451

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