Reply to Eggs in the car - how long is too long?

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[quote=Anonymous]Totally fine.  You're not finding guidance on it because it's not an issue, at all.

There are two main issues with eggs, age or salmonella.

Salmonella: the problem is mostly on the shell itself.  Small risk of salmonella developing inside the egg, but vary rare.  It's usually introduced on the shell, then the inside gets contaminated when you crack the shell open.  Mostly mitigated by how we treat eggs in the US prior to sale, but if in doubt, cook the egg well to kill off any salmonella contamination.  Letting the uncracked egg sit for an hour or two won't make any difference here, if there was salmonella on the shell to begin with there will still be a bit there later, but it's not growing in a medium that you'll actually be eating - the risk of introduction doesn't really change.  The reason you hear guidance on egg products is the risk that salmonella was introduced when the egg was cracked, and THEN it sat at an unsafe temperature for an hour or two for the salmonella to grow in the egg medium. (Incidentally, the recommendations on egg salad or deviled eggs actually have more to do with the mayo than the eggs themselves....)

Age: as eggs age, they absorb air through the shell, water evaporates, and the chemistry within the egg changes.  This leads to the classic "rotten egg" (totally different from salmonella, which doesn't smell), but it won't be affected by an hour or two of warmth - it happens over longer periods of time (days/weeks at room temp, weeks/months at refrigerator temp).  Two ways to test: float test, or crack and smell.  Float test: put the egg in a bowl of water.  If it sinks on its side, it's really fresh.  If it sinks standing up on end, it's slightly older but still good to eat (air pocket is growing as it absorbs air, so one end stands up).  If it floats, toss it.  Crack and smell: just like it sounds.  If it smells bad or the egg white has a fluorescent yellow glow to it, toss it.[/quote]

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