You can figure out your tray size by putting one egg’s mixture into one hole and seeing its level. If it overflows, put half the egg mixture into two holes and mark its level. Then you can use two cubes = 1 egg.
I have to ask the experts: why do uncooked eggs have a longer shelf life in the fridge than boiled ones (according to reccomendations)?
Boiling weakens the shell and in many cases results in microfractures or outright cracks, exposing the perishable insides to the nasty outside world. Similar reasoning behind why a piece of fruit rots much more quickly if its skin is damaged.
You, ma’am, win the Pullet Surprise.
Ouch.
Great info.
Wouldn’t taking an egg out of the fridge, which you say causes an expansion of the contents, actually create a pressure effect, and push water out of the pores, thus effectively making it more safe? Hey, I gotta know thus stuff!
This is the only part of your excellent post that I want to query… for one thing it seems to ignore that many people store their eggs at room temperature for weeks, with no ill effects (indeed, they’re not refrigerated in the shops here in the UK either - so it can’t be that bad, or some quasi-governmental busybody would be all over it).
Also, it sounds like you’re saying that a cold, fresh egg will be as good for baking a cake as one allowed to warm to room temperature. I’m fairly sure that’s not true. Did I misunderstand you there?
Down here the grocery store that I shop at actually stamps an expiration date on the shell. As cheap as eggs are I’d never take a chance on using one after that date. Matter of fact I start getting nervous about a week before they are scheduled to expire.
I believe the point was that while it isn’t good to take them from the fridge to room temperature, because of the temperature change and subsequent condensation making the shell easier for bacteria to penetrate, it’s not that bad if you are just going to cook them right after, because any bacteria that did get through the shell while it was wet would be killed soon. The idea is that if you take the cold eggs and let them warm up, letting the bacteria in, and then store them again rather than cooking them right away, the bacteria culture will grow inside the egg and cause it to go bad.
Hey Mangetout: Opal Cat clarified what I was trying to say beautifully. Eggs that are kept at room temperature the entire time after being laid are good for a few weeks, though they will shrink internally as they dry out. Eggs that are refrigerated, and then warmed to room temp, and then put back in the fridge become little bacterial breeding grounds.
As for baking, I was trying to say that a recently laid egg will likely work better than an egg that was bought from the store, whether you warm it up first or not. An egg that you got from the chicken yourself this morning will have less protein degradation than any egg you might buy at the store. Eggs at the store are fresh, but they’re not as fresh as that. They have to spend driving over from the farm, after all.
If you don’t have access to someone with chickens, you can ask your grocer when they are expecting their next shipment. You can also get eggs from a farmer’s market vendor, but be sure to explain why you want the freshest eggs they have. Sometimes the folks at farmers markets are actually resellers or brokers, and don’t know for sure when the eggs were collected.
Coffee Achiever: No, it won’t ooze like that. The egg is maximally filled right after it is laid, right? At 107 degrees, it’s filled completely without even the air cell at the wide end. As it cools, it loses volume primarily through the loss of water. It’s losing water all the time. Heating a cooled egg up to room temperature won’t make it ooze like you describe because there simply isn’t enough stuff left inside the shell to fill it completely.
Think about making hard boiled eggs. The eggs don’t ooze, even though you are heating them up to 212 degrees. Take the egg out of the water before it’s finished cooking and look at it if you want to experiment.
So is there a good way to clean eggs so that I can take them camping without having to worry? Just not refrigrate ones that I buy from my farmer seems to be the best.
You would probably be fine taking eggs from the farmers market (ie, ones that have been kept at room temperature) and packing them well enough so they don’t crack. The farmer should have washed them so they aren’t caked with manure. Obviously, don’t leave them in the sun, and make sure you cook them all the way before eating them. But that’s My Humble Opinion. Don’t sue me. 
Not “ooze” (at least not visibly). I’m referring to the danger factor. The increase in temperature upon removing an egg from a refrigerator should cause an expansion of the contents, and this would cause a positive pressure in the interior, and force things --air, water in the pores, bacteria in the water in the pores–out, not pull it in. I’m guessing we’re talking very, very small amounts, but it still should not pull things in. And that should make the egg’s interior (relatively) more safe. This, of course, is assuming the shell remains a fixed size.
Allow me to apologize. I’ve read this forum for years, but only recently decided to put forth my opinions. If this rebuttal is out of line, please let me know. I hold you folks in highest regard. I just think that occasionaly being picky and technical is part of what this forum is all about. I don’t want to be asked to leave (at least, not this soon).
Aww. You’re sweet. Taking all those little dead chicken embryos on a nice trip out into the woods. Don’t let them sit too close to the fire, at night.
if they’re not fertilized they’re not embryos
I think I saw what I did. My first post sucks.
Awful. I was trying to go for:
Cold egg → warm egg → condensation on egg + expansion of eggs contents → put egg back in fridge → contents shrink again and pull in the condensation, which is contaminated with bacteria from the outside.
Does that make more sense?
I’ve been in school so long, I’ve circled back around to crap writer again 
And then I completely misunderstood your posts, so my reading comprehension is gone too! Nooo!
Ah, got it, thanks.
Understood - actually, I remember reading some article about exactly how un-fresh supermarket eggs actually are - something about a ‘production date’ not needing to be related to the date they were actually laid, supposedly adding weeks to the permissible in-transit and storage time.
Fresher is better in most cases, but whatever eggs you have though, I think it’s better to let them warm to room temp before baking with them - it always seems to give a better rise that way - although I realise it’s anecdotal, I think it’s a common enough conviction amongst bakers that there must be something in it. I might try testing it sometime with cakes made from identical ingredients, excepting the starting temperature of the eggs.
Yep. I use one of those plastic egg carriers they sell in the camping aisle. If I have an obliging stream nearby, then I tie a rope around the handle, other end to a tree and dunk the egg holder into the stream*. Keeps 'em cooler. But I’ve also had them for two weeks at summer heat in my tent with no ill effects - although a few times I wondered if they’d soft-boil from the heat!
*If stream water makes you oogy, you can always dunk the eggs in some bleach water before cracking them open to use them.
You might be wrong, but there’s no way your post is out of line. It’s similar to dozens of others posts appearing on this site every day.
And you’d have to try much harder to be asked to leave. Like insulting other dopers or something similar.
I just use an insulated cool box or bag - if you’re keeping meat or milk in it, then it needs to be chilled somehow, but for eggs, just keeping them in an insulated box protects them from extreme fluctuations in temperature.
Next time I’m at the supermarket, I’m going to take a look at the ‘best before’ date on some of the (unrefrigerated) packs of eggs - I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a month in the future at least.