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I normally buy free-range eggs.
But the other day the shop was way low on eggs and the closest I could get were barn-laid (which is where the hens aren't kept in cages but are free to wander around a large barn. Supposedly). I always check the eggs when I buy them to make sure they're not cracked, and I don't tend to keep them in the fridge as there's rarely room, and it's never been a problem before having the eggs on the bench for a week.
Until today:
Opened the egg carton, and one of the eggs had a dark trail of something-that-had-been-liquid across it. As the carton itself had no residue, I knew whatever-it-was hadn't just been dripped on, so I looked closer (but not too closely). A crack. With something sulphurously black oozing out. Ick.
The remaining 6 eggs were removed from the carton, and the carton carefully closed and placed immediately in the bin. I must have juggled it a little though - OMG the smell!
Then the eggs were carefully cracked one at a time into a glass. The first was dubiously watery and therefore donated to a worthy cause. The second had that dark-green watery warning that you have about-half-a-second-to-not-breathe-in-too-late! and also went straight in the bin. The third was dodgy to the point of not trusting it, and the last three were definitely on the getting-towards-stale side. They would have been fine in a cake, for instance, but the requirement here was for bacon, egg and cheese muffins, where the eggs have to be good. And definitely not to the standard of a Curate's Egg. I threw them into the frypan with the bacon rind bits that someone was going to get, because he needs his treats, but they weren't up to human standards.
So we had straight bacon-and-cheese muffins for lunch, and the rubbish tin is getting emptied in about 5 minutes once the coffee has sunk in. And I'll not be buying barn-laid eggs again.
Until today:
Opened the egg carton, and one of the eggs had a dark trail of something-that-had-been-liquid across it. As the carton itself had no residue, I knew whatever-it-was hadn't just been dripped on, so I looked closer (but not too closely). A crack. With something sulphurously black oozing out. Ick.
The remaining 6 eggs were removed from the carton, and the carton carefully closed and placed immediately in the bin. I must have juggled it a little though - OMG the smell!
Then the eggs were carefully cracked one at a time into a glass. The first was dubiously watery and therefore donated to a worthy cause. The second had that dark-green watery warning that you have about-half-a-second-to-not-breathe-in-too-late! and also went straight in the bin. The third was dodgy to the point of not trusting it, and the last three were definitely on the getting-towards-stale side. They would have been fine in a cake, for instance, but the requirement here was for bacon, egg and cheese muffins, where the eggs have to be good. And definitely not to the standard of a Curate's Egg. I threw them into the frypan with the bacon rind bits that someone was going to get, because he needs his treats, but they weren't up to human standards.
So we had straight bacon-and-cheese muffins for lunch, and the rubbish tin is getting emptied in about 5 minutes once the coffee has sunk in. And I'll not be buying barn-laid eggs again.