Cloudy egg whites

As the cloudiness goes away, the egg’s air pocket will enlarge

That exiting carbon dioxide plays a role in the growth of the egg’s air cell. All eggs have a pocket of air, which is first created when the egg’s membrane contracts away from the shell as the egg cools. The air cell provides baby chicks with their first breaths of air. In the moments, days and weeks after the egg is laid, the air cell grows as carbon dioxide and moisture slip out the shell into the outside world, reducing the liquid portion of the egg’s overall volume. Ambient air—including the oxygen that baby chick needs to breathe—moves in through tiny pores in the shell and fills up the air cell. In hardboiled eggs, you usually see air cells at the base of the egg, but sometimes they behave in surprising ways; here’s an example of an egg with an air cell in an odd location; here’s one where the air cell broke up into lots of little pockets.

Eventually, when enough CO2 has slipped out of the shell, the egg will float in water. Some people say this is a sign of a bad egg. That’s not quite right. It’s a sign of an older egg, but not necessarily a sign one has gone bad. Older eggs can be more vulnerable to microbial invaders, however, so if you ever do discover an egg that floats, my advice is to crack it into a dish and make sure it looks good and smells good before you cook it. Assuming it passes that first test, you may want to take the additional precaution of cooking the egg until the yolks are firm. That’s what I would do.

Cloudy with a chance of scrambled eggs.