# How Do I Know When An Egg Is Bad?



## kaneohegirlinaz (Apr 24, 2011)

Here’s a question that I have wanted to ask SOMEONE for the longest time.

How do you know that an egg is “BAD”.

I have been following the advice of others by cracking my eggs into a small bowl, individually, before lumping them into anything else.  I always check over each egg shell for any cracks prior to whacking it on the counter (btw, I can’t believe how cheap eggs are here in the continental United States). 

????


----------



## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

Put the eggs in cold water to cover. A fresh egg will stay flat on the bottom. A slighty older but still good egg will stand on its end on the bottom. A floater is a tosser.


----------



## petalsandcoco (Aug 25, 2009)

If your still wondering about your egg after doing that then.....do a final test : to make sure the egg is not spoiled, break it into a clean bowl and check to make sure it does not have a bad odor or appearance.


----------



## mikez (Jun 13, 2010)

+1 this is exactly what I do



cheflayne said:


> Put the eggs in cold water to cover. A fresh egg will stay flat on the bottom. A slighty older but still good egg will stand on its end on the bottom. A floater is a tosser.


----------



## pcieluck (Dec 9, 2010)

I know that yolks become softer as the egg becomes older. An egg that isn't so fresh can just look a little weird.


----------



## kaneohegirlinaz (Apr 24, 2011)

So then it begs the question to all…

Have you ever had a bad egg?


----------



## notbert (Sep 23, 2007)

kaneohegirlinaz said:


> So then it begs the question to all…
> 
> Have you ever had a bad egg?


Unfortunately I can answer yes to this question. When I was younger my parents raised chickens. The problem is that they would occasionally make nests in the woods around our house (In addition to the ones in their roost.). There was no telling how old they were once you came across them. The really old ones would literally explode when the nest was disturbed! I made the mistake ONCE of cracking a mystery egg directly into the pan instead of it into a bowl to give it a sniff test, never again.

Another way to gauge how old your eggs are is to look at the albumen (white), it gets runnier as the egg ages. The more it spreads out in the pan the older it is.


----------



## fl italian (Mar 2, 2009)

Put all the eggs together against the wall and the bad egg will make a run for it....

I'm sorry.. the title made me do it!!!/img/vbsmilies/smilies/crazy.gif


----------



## kaneohegirlinaz (Apr 24, 2011)

NOTBERT ~ Another way to gauge how old your eggs are is to look at the albumen (white), it gets runnier as the egg ages. The more it spreads out in the pan the older it is.   ~ ~

~ That's kinda what I was thinking ~  That and of course the smell, but I have not been that lucky I guess.


----------



## kaneohegirlinaz (Apr 24, 2011)

FL Italian said:


> Put all the eggs together against the wall and the bad egg will make a run for it....
> 
> I'm sorry.. the title made me do it!!!/img/vbsmilies/smilies/crazy.gif


... and I don't blame you one bit ... someone had to do it


----------



## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Put in a pot with water (NO SALT) if it comes to top throw it away  8 out of 10 times it will be bad.  If you don't believe this, Taste it.


----------



## kaneohegirlinaz (Apr 24, 2011)

I'll take your word for it Chefedb!


----------



## pcieluck (Dec 9, 2010)

kaneohegirlinaz said:


> So then it begs the question to all…
> 
> Have you ever had a bad egg?


I've had eggs in my refrigerator for a long time which I broke open, didn't smell nor taste bad. An egg will lose a lot of quality before it is really rotten. Surprised nobody mentioned the way eggs get their grade. Hold up to a bright light. If you can still see a well defined yolk inside, it's still a fresh grade A egg. But you're more likely to get that pot of water than a bright light up on your counter.


----------



## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

This process is called " Candleing""It was a black box with a peephole and bright light in it.  Many years ago it was done like this and also to see if there was an embrio in the egg. It is not done like this anymore.


----------



## kaneohegirlinaz (Apr 24, 2011)

… now it seems that another question raises it’s head…

How many bad eggs would you say that you have had in a lifetime, career, however you want to call it


----------



## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

A long time ago wholesalers sold what what called CRAX  which were cases of cracked eggs and they were cheap. many bakeries purchased them. I don't think this is done anymore, because today they break and sell them frozen or in dairy case


----------



## kaneohegirlinaz (Apr 24, 2011)

That's interesting Chefedb

So does that mean that I can use the eggs that I have that are cracked?

I've been throwing those away all these years.

In Hawaii eggs are expensive. over $3.00/dozen!!

Yesterday here in Arizona though, I paid $0.88 ........


----------



## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Only if they have been in fridge. Break it into a bol first before adding to other eggs. This way if it is really bad you wont have to throw away the rest.  Most cracked eggs in fridge are result of freezing .


----------



## jenny marie (May 12, 2013)

The expiration date is April 23rd and today is May 12.....i hard boiled the eggs for an hour on medium heat, my logic being that it would cook the bacteria out/disinfect it, BUT the yolks taste VERY fishy, and not just fishy, but specifically Salmon....will i get food poisoning?  By the way, it's the Organic Vegetarian Fed Eggland's Best brand of eggs if that makes any difference


----------



## petalsandcoco (Aug 25, 2009)

Hi Jenny welcome to Cheftalk.

No bad egg on this green earth is worth getting sick over, toss that egg in the garbage. When in doubt throw it out, especially those eggs.


----------



## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

I can honestly say that I don't think I've ever had a bad egg in all my life.  This includes both eggs from the grocery store and eggs purchased direct from farms.  Jenny, I have used eggs well past the "expiration" date and never had a problem.  If they were kept in the fridge this whole time they were probably fine.  I am guessing that the off odor came from the fact that you boiled them for 1 hour, which is excessive to say the least.  Anything that you can kill is killed at 165°.  After that anything that could make you sick can't be cooked out (botulism for example-once food is tainted by the botulism it is not safe no matter how long you cook it).  Your eggs took approximately 12-15 minutes to reach 165°, not long after that the interiors would have hit 212° and stayed there the rest of the time.  Yes, it killed any nasties that were in there but the extended cooking time also degraded the quality of the product.  That fishy smell came from cooking too long.  You can also taste this when scrambled eggs have sat too long on a buffet.


----------



## chefbillyb (Feb 8, 2009)

li'l piggy 015.JPG




__
chefbillyb


__
May 12, 2013








I asked my girls, they said bad egg, we don't have no stinking bad eggs, tell that crazy Hawaiian to go back home...........


----------



## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

Jenny Marie said:


> The expiration date is April 23rd and today is May 12.....i hard boiled the eggs for an hour on medium heat, my logic being that it would cook the bacteria out/disinfect it, BUT the yolks taste VERY fishy, and not just fishy, but specifically Salmon....will i get food poisoning? By the way, it's the Organic Vegetarian Fed Eggland's Best brand of eggs if that makes any difference


They have a lot of Omega 3 fatty acids. Has it ever tasted like this before?


----------



## kaneohegirlinaz (Apr 24, 2011)

/img/vbsmilies/smilies/lol.gif braddah BillyB you too funny!

A DF has hens and she gave us freshly laid eggs when we visited them back in February, I wasn't too sure about them, so I put them all into a glass of water and some of them were floaters... out they went!





  








WHAT 009.JPG




__
kaneohegirlinaz


__
May 13, 2013


----------



## chefbuba (Feb 17, 2010)

ChefBillyB said:


> li'l piggy 015.JPG
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's quite the condo there Bill.


----------

