Also, is this starting from refrigerated eggs (USA-style) or room temperature (everyone’s else)? I assume this makes less of a difference with your second method.
Yes, eggs are washed which removes the protective layer that makes them safe without refrigeration. So our eggs look cleaner, but have to be refrigerated.
Edit. Looking into this a little more and it seems to be different ways to combat stuff like salmonella. I guess most of the world vaccinates the chickens, plus the cuticle on the egg prevents bacteria from entering through the shell. In the US we wash the eggs and refrigerate to prevent it.
This is correct, and whenever the topic comes up, there’s always a bunch of misinformation. Like you said, it’s two means to the same end. Early in the washing strategy, like a hundred years ago, some washed eggs from Australia were imported to England, and a bunch of people got sick from them, so Europe decide to go the other route. The US got the washing thing down and decided to keep with it. Today, both approaches work pretty well. Australia, Japan, and some Scandinavian countries also use washing. Worth noting that washing requires an infrastructure of shipping things around refrigerated.
