Floaty Eggs

Growing up I was taught that you could tell if an egg was good or not without cracking it by putting it in a cup of water. If it sank to the bottom, good, if it floated, bad. I’ve also seen this advice perpetuated on cooking and cruising websites as well.

Well, at this point in the Ha’apai group we were easily out of eggs, but then Tim, Jack, and Camille dinghied over to the village on Nomuka and came back with a dozen for us to share. So, with just a few eggs, you can imagine that they were highly valued. They were gold. So, now imagine my dismay when I’m down to my last two and in the middle of baking something (I don’t remember exactly what) and my last egg floated. And this is how I learned that a floaty egg is not necessarily bad. I cracked it open, and it looked fine, and it smelled fine, so I used it.

I’ve also learned that an egg that sinks is not necessarily good. I’ve cracked open a sinker and had it be all moldy inside.

So, I no longer use the float test on my eggs. I do, however, always crack each individual egg into a small bowl rather than cracking it directly into whatever I’m making at the time. Nothing worse than cracking the 8th of 8 eggs into a large bowl and have it come out all black and stinky, ruining the whole lot.