Cooking For Engineers

[Jörg]

You can freeze eggs, but it requires a bit of special treatment, because the yolks tend to get lumpy or hard. So, you have to eather separate the yolks and beat them with a little salt or sugar, or beat the whole eggs with a little salt or sugar.

However, freezing eggs is not an effective way to kill salmonella.

[Dancer Girl]

Do not freeze eggs. It is almost impossible to unfreeze eggs safely and they are no good after being frozen. To protect your eggs against salmonella, be extremely careful by making sure that you immediately put your eggs into your refrigerator after purchasing them. Keep them in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours for total safety. Also, make sure your refrigerator is no higher than 41 degrees farenheit. Also, make sure that when you use eggs, crack them in a seperate bowl ONE AT A TIME before adding to a recipee (i.e. if you have to put in 3 eggs crack egg 1 into small bowl, after inspecting put into recipee, crack egg 2 in small bowl, after inspecting add to recipee, etc.). Make sure if you hit upon a bad egg you throw it out and dispose of it quickly. Also, do not reuse a bowl that has had a bad egg in it without washing the bowl with soap first. Also, take eggs out of the fridge to use in a recipee less than 10 minutes before you need them, preferribly five. If they are left out to long the temperature will raise and it will be much easier for salmonella to infect the eggs. The last thing is to always cook your eggs COMPLETELY. Do not eat a food or recipee that uses raw eggs. If you are using a recipee that includes eggs, do not lick the bowl or spoon after mixing the recipee. Wash the bowls/utensils immediately. OH, one more thing. Always wash your hands after handling eggs before you touch anything else, especially another food. Hope this helps!
take care

[pj_rage]

I'm not sure I get this topic. If you aren't sure, buy more eggs. They are SO cheap, what is the point of risking it?

Granted a couple weeks past the sell by and a "good" smell from them and they are probably fine, but if you aren't sure, just toss them :shrug:

[kim]

interesting topic...

my egg experience:
when i was a kid, i built a chicken coup with a friend and baited some of the many wild chickens and put them in the cage. they did lay eggs (brown shelled) and they tasted pretty good. we always found them before they rotted but there were so many chickens on our farm, all wild, that while i poked around from time to time in the bushes i'd find the occasional abandoned egg. i usually threw them against a tree or rock out of amazement for the horrid stench that would arise. there were a couple of boys in my elementary school class that were really mean and they lived down the road. they'd ride their bikes from school to their house in the afternoon but i got home first. one day, i got home just as they were approaching my driveway and i just happened to have found a couple of those abandoned eggs. i seized the opportunity and threw them with sniper like accuracy from a hill overlooking the road so they broke right in front of the boys' bike tires. they were so grossed out, it was great.

freezing eggs:
never tried it but it sounds like a bad idea. i'd think it is possible that the contents would expand upon freezing and break the shell. and, if it's anything like freezing a cucumber or papaya, they probably don't taste very good.

[juju]

the_maj, I am afraid not. When you thaw the eggs, the salmonella will
come back, just as in meat. Eggs are no good 10 to 15 days past the
sell by date.

[IAMTHEEGGMAN]

Thanks for the info everyone, I have some organic eggs that are about 10 days past the "sell by" date and I was wondering if they're still good. These were kinda expensive, so I'd rather not waste them. Now it's omelet time!

[GaryProtein]

If you are theeggman, you must know who the walrus is.

As long as you kept them refrigerated and they aren't cracked, the eggs are fine.

[Howard]

[Auspicious]

What I have to offer is based on my understanding from sailing and cruising resources: people who sail across oceans and around the world, many without refrigeration, and can't pop round the corner to buy more eggs. If you die, you are on your own. Sorry.

For what it's worth, I bought 250(ish) farm eggs in England and finished the last of them within sight of Norfolk, VA six or seven weeks later. All crew accounted for and no one got sick. <grin>

I believe salmonella bacteria grow on the shell. Washing the shell just before cooking is the best way to deal with that.

Eggs keep well unrefrigerated. Once refrigerated, they *don't* keep well unrefrigerated.

Eggs keep best unwashed until you are ready to use them.

Cruising references talk about keeping eggs unwashed and unrefrigerated for several months without ill affect.

N.B. Now that I am back in the U.S. I keep my eggs in the fridge too. My fridge is just more awkward than yours. <grin>

[SirSpice]

Why unwashed? Is it to avoid a temperature change?

[GaryProtein]

[the_bleachman]

I live in the tropics. It is absolutely impossible here to buy eggs that have been refrigerated. Even the fancier type supermarkets keep them on shelves, unrefrigerated.

They keep just fine.

Leo

[gue0]

see posting http://www.cookingforengineers.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=469&highlight=egg

[Blue Pilgrim]

Eggs keep a long time if the shell is intact -- I regularly store them for several weeks. But if they are on sale and you are unsure about keeping htme, hard boil and then pickle them, keep them in the fridge and they will last for months.

[visiter]

Hello again everyone.

First let us consider that eggs if fertile take over 29 days to hatch. This means that they will keep at an elevated temperature (incubation) of over 100 deg F for that long at least. a supplier keeping eggs refrigerated for 30 days does not bother me in any way. It should not bother you either as they are desigend to last.

Refrigerated they will keep much longer, I have kept them 6 to 13 weeks in a very cold refer. As they get older I do check them by cracking in a bowl.

As to Salmonella, the MAIN reason we see it in poultry in the US is feeding the poultry with added animal protiens. THis can cause Salmonella to live inside the birds and be in the egg as well. Poultry do NOT need this, they can grow well on grain alone. My chickens and turkeys were always fed only grain. They did have the ability to forage for greens and bugs etc. I never woried about contamination or using raw eggs because of this. I also kept the freshest eggs at room temperature and rotated them to cold storage as newer eggs were available. We usually gave away a few cartons a month. Chickens will lay two a day at first and later average one a day in summer and 1 or none a week in winter.

Chickens lay according to the number of daylight hours per day. Egg ranches FORCE laying by adjusting daylight etc as well as feed. THis produces an inferior egg, the yolk will be yellow rather than orange and the white runny rathere than thick. The flovor of eggs from forced hens is inferior.

I have found that free range eggs and vegetarian fed hens eggs are much better than the average eggs and much closer to those that I raised. I will no longer purchase eggs unless they are vegetarian raised. I try and purchase free range eggs when the price is good (it varies a LOT here).

Please remember that duck eggs are green to begin with in case you ever get some. Hens eggs should actually be an orange color yolk or at least a dark yellow. They should never be light yellow.

If you don;t have to be Kosher then the fertilized egg is not a problem to eat either.

NOW quit worrying about how long past the "last date of sale" on the label and go use yoru eggs. If they look good and smell good they will not harm you.