The Impervious Egg

While researching and writing an article about eggs (Easter time as street date and all), I uncovered some strange egg lore. I personally agree that eggs seem to taste better when they're farm fresh and picked up out of a basket still warm. But so much of our concept of taste is mythologized around our experience with our food that I know how much better things taste when they are hand picked but I wondered nutritionally about the differences between eggs.

Curiously, brown eggs carry exactly the same nutrition value as white eggs and the colour of the shell is solely related to the colour of the laying hen. Organic eggs are laid from hens that eat organic feed. Omega eggs are laid from hens that are given flaxseed supplements. Brown eggs cost more than white eggs because of the inverse cost to the farmer to feed red hens which tend to be larger than white hens. Eggs also got caught decades ago in a defamation suit about cholesterol which nearly plundered the egg industry. But really, eating cholesterol doesn't raise your cholesterol: your liver produces cholesterol and it generally comes from sugar created out of eating grains. Eggs are one of the purest sources of protein you can find and they are packed with excellent vitamins and minerals. Plus they are fairly low in calories - roughly 70 calories for a large sized hardboiled egg. Week old eggs are MUCH easier to peel (I learned the hard way) than fresh eggs (where the shell comes off in tiny peckish annoying bits and pulls off chunks of the hardened egg white).

I'm into eggs lately. They make excellent brunch dishes scrambled with swiss chard and roasted garlic and they are so easy to add to lunches that lack a certain verve. I also find eggs to be an exceptionally pretty item of food - a fragile shell enveloping a bright yolk and a milky exterior. Buying eggs for me now comes down to the politics of the hen rather than the nutritional value of the egg. If hens are kept to produce eggs at an unnatural rate for a consumer (that'd be us) to eat in luxury than I suppose the least they deserve is the opportunity to live out their dream which is to roam and to scavenge and to peck at their barn mates.

Comments

[Meg]

Have you tried quail's eggs? I tried them for the first time last Easter and discovered they have a perfect yolk-to-white ratio if, like me, you prefer the yolk. I served them hardboiled with sesame salt and they were delicious! I'm a little disturbed by goose eggs, though...don't know if I want to try THEM!

[Daphne]

Then you better stay away from ostrich eggs!

[Mats]

No, never tried quail eggs but I have had duck eggs (big!). Speaking of quails (a litle off topic) I just bought 6 frozen ones. Talk about tiny! I had to check the package to make sure I hadn't bought sparrows. I've yet to try de-boning the little mites. Should be interesting.