Wow I am grossed out and interested all at the same time, lol. I've always heard you should crack eggs into a separate bowl, but never really knew why until now! Thankfully I have yet to find a blood or baby chick in any eggs!! What I have seen though is a thick? white substance, kinda connecting the yolk and the clear. I've always thought that was normal but now I'm wondering, is it?

Dh went through the eggs in the store to find the oldest for our deviled eggs! Never done that before, lol! He found some that said Nov 23, the rest had a date halfway through Dec. Just don't tell the inlaws, they might not get it and think DH married a freak! Actually he'll probably tell them all himself, and make us both look like freaks! He just doesn't think.

And yes, eggs are sold refrigerated here in the US. We are taught that you will freaking DIE if you eat unrefrigerated eggs! I guess they have been lying, and my grandma was right? That just figures since the USDA (US Department of Agriculture) is a government organization. Never trust the government! Now I feel bad for trashing all those eggs my grandma gives me every year. Do you guys eat raw eggs in protein shakes or mayonnaise? We are told not to unless they are pasteurized. Same with milk. Raw milk is a big No-No.

And that stringy thing connecting the egg parts is normal. My moms boyfriend is sickened by it and removes it. I tell him I do too when I make his cheesecakes. Yeah, right! I've got time for that!

LOL, I am loving this thread...

I am in Australia too and in my region one major supermarket sells eggs refrigerated (Woolworths) and another just off the shelf (Coles). Go figure.

Technically, you do not NEED to refrigerate eggs, but this is on the assumption you will eat them sooner rather than later (within a day or two). Eggs are porous, and day by day the air sac gets larger and the egg goes off with foreign bacteria entering the shell.

So, having had my own chickens for years and having researched the heck out of this topic, my humble opinion is to buy the freshest eggs you can (either off the shelf, from a farmers market, or out of a refrigerated cabinet) - look at the use-by date; the use by day in Australia is usually five weeks from the day they were laid - and then store them IN THEIR ORIGINAL CARTON in the fridge. Also, ensure you store them pointy end DOWN. Do not put your eggs in an open egg holder in the fridge either, as the eggs will absorb the smells in your fridge.

So if you take weeks to get through a dozen eggs, its important to ensure as long a life as possible by doing this. If youa re like me, and make so many darn cakes these days that I buy my eggs by the tray the same morning they were laid and collected, I just leave them at room temperature as I am sure to use them up within 24 hours. And as we know, its best to have room temp eggs for baking!

Free-range or home grown eggs rock...they are the best thing ever! But it is very important to crack each egg into a separate glass or bowl, because you will get the occasional mongy egg - or one that was laid yonks ago on the farm and has just been collected. ie, its rotten. Trust your nose!!!

My understanding is that eggs are sold refridgerated in the US, because they are washed before being packed. Washing an egg leaves it even more vulnerable to bacteria, and therefore should be stored in the fridge.

In the UK and Spain (I have only lived in these 2 countries, can't speak for others), eggs are sold on the supermarket shelf at room temperature. The eggs are not washed - we get a bit of chicken poo or feathers on the shells every now and again, but no big deal! I do store mine in the fridge after purchase though.

Dayti: Totally agree. The eggs can be stored at room temperature - unwashed. I used to get my eggs from a neighbor, about 100 at a time. I never washed them until I would use them. If I did wash them, they went straight into the fridge. I never had an embryo incident. Only twin yolks occasionally. Now, of course, you should use the eggs within a reasonable amount of time - not let them sit out for weeks on end.

I raise my own chickens, for eggs, and I have a couple of roosters. In the winter it's not a problem, but regardless, I always float my eggs. If the eggs rise to the surface or turn and bob, they aren't any good. I also crack into a separate bowl, just in case.

There has been some very good information here ~ particularly for the "city folk." On refrigeration, the eggs age faster if they are not refrigerated. I prefer eggs from free range or chicken yard chickens. The yolks tend to be more orange and flavorful when a chicken scratches in the dirt and eats bugs and stuff other than chicken feed.

When I was growing up, the chicken always loved kitchen peelings. All raw veggie and fruit scaps went into a basin for the chickies. Take the basin out to chicken yard, toss the contents across the fence and yell, "Chick, chick, chickie." And they would come flying from all directions. The scraps were a feast in their eyes.

I can ABSOLUTELY believe they missed a male when they were chicken "sexing". I saw "Dirty Jobs" with Mike Rowe last night and they were chicken sexing. They would pick the poor things up by the wing and squeeze their tummies to make them poop and scrape their "vents" (butt-holes) on the edge of a can,(to get the poop off) then flip them over and squeeze their "vents" wrong side out like a pimple to look for a "microscopic bump" inside of them. Bump = male.

It looked horrible, and I felt so sorry for them! I'm no bleeding heart, I believe God created most animals to be food, and i have no problem eating them, but I want them to be treated humanely until butchered. I know that squeezing and "vent" scraping and all that cannot be comfortable and I don't believe for a minute that they are immune to it.

Even Mike said something about it. They were cheeping frantically and Mike asked if it hurt them and the guy said "No". Then Mike looked at the camera and said (with a wry look om his face) "I guess those are squeals of joy then?" Yeah, sure.

A good rule of thumb is one day on the counter = one week in the fridge. We will occassionally leave eggs out for 3 or 4 days if we are going to hardboil them and have no older eggs in the fridge. Typically we mark a dozen from our ladies and leave them for three weeks to a month in the fridge, before hardboiling them.

I just had a REALLY gross thought after reading all the posts on this thread......what if, instead of using that egg for a cake, you BOILED it!!! YUCK!!

Oh my gosh, I feel for you! I've never experienced anything like that ever, but I think it would traumatize me for life! Thanks for the heads up, now I'll be a lot more cautious when cracking my eggs!

Once I cracked a egg into my meatloaf mixture and it was BLACK.........never crack an egg into anything but a mixing bowl first after that, and that was 40 years ago....ewwwwwww is right.....I dont know how this egg got black but ewwwwwwwww too hahaha

Feather colors does not mean color of eggs.

I raise my own hens and I get white eggs from cream/black/brown hens, brown eggs out of 'Splash' who's almost all white, and blue and green eggs from my multi-colored hens.

Always break eggs into a separate bowl, like so many have said. I had a fresh egg the other day that was almost covered w/blood spots, but normally I rarely have a blood spot.

Color of egg is based on breed.... not color of feathers. You can usually tell by their side wobbles.

I've seen it many years ago when we raised our own chickens but not in any store bought eggs. And it is gross beyond words. I buy my eggs at Costco too, so I will be breaking them in a separate bowl for sure.

eeeewwww I dont want to read anymore lol, eggs will never be the same again

that's why i never crack my egg directly into my mixing bowl...although, thank goodness, this hasn't happened to me...yet ... but i happen to crack open an egg that was spoiled rotten...ewww!...the smell was horrifying ...apparently, it had a small crack which i didn't notice w/c caused it to rot

bobbie

Oops, on feather color= shell color. Breed is the correct answer. Our reds had brown eggs, and our whites had white eggs. Since we never had any of the fancy chickens, I forgot that it had to do with breed.

I recall the first time I had this happen to me. I was a teen and completely grossed out. Thanks for the reminder for the egg cracking though. I've gotten lazy. I need to start cracking in another bowl first.