Carton or no carton?
It’s tempting to store eggs in something that’s either more practical or pleasing on the eye than a basic box. You may have a lovely looking spiral egg holder or handy egg shelf in your fridge but the truth is nothing can beat the original carton.
Not only does the box protect the eggs, but it also shows the best before date which you can refer back to anytime you’re unsure.
Perhaps the best reason to keep eggs in their carton is so they stay as fresh as can be. Why? Eggshells have tiny pores which bacteria from other foods and smells such as food odour and flavouring can seep through over time. Our tip – keep the carton!
Should I store them in the fridge?
To the million dollar question: should you store your eggs in the fridge or keep them in the cupboard? For optimum quality and safety, you want to make sure your eggs are kept at a steady temperature below 20’C, so try to avoid moving them too often between very cold and very warm temperatures such as between a hot car and fridge, or fridge and hot kitchen.
If you have a cool pantry that doesn’t heat up when the kitchen temperature rises, that’s fine for storing eggs but whilst a regular kitchen cupboard may seem a relatively constant environment, temperatures can still fluctuate when you're cooking things that produce a lot of heat or steam.
Best practice is to store eggs in the fridge; that way the temperature is always at a constant and your eggs will be fresher! When you do get around to using them, try to leave the eggs out of the fridge for around 30 minutes to bring them up to room temperature, otherwise cooking times could change depending on how you’re using them.
What about raw eggs?
If you’ve got raw egg yolks or whites left over from a recipe which you don’t want to waste (let’s face it, why would you?), you can store them in the fridge as long as you plan to use them within the next few days. Keep the whites and yolks separated - both should be stored in the fridge in air-tight containers to save them from spoiling. A simple trick to keep your yolk nice and soft is adding a very thin layer of milk to it – don’t drown it! In terms of timings, the whites can be kept for around 2 days, whilst the yolks can be kept for up to 4.
Is freezing ok?
Freezing is absolutely ok! Just make sure that you beat the egg together before freezing and definitely don’t try and freeze a shelled egg. Unfortunately when freezing, the egg yolks tend to become glutinous, however a handy trick to prevent this is adding in half a teaspoon of salt or sugar (depending on whether your use is to be for sweet or savoury dishes) per mixed egg.
Always store your eggs in a freezable container with the date clearly labelled and use within 6 months. If you’re short of containers then an ice tray works perfectly! The volume of the beaten egg will change when thawing so make sure you remember that three tablespoons of beaten egg is the equivalent of a whole egg.