There’s nothing healthier than an egg. It’s full of protein and good cholesterol and it tastes great too. The only thing is, an egg that’s gone bad can kill you, so everyone needs to know how to tell if an egg is bad. And the good news? It’s super easy to do. Here’s how!
Check if an egg is bad by placing it in water. A fresh egg sinks and lays flat, while a bad egg floats due to air buildup inside. You can also crack it open; a bad egg has a sour smell or unusual appearance.
4 Ways To Tell If An Egg Is Bad
So, you’ve got your breakfast cookbook out, and your egg poacher waiting or your egg cracker topper for boiled eggs and now, all that’s left is to vet your eggs for goodness.
There are four easy ways to do this:
- The water test. Fill a bowl with water. Put the eggs in the bowl so that they’re covered in water. The freshest eggs will stay on the bottom of the bowl, eggs that should be eaten right now will stand on one end, and the eggs that need to be thrown out or composted? They’re the ones that float.
- Shake it all about. Place the egg next to your ear. Shake the egg. Hear a kind of liquid sloshing about inside? Then it’s probably gone bad. Chuck it out. Hear nothing? Then get cooking.
- Crack it and sniff. OK, be warned this isn’t a perfect test but a rotting egg tends to have a certain hint of sulfur about it. If an egg stinks when you break it, don’t eat it.
- Look at the egg white. Another imperfect test, but when a fresh egg breaks the white holds to the yolk with it sitting proudly in the center. In a not-so-fresh egg, it doesn’t and the white spreads out more.