How to tell how fresh an egg is

Sometimes the dates aren't going to tell you exactly what you need to know and that's precisely how fresh they are

Because some recipes need really fresh eggs, here's how to find out..

Here is a container of water

If you pop a fresh egg in, and it sinks and sits horizontally on the bottom, it's really fresh

If it tilts up halfway, then it's not so fresh

If it sits up in a vertical position and floats, then it is really quite stale

Now when they are broken out onto a plate, we can actually see the difference

A very fresh egg has a plump, rounded yolk that sits up proud

It also has an inner, gelatinous ring around it

And then an outer, thinner ring of white

Fresh eggs are much easier to separate and are essential for poaching or frying

Medium fresh means not such a distinctive double ring of white as you can see

But these are fine for omelettes, scrambling and baking

Stale looks like this, all flat and flabby, not much good for anything, and frying or poaching a complete disaster