Salt tip 2... Testing eggs

Salt tip 2…Testing bad eggs.

We will sometimes go through eggs fast and sometimes the eggs may sit in the refrigerator for too long. At my grandparent’s farm Grandma would get eggs from the coop when she needed them. She would add two teaspoons of salt to a cup of water and place each egg in the water. I just thought she was cleaning the eggs. She would test each egg and keep any that would sink, but would toss out any that would float. When I ask why she did not keep all the eggs, she said that a bad or questionable egg would float.

She would also put a pinch or two of salt in the water when she boiled them for hard boiled eggs. She knew the grandkids loved hard boiled eggs as a snack (She did not make great cookies). When I asked why she gave me two reasons. First, it would make the water boil faster, and second the eggs would peel much more easily.

She would also add salt to the boiling water when she poached eggs before she dropped the eggs in. She said that the salt made the whites of the egg stay together better when cooking.

If you add a pinch of salt, cream will whip better than normal. If you add a pinch of salt before beginning to beat egg whites, they will also beat faster, higher and will firm up better.