How To Tell How Old Eggs Are

Have you ever wondered how old eggs are that are in your fridge? Or maybe you just bought some and now wondering how fresh they really are?

Did you know there are ways to tell how old eggs are? It is not as in-depth as one might think either. You don’t need to go to school for it.

Finding out how old eggs are is truly pretty easy! You just need to stand on your head, put the egg in water with a light shining behind it and stand there like that for an hour to tell.

Just kidding!

Did I have you going who in the world could ever do that? No, for real it is an easy thing to judge how old eggs are.

You will just need a deep bowl or jar/ glass and some water. Not salt water, just plain tap water.

Then you simply put the egg in the water. Be sure to lower it all the way to the bottom and not just drop it in. We don’t want it to hit the bottom and crack and then be un-usable.

You can lower it with your hand and arm, or if you do not want to get wet, a slotted ladle works well.

As you can see in the picture in this post, I tested 3 eggs to show the different stages of how old eggs are.

The first one that was fresh that day from my lovely hens, lays flat on the bottom of the jar.

That is what fresh eggs do. If yours lay flat then you know you have eggs that are not that old and have been laid within the past few weeks.

Next, you see one that is on the bottom of the jar but stands up on its end.

This one is a little older. The one in my picture is eight weeks old to be exact.

Now this egg is still good and safe to eat. It just does not have that extra fresh and rich taste that a fresh egg has, but no reason to toss out.

You would however, want to use it pretty soon as you do not have much time left. You would not want it to go to waste.

Letting an egg go to waste is just throwing money out the window. I mean chances are you paid for that egg. Even if you did not pay for it and have your own hens, you still would not want their hard work of laying the egg to go to waste.

Ways To Use Up Eggs:

If you have a bunch of eggs that need to be used pretty soon, you can try using them up on recipes that use a lot of eggs. Two I like is my Crustless Quiche or Grandma’s Raisin Cake Recipe.

Or, you always have the option of freezing them too if you don’t think you can use them up fast. One of the best ways I have found to do this is to crack the eggs into ice trays. Then freeze them. After they are frozen, you can put the cubes into a freezer bag.

Frozen eggs work great for baking recipes and scrambled eggs. They are not great for sunny side up eggs or things like that.

Spoiled Eggs:

Now for the last egg in the jar. Notice that one floating to the top? Well, that is an old egg and I would not recommend using it.

The one in my picture was twenty-one weeks old when I shot this picture. After you have checked to see how old eggs are, if you have any like this, I would toss them in the trash. Better yet, add them to your compost pile.

You could also toss it into the woods if you are near any.

Pretty easy right? Now head to the fridge and check out see how old your eggs are.