Do you do this with empty eggshells too? Yuck!
Do you also go through quite a few eggs at home in a week? In the most velvety carbonara, an absurdly good gin and tonic cake, or simply the perfect boiled egg? I often put the shell of an egg I’ve just cracked back in the carton, especially when I’m also holding a whisk or frying pan in my other hand, only to fish it back out a little later to throw it away. But guess what?
It turns out, as I discovered through the worldwide web, that there are people who put empty eggshells back in the carton next to the other eggs and then calmly leave them there for a few days until all the eggs have been used! Gross! Honestly, I couldn’t believe my ears; surely that starts to smell? But this is the main reason it’s a bad idea:
Cross-contamination
At the heart of everything you do in the kitchen is ‘working clean’. You don’t want bacteria to spread. That’s why it’s such a particularly bad idea to wash chicken before preparing it, because any bacteria will only be splashed around. Or failing to wash your cutting board with dish soap between cutting raw meat and then a cucumber or something similar.
Less happy egg
Eggs can also contaminate each other. Salmonella bacteria can be present both on the outside and inside of an egg. So if you place an open eggshell with traces of raw egg next to an unbroken egg, bacteria can be transferred. Salmonella may already have been present too, which is why it’s important to throw the shell away immediately after cracking an egg (in the bin or on the compost heap) and then wash your hands before continuing to cook or bake.
Many people know that you can get food poisoning through your own actions, but we can sometimes use a little reminder to take those few extra steps to the bin! And then I promise I’ll try to snack less on the dough the next time Smartie cookies are being made…
Also read:
- Why it’s time to throw away that plastic cutting board
- How-to: maintaining a wooden cutting board
- Would you keep red meat for three weeks?
