I'm English and never refrigerate my eggs. I'm an avid cook and I find eggs stored at room temperature are easier to work with - beating egg whites is easier, fewer broken eggs when frying/poaching (as there is a smaller change in temperature), and cold eggs can make batters and mixtures appear lumpy where the cold makes the fat harden
Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs
61–70 of 82 posts
Re: Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs
#62It was a surprise for me when I moved to London from Croatia, when I saw that eggs are not refrigerated in the shops, and most people keep it that way at home too. Back home they are always kept in fridges both in shops and at home, and fridges regularly come with specially designed egg-holders that are sometimes even built into the doors and can't be removed.
Re: Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also Danish eggs aren't washed, they are however salmonella free.
How could you possibly know that
Your comment prompted me to ask DuckDuckGo that exact question, where I found a quite interesting report on the prevelance of salmonella in eggs: http://multimedia.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/fsis5004report...
Some take-aways:
The overall UK finding was that 9 samples (0.34%) were contaminated with Salmonella , which is equivalent to approximately 1 in every 290 “boxes” of 6 eggs.
Factors that might have influenced whether or not eggs were contaminated with Salmonella were also examined. However, where differences were found these tended to be small and much larger sample sizes would have been required to demonstrate a statistically significant difference.
There was no statistically significant difference between the prevalence of Salmonella contamination in samples purchased in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland; or between the prevalence of Salmonella contamination in samples from different egg production types; or between non-Lion code eggs and Lion code eggs; or between eggs that were stored chilled or at ambient temperature.
However, there was a statistically significant higher prevalence of Salmonella contamination of eggs from medium sized retailers* than large retail outlets.
*independent/local shops
Re: Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs
#64The ONLY reason I've ever put eggs in the fridge is because my fridge has an egg tray...
I tend to put my shopping in similar places as where the supermarket had put them, so things I buy out of the fridge go in the fridge at home, and things I buy at room temperature go into my pantry at home... except for the eggs, they go into the egg tray in the fridge!
Re: Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs
#65I think some supermarkets fridge their eggs, some don't here in The Netherlands. However, I have never seen anyone not fridge their eggs at home. In fact, it seems crazy gross to me to keep eggs outside of the fridge at room temperature. I wouldn't want to eat an egg that wasn't stored "properly" (i.e., our definition of properly). This is probably entirely irrational, but there it is. Interestingly, the 'official' D…
Counter anecdote: I am dutch and never keep my eggs in the fridge.
Ditto
Re: Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also Danish eggs aren't washed, they are however salmonella free.
How could you possibly know that
The Danish poultry farmers have been working extremely hard to eradicate salmonella. They do have some small insentive though. If you can prove that your countries chicks do not have salmonella, then the EU allows you to ban import chicks from countries that cannot make the same guarantees. This frees Danish poultry farmers from competing with German or eastern European farmers. The same laws applies to eggs, so throwing huge investments into figthing salmonella pays of in the long run.
Food safety in Denmark, and the rest of Scandinavia is a huge deal, but it's expensive.
http://sciencenordic.com/no-more-salmonella-danish-poultry
How it's actually ensured: http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2014/03/contamina...
Re: Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs
#67In Hungary we either refrigerate them or not. In most houses there is a "cool room" ("kamra" in hungarian) where we keep food which are not so sensitive to the lack of refrigeration. In the dorm we don't have that so I just put the eggs in the fridge.
Re: Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs
#68I think some supermarkets fridge their eggs, some don't here in The Netherlands. However, I have never seen anyone not fridge their eggs at home. In fact, it seems crazy gross to me to keep eggs outside of the fridge at room temperature. I wouldn't want to eat an egg that wasn't stored "properly" (i.e., our definition of properly). This is probably entirely irrational, but there it is. Interestingly, the 'official' D…
I'm in Czech republic and I generally keep eggs in fridge, but I have seen people who keep eggs in some other "dark and cold place" (eg. bread-room), but nobody I know stores eggs just in the open. On a similar note everyone here seems to have different opinion as to whether should frying oil be kept in fridge or not.
Re: Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs
#69(Northern) China here. Eggs sold unrefrigerated and unwashed. Almost exclusively refrigerated at home. Eggs are invariably cooked thoroughly; the suggestion of a runny or even moist yolk is traditionally met with confused looks and fears of food poisoning. Brooding of poultry is not permitted in most cities/towns/areas with apartments, but considered normal in rural areas (places with gardens). I understand the fresh…
Japan here. People refrigerate eggs, but often eat them raw over rice. In summer, raw egg take away, is usually stopped. eg. http://www.yoshinoya.com/menu/sidemenu/index.html You can see it on the menu there as "Talk away ok" but underneath it says from 6/1 ～9/30 no take away.
Re: Why Europeans Don't Refrigerate Their Eggs
#70I think some supermarkets fridge their eggs, some don't here in The Netherlands. However, I have never seen anyone not fridge their eggs at home. In fact, it seems crazy gross to me to keep eggs outside of the fridge at room temperature. I wouldn't want to eat an egg that wasn't stored "properly" (i.e., our definition of properly). This is probably entirely irrational, but there it is. Interestingly, the 'official' D…
I am English. It never even occured to me that people would put eggs in the fridge.
Yes, eggs absorb odours and so a bad idea to keep them in the fridge.