How long do eggs stay fresh for? How do you know when they go bad?

If you crack one and it is bad, you will know. It is a singular experience that you will likely never forget.

Beyond that, eggs stay fresh for a long time. The longer you have them, the more you want to make sure you cook them before eating them (if you plan on doing something with raw egg, fresher is generally best). They are definitely good for at least a month after purchase. I’ve had eggs that were still fine well beyond that.

Until they hatch! Hahahah, I had to say that.

They are “designed” to hold for a long time in warm conditions. In a cool fridge, they would probably hold half a year. Not all egg are hatched perfectly though, and there might be cracks.

When you crack it and the white is mostly gone and the yolk is shrivelled and orange it is not good to eat.

When good eggs go bad.

Or sometimes they do this instead.

A bad egg will float in water. Not only has the air pocket inside become larger, the breakdown of the contents produce gas that also gives you the olfactory warning of an eggs badness.

According to Harold McGee, author of On Food & Cooking (Canada, UK), Hannah Glass gave this practical advice to cooks around 1750, and it’s as valid today — a “way to know a good egg, is to put the egg into a pan of cold water; the fresher the egg, the sooner is will fall to the bottom; if rotten, it will swim at the top.”

Before you crack it, place it in a flat bottomed container with a few inches of water. If the egg stands on end, or one end lifts up a little, it is bad. If it lays flat, it is good. I raise free range chickens, and sometimes discover new little nests. That’s how I check the eggs to see which ones are old and which ones are still fresh. BTW, the eggs you buy in a grocery store are on average a month old before they get there, and are much more loaded in cholesterol. If you can find farm fresh, free range eggs, they are the shiznit (and they taste better too)!

thanks everyone!!

The possibility of bad eggs is the reason why when you’re cooking you should always crack them into a separate container than everything else you’re cooking with and then add them. Its easier to deal with a bad egg outside of all your other ingredients than having to throw all of it out. :)

There should be an expiration date on the carton. They always keep longer then what it says in my experience.

Actually, when I lived aboard a cruising sailboat, we kept eggs at cabin temperature for a week or more at a time. As long as the shell stayed intact they were pretty much germ-proof.

I was wondering if you can still fry an egg if it froze in the refridgerator…. The fridge was turned on way too cold and I’m pretty sure they froze because they seemed really heavy when i dropped em in the pan to make some eggs. Will this make them go bad is my question. Thanx