# Eggs in England **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 29, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eggs-in-england/642481 "2012-11-29T17:00:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eggs-in-england/642481/121 "2013-09-16T16:33:21Z")
Apologize for resurrecting this zombie, but I saw this story in today’s DM: [So should you keep eggs in the fridge? Scientists crack the age-old argument over whether chilled or room temperature is best.](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2421530/So-eggs-fridge-Scientists-crack-age-old-argument-chilled-room-temperature-best.html) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eggs-in-england/642481/122 "2013-09-16T17:27:00Z")
No apologies necessary. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eggs-in-england/642481/123 "2013-09-16T18:23:57Z")
Egg-zactly. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eggs-in-england/642481/124 "2013-09-16T18:37:30Z")
Interesting that the linked article echoes a post from earlier in the thread - and it looks like the Mail has been well and truly whooshed in the following extract: “Michael Perkins, a former Navy man from Fareham, Hampshire, revealed in a letter to a news-paper that when he served on nuclear submarines in the Nineties, ‘the bulk of the eggs would be stored in the sonar electrical compartment, in relatively warm ambient temperatures, and would remain perfectly edible throughout the long voyage’. The only precaution the crew took was to turn over the boxes every few days, in order to prevent the yolks settling.” ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eggs-in-england/642481/125 "2013-09-16T18:57:54Z")
[In New Zealand a small mixed grocery shop is known as a dairy.](http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/food-shops/page-5) In Korean supermarkets eggs are often kept in the fridge. In the UK they’re often with the baking goods. I’ve not seen frogs for sale outside of China. ---
**Author:** ![bizerta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@bizerta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizerta)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eggs-in-england/642481/126 "2013-09-18T18:35:35Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Do you remember a jingle that went like this? “Brown eggs are local eggs, and local eggs are fresh.” I’ve lived in New England all my life. When I was a kid, we only saw white eggs just before Easter. I used to think that they starched them just so we could color them. White eggs started appearing in supermarkets year-around about 30(?) years ago. (My wife says I have no concept of long-term time. It could have been 50 years ago for all I know.) As for the “local eggs are fresh” jingle, I once compared the expiration dates of the two eggs. The white eggs expired 8 days after the brown eggs. I now base my color selection on price. White eggs are almost always less expensive. If they have to travel farther, why are they more expensive? ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eggs-in-england/642481/127 "2013-09-18T21:41:22Z")
I bought brown, free-range® eggs. I feel good about myself. Should I? They’re quite a bit more expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eggs-in-england/642481/128 "2013-09-18T21:52:56Z")
It depends whether ‘free range’ is a meaningful term in your locality - if it means the hens have the opportunity to forage for natural foods such as worms and insects, the eggs tend to look and taste better. If, on the other hand, it just means they are kept in overcrowded squalor in a field, and fed the same as barn hens, there’s probably not much difference. The yolk flavour of a true free range egg is much richer, in my experience. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eggs-in-england/642481/129 "2013-09-18T22:16:40Z")
We keep a handful of chickens in our garden here in the uk. Just to cloud things a little bit, we have a mixture of brown and white laying eggs. Our eggs are normally kept in the fridge as otherwise the cats would be playing football with them. A fresh egg is useless for baking or Yorkshire puddings. You need eggs 7-10 days old to get the biggest rise. My weekend treat to myself is to collect eggs while they’re still warm from the hens behind and poach them straight away. If you can get the eggs while they’re still wet they taste even better. (Hens backsides are lubricated and the eggs are wet and shiny when they come out.) ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eggs-in-england/642481/130 "2013-09-19T00:59:16Z")
> [@bizerta](#): > > I’ve lived in New England all my life. When I was a kid, we only saw white eggs just before Easter. I used to think that they starched them just so we could color them. > > White eggs started appearing in supermarkets year-around about 30(?) years ago. (My wife says I have no concept of long-term time. It could have been 50 years ago for all I know.) > > As for the “local eggs are fresh” jingle, I once compared the expiration dates of the two eggs. The white eggs expired 8 days after the brown eggs. I now base my color selection on price. White eggs are almost always less expensive. If they have to travel farther, why are they more expensive? I am in my sixties, and brown eggs were rare when I was little. I’d seen them, of course, but we always had white eggs. So white eggs were common (in Chicago at least) 55 years ago or so. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eggs-in-england/642481/131 "2013-09-19T02:52:50Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I’ve noticed that the room-temperature brown eggs in Europe have a whole lot more flavor than the refrigerated white ones in the U.S. I know that it was 10 months ago that you posted that, but I have eaten brown and white eggs both refrigerated and not, all around the world, and I have only noticed a slight…very slight difference in taste. Difference, not more or less flavorful. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eggs-in-england/642481/132 "2013-09-19T15:36:52Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I know that it was 10 months ago that you posted that, but I have eaten brown and white eggs both refrigerated and not, all around the world, and I have only noticed a slight…very slight difference in taste. Difference, not more or less flavorful. IMHO and all that, but that’s weird. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eggs-in-england/642481/133 "2013-09-19T15:58:12Z")
> [@bizerta](#): > > I now base my color selection on price. White eggs are almost always less expensive. All else being equal, though, it’s a little easier to notice when you’ve just now accidentally dropped in a bit of brown eggshell. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eggs-in-england/642481.md?page=6)