The “Float Test”

How to tell how fresh your “fresh” eggs are

Having access to fresh eggs is the best, it really is! But one downside to having an “endless” supply of fresh eggs that people don’t warn you about is that you have SO many eggs. There are eggs everywhere! There are eggs in the refrigerator, there are eggs on the counter, there are eggs outside, there are eggs inside…find a surface and you’ll find an egg!

We love having hens to lay eggs that we can grab from our backyard but they really do collect and you can only give so many away before your neighbors start to turn you down because they haven’t finished the supply you pawned off on them two days ago (the audacity…in this economy?!)

So if you do end up collecting eggs around your house like a never-ending Easter-egg hunt, I’ve got an interesting tip you should know! Actually, this test is handy to check the freshness of any egg you may stumble upon. This includes grocery store-bought eggs, farm-fresh eggs, goose eggs, etc. But please don’t go grabbing random eggs in the wilderness…that’s uncomfortable for everyone, especially the birds or reptiles.

Why do eggs go bad?

Short answer: Science.

Less-short answer: Egg shells are porous and allow air and bacterial growth in the contents of the egg, causing the egg to spoil.

What is the practical application of this knowledge?

Air means more buoyancy which means that spoiled eggs will float in water! It’s a simple test you can perform in your kitchen that can show you at a glance if an egg has gone bad.