There’s conflicting advice on where to store eggs with some arguing that they belong in the fridge, and others at room temperature.
While both have their benefits, British chef James Martin has revealed exactly why he never keeps eggs chilled.
Sharing his advice previously on ITV’s This Morning, he urged Britons to follow his advice on room temperature storage.
According to James, the porous texture of eggshells is the reason why “you never keep eggs in the fridge”, which is something many people may not realise.
He demonstrated exactly why his food storage hack is worth following by baking two Victoria Sponge cakes with different types of eggs.
The chef pointed out that there was an obvious difference between the cake that used hen eggs and the one with duck produce, but that’s not all.
He continued to explain that “the quality of eggs is key” for a good bake, and it largely comes down to how they’re stored before being used.
James claimed that when eggs are kept in the fridge, the texture of the shell means that “they absorb all the flavours from the fridge” and can end up tasting more like other ingredients – especially when they’re stored loose in the designated egg rack.
Of course, this is impossible to notice until it comes to eating the eggs, which can be an unpleasant experience.
Pungent flavours like garlic, chilli, onion or stored meats are likely to have an impact but it’s not just their smell or taste that can seep into the eggs.
According to British Lion eggs, bacteria can also emanate through the tiny pores. To reduce the risk of this happening when eggs are stored in the fridge, they claimed that “nothing can beat the original carton”.
That said, it can be used to your advantage by purposefully flavouring the eggs with desirable ingredients like truffle.
James suggested: “If you have truffle for instance – in the restaurant we put that in a bowl with rice and put the eggs on the top and cling film it and leave it overnight.
“When you break the eggs in the morning for breakfast for customers, [you get] truffle scrambled eggs but there’s no truffle in it. The truffle flavour has gone through the egg and into the egg itself.”
