How long do eggs keep with out preservation (being kept in a fridge, etc.) A day ago we almost ate scrambled chicken. What a horrible surprise. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]
How long do eggs keep with out preservation (being kept in a fridge, etc.) A day ago we almost ate scrambled chicken. What a horrible surprise. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]
Tell us more of the situation. Where had the egg been?
Why wasn't the egg refrigerated?
Curious, as well as need more info to give an answer.
We were letting a chicken sit on eggs. We must have picked up some eggs that had been sat on for a while. Just curious as to how long an egg can sit in the koop or on the counter before they are bad.
"Bad" would need some definition. If the chicken has been sitting on the eggs, then she is trying to incubate them and will keep the temp. high enough to do that. If there is an embryo developing, then as far as the chicken goes, the egg is not 'bad'.
Picking or gathering eggs from nests with several eggs that are partially incubated, possibly (as you apparently found out) renders the egg 'bad' for the frying pan. It is a good idea to break an egg in a saucer or small dish to look for blood spots (early signs of a fertilized egg with a growing embryo) or embryos that look like chickens.
But at room temperature, an egg can last a while, but I don't know what that time period is, as it depends on the temperature, I am sure.
Search for some information on egg incubation as well as egg storage. An egg is a pretty remarkable thing. If it isn't fertilized (no rooster around) then the time frame is different.
We use to keep the hens in a coop with egg laying box's and no roosters, plus gather the eggs once a day. Then there is no danger of getting a 'bad' one.
My Aunt didn't like it when I visited the farm as a young boy. I would find nests with a dozen eggs and bring them in with all the other eggs. She came flying out of the house screaming and muttering my name (probably in vain) after breaking a 'bad' egg in the hot frying pan. It wasn't far enough along to fly yet. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
You can break eggs one at a time into a bowl so you can discard any too far along without wasting the good ones.
Preserving eggs sans a cooler... Imerse the eggs (as fresh as possible) in sodium silicate solution, AKA "water glass" and they will keep up to 90 days or so.
In the Philipines eggs that are just short of hatching are "stopped" and later eaten with great dellight by the natives (and a few drunken sailors.) They prefer duck eggs.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
A simple test for freshness is to immerse the egg in water. If it floats it is not fresh, if it sits still it is fresh. I can't tell you the science, but it works.
I believe it's called bilut, or something like that. Yuck. I recall eating one, in my drunken sailor days, but I'm not sure that "delight" adequately describes my feelings at that time...shudder...
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