You've Been Storing Eggs Wrong Your Entire Life

Whether you scramble them, fry them, or poach them, there's a good chance that before eggs ever hit your plate, they're coming from your refrigerator. It's certainly recommended that you always refrigerate eggs from the grocery store, but that's only half the battle. You may not put much thought into where exactly your eggs are stored in the fridge, but perhaps you should. After all, going to the trouble to fry up an egg that's already not at its freshest is no way to enjoy breakfast, right?

A properly refrigerated egg can make all the difference in keeping your eggs tasting fresher once they finally do find their way to your plate. Storing your eggs the right way doesn't take a lot of know-how, but it really can make all the difference in keeping them fresh for up to five weeks (via Healthline). Whether your eggs are brown, white, cage-free, or straight from your own chicken coop, follow these "eggcellent" guidelines, and your eggs will last longer and taste better. 

Perhaps your model of refrigerator has a built-in egg holder on the refrigerator door. Wow, that was pretty thoughtful of the manufacturer, wasn't it? Nope. Unfortunately, your fridge manufacturer's good intentions aren't doing your eggs any favors. Here's why.

First off, the fridge door is actually the warmest part of the refrigerator and is constantly being submitted to temperature fluctuations. The Egg Safety Center recommends that eggs in the fridge be kept in the coldest part of the refrigerator at 45 degrees Fahrenheit or below. If your eggs are stored on the door, then they're getting a blast of warm air every time you open it, and this can lead to the growth of harmful bacteria. Yuck.

It's also a good idea to pay attention to the expiration date and the number codes on the egg carton to ensure that you're using the oldest eggs in your fridge first.

As convenient as it might be to use that built-in egg holder in your fridge, or that too-cute ceramic dish you bought expressly for this purpose, please resist the urge. In fact, The Kitchn recommends that you avoid taking them out of the plain old grocery store container they came in until you're ready to use them.

There are a few reasons for this, too. For starters, the closed-lid carton is going to better prevent your eggs from absorbing the other smells in your fridge as well as keep them from losing their moisture. Eggs that are kept in their carton are already in the proper position with the yolk away from the egg's air pocket at the top of the shell.

Finally, egg manufacturers design their cartons to ensure that eggs have the proper protection from the processing plant to the grocery store to your home without breaking. As for what you should store in the pre-made egg holder on your refrigerator door? Well, that's up to you... just not eggs, please.

Keeping eggs in the refrigerator is the best method for storing your eggs, but what about if you've got a surplus of eggs? Instead of waiting until Halloween and dishing out some payback to your annoying neighbors (please don't), a better option is going to be freezing those eggs. 

Eggs have a pretty amazing shell, but unfortunately, it wasn't engineered to withstand the icy temperatures of your freezer. You can freeze whole eggs by cracking them and gently beating the yolk and white together. Ice cube trays work as appropriate storage, and each holds around half an egg, so keep that measurement in mind (The Spruce Eats). Once frozen, put your egg cubes in a sealable bag or container.  

Now if you want to separate the whites and yolks for freezing you can do that too, but it does require slightly more preparation. Actually, storing egg whites in your freezer is pretty simple and you should just follow the same steps as if you were freezing a whole egg, but of course, use the egg whites only (via Incredible Egg). 

As for the egg yolks, in order to prevent them from becoming gelatinous muck that's unusable for cooking or baking, you'll need to doctor them up a bit before freezing. Add either 1/8 teaspoon salt or 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar or corn syrup per four egg yolks before you put them in sealable containers for freezing. 

Your eggs should thaw and be ready for cooking after sitting at room temperature for 30 minutes, and they'll keep in your freezer for up to a year.