HOW TO Tell if eggs are still good

Finding out if eggs are still good is a difficult thing before finding out the hard way, here are a few methods for testing them.

Your eyes and nose are the best tools for determining freshness with meats, produce and herbs — it's pretty obvious when something's moldy or smelly. But you can't smell and see an egg before you crack it (unless you're highly skilled), so how do you tell if it's still good?

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The Best Method for Uncracked Eggs: The Float Test

Just fill a bowl with cold water and place your eggs in the bowl. If they sink to the bottom and lay flat on their sides, they're very fresh. If they're a few weeks old but still good to eat, they'll stand on one end at the bottom of the bowl. If they float to the surface, they're no longer fresh enough to eat.

While you could fry or scramble an egg that's on its side or standing upright, when it comes to hard-boiling, you'll want the upright ones, as Yumi points out in her guide to peeling hard-boiled eggs. The extra air in the older eggs will help the peel come off easier after hard boiling.

Below, you can see what a really old egg looks like in comparison to really fresh one. The one on the left is most likely 3 or more months old (from when it was laid, not the date you bought them).

Do you know of any other ways to test whether or not an egg is good to eat? Share your method with us in the comments.

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