Washing eggs

[Egghead_Jr]

We don't wash eggs or store them in the fridge. They're dated and kept on the counter. If we happen to get a dirty egg, it does get washed and refrigerated.

The beauty of using a skelter is the oldest are used first. Form and function.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Eggs were not meant to be washed. You wash them and bacteria can get in so MUST be refrigerated to retard that process. They last months right at room temp so why would you use a refrigerator? Who keeps more eggs on hand than they can use in two months?

But it really doesn't do any harm to refrigerate either (unless you have frequent power outages where rapid heating/cooling and condensation become an issue I suppose) so I think some people just feel better having them in a fridge. Like I know some people don't refrigerate their butter but I wouldn't feel comfortable with that. In the same vein my mom and aunts would make stews and leave the leftovers on the counter overnight for the next evening's meal, it was what her family did when she grew up, the fat layer that would form supposedly helped to retard the growth of bacteria. It didn't kill me when I was a kid, but I wouldn't do that nowadays.

I do love the look of the skelter though. If I had them on the counter I would definitely invest in one of those. In the fridge I use ceramic egg holders which are easy to clean (dishwasher) and make it easy to move eggs around by the dozen.

 

[TeeMom]

We use an egg skelter as well (they're too pretty to tuck away out of sight). If they need to be washed I stick them in the fridge or wash and use them right away. I took a poultry science class in college and the prof told us that an unwashed egg at room temp will lose quality over time, but should still be edible for months. Ours don't ever last more than a week with 5 kids, so I haven't been able test it, but it makes sense. In other countries eggs are sold on shelves near flour and sugar.

 

[Jeri B]

Italy is one of the countries where eggs are sold unrefrigerated. No one puts them in the refrigerator. And the "big" carton of eggs has 10 eggs. The smaller cartons have six eggs.