Speaking of eggs...

Jeff’s report about receiving eggs directly from the farm got me thinking about storage. Why is it that in the U.S. we refrigerate our eggs but in many countries they just leave them out on the counter at room temperature? Someone in France told me that you only have to refrigerate an egg if at some time it had been refrigerated. Not sure if that is true or not.

Possibly because Americans ship eggs (and everything else) for hundreds of miles?

Possibly because Americans ship eggs (and everything else) for hundreds of miles?

This isn't it. The natural shelf life of an egg is about 30 days (before it starts to float). I believe that eggs, like everything else, requires a freshness date to satisfy the feds. In addition, as Americans, we believe that a little refirgeration will naturlaly extend the shelf life of anything by a few days. Not to mention, the dairy association is probbly very happy with us throwing away eggs every 2 weeks. IMHO.

I'll cop to leaving eggs on my counter. We go through them relatively quickly and I do try to get farm fresh eggs. Sometimes I actually succeed. Friends who visit are shocked, I actually put them in the fridge and pretend that's where they ALWAYS live when my mother visits (trust me, that prevents so many stoopit conversations)...but...well, the only ones I toss are any cracked eggs, and hopefully I've done a good enough job at the store as I bought them that I don't have any cracked eggs (although I've been known to drop a bag of groceries on occasion...)

b