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You can also tell a really fresh egg from a supermarket egg by visual inspection of them once they have been cracked on to a flat surface.

//deleted// feeble attempt at ascii art.

An unfresh egg has a flat white, with a dome for the yolk.

A really fresh egg has an extra raised bit just before the yolk. In cross section it has three levels, rather than two.

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I get what you mean. Funnily enough, my reaction to an egg that doesn't have the dome in the white as well is that it's old and should be discarded. I'd probably fry it, but double-check it, and throw away the box if there were any eggs left in it. I don't think you can buy eggs that aren't really fresh in any supermarket here.

And from reading the article, I get the impression that weeks-old refrigerated eggs are the norm in the US. I had no idea. Yuck. :-)

(I know I'm wrong, refrigerated eggs last a long time, and they're perfectly fine, it's just not what I'm used to or were brought up to.)

Older eggs are fine for baking though.

And they're even better for hard-boiling, as the shell is more easily removed.

Even unrefrigerated, fresh eggs last an amazingly long time. They aren't as pretty but are fine to eat.

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