Can you recognize fresh eggs just by looking at them? Discover how to do this

Eggs form an integral part of the diet of many people in the world, as well as being of the basic ingredients of many recipes in the vast majority of the world's cuisines. Given this, you probably have a good stock of eggs in your home. And the fresher they are, the better.

So, how can you tell if your eggs are actually fresh? Let's find out together:

How to recognize fresh eggs without opening them

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One of the most famous tests is by using a glass of water. Have you ever noticed, after cooking hard-boiled eggs, that sometimes the egg white forms a small crater in part of it? This is due to the presence of an air bubble inside the shell. And this bubble becomes larger the older the egg is.

And it's thanks to the size of this bubble, that we can do the water-in-a-glass test for freshness:

• Fill a tall glass with room temperature water;
• Gently immerse the egg in the water, being careful not to crack it.

At this point, you need to see what position the egg takes in the glass:

• If is falls to the bottom (and remains there), lying horizontally, the egg is fresh;
• However, if it tilts diagonally, resting low on one side, the egg is not very fresh (or is less fresh);
• If the egg floats at/near the top of the glass, standing vertically, it is an old egg.

How to recognize fresh eggs after cracking them open

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The freshness (or otherwise) of an egg becomes even more evident when we crack it open and empty it onto a plate:

• If the yolk is very rounded and full, this is a good sign that the egg is fresh. But we must also look at the egg white: in a very fresh egg, the white is gelatinous and firm and surrounds the yolk firmly (and does not flow away from it);
• If the egg is not very fresh, however, the yolk will be flatter and the egg white will spread out significantly. Cooking poached eggs with these will be a little more difficult;
• In the case of an old egg, the yolk will be completely flat and the white will be almost completely liquid. Best to get rid of eggs like these!

Egg storage periods

Usually, if an egg is very fresh, we can keep it outside of the fridge for a few days. But if you don't consume these fresh eggs within a week, they should be put in the fridge, and you can keep them for another couple of weeks. If we put the eggs in the fridge immediately, however, they will last for 3 to 5 weeks.

If you buy packaged eggs from supermarkets, check the packaging date and not just the expiry date. In any case, the latter is generally to be considered to be the "best before" date. Keeping an egg for a few more days beyond the expiry date should not be a problem (but they must be properly cooked and never consumed raw).

Do you know of any other tips to tell if an egg is fresh or not?