ISTM I regularly see advice that “old” eggs are preferable to use. (within some reason…a couple weeks old or so)
Recently from here:
And I have seen that old eggs are better for hard boiling.
Are “new” eggs ever ideal?
Poaching them.
I hear that so often that there must be some truth to it. And the interwebs abound with advice on how to make eggs easier to peel. But from recent experience I’ve found perhaps the most important factor of all: the hen that lays the egg. Unfortunately it’s not a useful principle in practice when you’re buying mass-market eggs. But I had some old-ish eggs – probably past their best-by date but that’s fine for eggs – that were still difficult to peel. And some fresh ones from a different brand where the shell just came right off with incredible ease.
Yes, fresher eggs are better for meringue. For almost everything else, eggs long past their expiration date are usually fine, but they don’t whip well.
Fresh eggs are generally better for everything. I don’t peel hard boiled eggs so I don’t know whether the older eggs are easier to peel theory is true or not. But generally the whites of fresh eggs are not as thin and watery as older eggs, the yolks are firmer and the taste is superior. A dozen fresh eggs from my brother’s hens are a great treat.
Older eggs are definitely easier to peel. So say most sources of information, on line or in books, and my personal experience matches that claim.
Other than that … in what way are “fresh eggs generally better” from an empirical standpoint? I’ve cooked with fresh eggs just snatched from the nest, and with eggs from the grocery store that have sat in my fridge for a while.
I had hoped that fresh eggs would be more luscious, but alas … taste-wise, I have honestly not noticed a significant difference between those just-snatched eggs and ones I bought at the store.
My cooking generally involves using eggs in baked goods (brownies, cookies, etc.) or scrambling/frying. What are you doing with eggs that has demonstrated the superiority of fresh eggs? Maybe they are better to whip up egg whites? (I can’t say I’ve paid enough attention to know.)
Appearance wise, they look better, the yolks stand up more, noticeable with sunny side eggs, while older eggs yolks sag/flatten. Sometimes I am cooking 1 new 1 old egg due to having 1 egg in the old carton left and gettign one new on and can see the difference.
We used to get fresh eggs from our friends (before a pine marten killed the chickens) and they were definitely harder to peel than the supermarket ones. But they tasted so much better. I wasn’t even looking for a difference, it just jumped out at me
For an over easy egg, fresh from the neighbor’s hen has always tasted better to me than one from the store or one that’s been refrigerated. Something about the viscosity of the yolk, I think.