egg washing

[Critterwoman]

I was telling my husband the eggs needed washed with water slightly warmer than the egg. He asked me 'why' and I stood there dumbfounded. lol I said I didn't know, that is just what I had read. Can anyone tell me why? Thanks!

 

[zanelee]

You want to wash them in water with a temperature slightly warmer than the egg itself so that bacteria is not pulled into the egg. (Bacteria travel towards warmth, think of it that way)
For example: when you wash your face, you wash with warm/hot water to pull out the impurities.
Clear as mud? LOL!

 

[mickey328]

Water cooler than the shell will open the pores in it and allow things in. We don't wash ours...the "bloom" helps seal the pores and protect the egg inside. If there's poo on the egg, I either wipe with a dry paper towel if damp or just scrape it off with my fingernail if it's dried. If the shell is fairly yucky, I wash it right before using it. If not, we don't bother at all.

 

[Critterwoman]

Thanks zanelee and mickey328 for your replies. Yes, zanelee, that makes perfect sense.

I don't "wash" the eggs totally, to keep as much bloom on them as I can. I try to just wash off any dirt or poo that gets on them with the corner of a damp paper towel and warm water. If they are clean, I do nothing to them. Since we sell more than we eat, I don't want to send out eggs that are dirty. And since we also sell them within a day or two after I gather, they do not set around too long. They usually never even make it to the refrigerator. lol

 

[MyTDogs]

my eggs are mostly from my ducks..
.they are usually filthy because the girls roll them around the pen & bury them in a "dinosaur" nest each morning.
what works great is a magic eraser...no soap needed. i run them under warm water during the wash.

 

[skyblu]

really interesting to read the whole thing about refrigerating eggs - eggs aren't kept refrigerated in shops in the Uk and I didn't realise they were anywhere! in fact one of the rules in the Uk, if you sell your own eggs at market or farm gate (ie you're not a registered egg supplier) - is that you must not refrigerate them. Neither are you allowed to wash them - you can however 'wipe' them. These rules only seem to apply to chicken eggs though; there just aren't the same regulations regarding sale of duck eggs here.

For storage, I keep all our chicken and duck eggs in trays in a cool room or an outbuilding. But they don't stay there long as I put eggs out for sale most days, so no eggs I have here are more than 2 days old - (but they will stay fresh for at least 3 weeks unrefrigerated). I rarely refrigerate eggs for our own consumption unless it's REALLY hot and that doesn't happen often the only place I always refrigerated was in Kenya when I lived there.

Personally, I have to wash all my duck eggs; which i do under a warm running tap, wipe with a sponge then dry with a paper towel. If I didn't my eggs would be dark brown with mud rather than the beautiful pale blue that they are! LOL! my ducks all lay in their house at night and then spend all night playing football with them I reckon! and given how wet and muddy the ground is now, I don't stand a chance of them having nice clean dry feet when they go to bed for the night.

 

[mickey328]

We tend to be a bit anal about stuff like that here. DH was shocked to discover that eggs could be kept for months if they're just cool. When I was growing up we ordered them by the case and just stuck them in the root cellar. They were fine for a long time. In point of fact, unless an egg is refrigerated, it doesn't need to be...as long as it's cool. But if you've stuck it in the fridge for a few hours, you need to keep it there till you use it. That's probably why you can't refrigerate it there...most folks will take them home and keep them in a bowl or something and if they'd been refrigerated previously, this could be very bad.

Our egg use is so sporadic that I tend to stick 'em in the fridge. Sometimes we'll go a week without using any, and other times we'll go through a dozen in 2 or 3 days. I collect through the day and when laying is done, I pop them all in there. There's a nice little box for eggs that came with the appliance, so it's handy

 

[catsbully]

I have 5 indian runners....their eggs are ALWAYS filthy! and usually found everywhere! we rinse in water witha small scrub brush! then refridgerate!