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Old dog; new trick


Sunday morning I was talking to a friend, and we wound up on the subject of eggs. She shuddered and said she was short on time so didn't do the float test, and sure enough, had a bad egg. It made me stop short.  Float test?  I had never heard of such a thing. You take a "fresh" egg and put it in a bowl of water. If it stays flat on the bottom, it is fresh. If it doesn't, it's not good. So I tested 24+ that I've collected in the last week but not refrigerated yet, and it works!!!

Totally submerged egg.
Egg slightly rising on one end...
Egg halfway floating (one end kept peeping out of the water).



So none of my eggs totally floated (which I know is a sign of baby chick developing inside because that means the air pocket is full OR the egg is totally rotten), but I never knew about the partial floating.  Below are how the eggs turned out that were floating a little bit:
 The eggs that were lifted slightly on one end but not out of the water are above. I'll use these eggs (though I did toss a few of them).  You'll notice in the top left, the egg has a spot. If left under heat for another day, it would become more pronounced. It's simply where the yolk was fertilized before it entered the shell.

The egg that was peeping out of the water actually had blood specks in it, so I tossed it. Technically those are safe to eat; the hen stressed out a vein during the egg formation. Many cooks simply remove the blood spots, but sometimes you'll see multiple ones and it's too much to stomach.

I am super excited to have a way to check my eggs before I use them or give them away!

So if you ever have fresh eggs that you want to test their freshness, now you know how.


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