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 your eggs are stored in the fridge, but perhaps you should.
A properly refrigerated egg can make all the difference in keeping your eggs lasting longer and 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 can make all the difference.
Your refrigerator door isn't the best spot to store eggs
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.
Keep your eggs in the carton
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.
