A trick my mother taught me to find out if an egg is a good one or a bad one is to put it in cold water, preferably in a container at least six inches deep. If an egg is fresh, it will sink to the bottom and remain there; if it has gone bad, it will float. We do this every time we need to use eggs, and we have encountered bad eggs with this method several times before. Sometimes we've even had to throw away more than half a carton of eggs.
I decided to look this up: some sources recommend using some salt in the water, but others do not, and I will say that we have had success in testing eggs without using salt. According to this link from About.com (itself recommends using salted water), there is an air sac inside all eggs, and the sac is small when the egg is fresh. The older an egg gets, the sac expands and once it's large enough it will cause the egg to float. The article mentions that eggs are good for about three weeks after you buy them, and we have found this to be the case in our experience. Still, I recommend testing any egg, regardless of age or supposed age.
We taught this to someone who came over today asking politely if we had an egg to spare, and she was surprised to learn about this form of egg testing. She gave me the idea to blog about it!
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