How Do You Pick Fresh Eggs? Five Tricks to Tell Them Apart Easily

First, look: fresh eggs have a rather rough shell with a frosty powder on it and a bright luster; older eggs have a smoother shell, and rotten eggs have a dull, dark shell with grease stains on it.

Second, listen: shake the egg gently near your ear; a good egg sounds solid, while a bad egg sounds different.

Third, hold it to the light: hold the egg with both hands as if forming a tube and look through it toward sunlight or a lamp; a good egg appears slightly red, semi-transparent, with a clear outline of the yolk.

Fourth, spin: place the egg on a flat surface and give it a gentle spin with your hand. When a fresh egg spins, there is resistance inside the shell, and it stops after two or three turns; a bad egg spins for a long time and fast; if the egg spins neither fast nor slowly, it proves it is no longer fresh enough.

Fifth, float: put the egg in salt water; one that sinks to the bottom is a fresh egg; one that floats with the large end up, the small end down, and half sunk, half floating is an older egg; a rotten egg floats on the surface of the water.