Gosh, I hope this thread doesn’t actually ruffle any feathers.
Word. I get mine from the farmer’s market and there’s no comparison to any factory eggs. Lily’s Eggs in Fillmore is the farm and they are 100% free range. They’re never refrigerated and a few days old at most. The yolks are bright orange and stand up like doorknobs when you crack them into a plate or pan. The birds run around eating worms and are fed sprouts, berries, etc. It’s also the only place I buy whole chickens. They’re always slaughtered a day or two before the market and never frozen. A little extra premium is worth it.
I grew up with 50 chickens running around in the backyard (and I really did get a PhD studying chickens lol). I want to believe, I really do.
But as often is the case, science rears it’s ugly head:
“It was pretty clear evidence that as far as eggs go, the mindset of the taster has far more bearing on the flavor of the egg than the egg itself. In fact, if you want your guests to have the best-tasting scrambled eggs possible, all you’ve got to do is tell them the eggs came fresh out of your pasture-raised chickens that morning and add a couple of drops of orange food coloring before scrambling?”
~Kenji Lopez-Alt
Kenji actually took variety of eggs, scrambled them, added green food coloring so they all looked identical…and no one could distinguish the “good eggs” from the “bad eggs”. Whereas, without the food coloring, people tended to pick the ones that were the most orange colored and said they tasted better.
This article in the Washington Post came to the exact same conclusion (as apparently has decades of industry research).
So, pick your eggs based on tight whites, or animal rights, or color. But any differences in flavor is probably in your imagination.
Ew.
Sure, I might not be able to taste the difference between those test samples, but… healthy chickens equal healthy eggs. Unhealthy chickens eating other chicken’s shit and who knows what, I don’t want to eat those. Same with the pasture raised whole fresh chickens vs the disgusting factory farmed ones. No thanks.
Okay, if things are going to stay serious… I also grew up on a ranch when I was young. Foster Farms, to be exact. Wait, it was Zachy’s. Actually, it was both… Um, I mean neither. My family raised poultry and was contracted by larger companies. They were raised as best as could be, as they also for our sustenance. So, for a co-op like EB to have uniform standards is good, as they operate regionally and have local ranches and distribution centers. It’s not much different than milk. The fact they have transparency is good for the consumer. I guess hyper-freshness is great, but how many eggs can one eat on the same day they are laid? 3 days from chicken to market isn’t bad. Probably similar turnaround for the local rancher at a farmers market.
I care a lot about how animals are treated. Caged and even “cageless” chickens aren’t treated very well. I try to buy pasture-raised eggs and chicken whenever I can, just like I avoid farm-raised salmon, feed-lot beef, or just about any pig that isn’t pasture-raised. It’s not a matter of taste, it’s a matter of doing what I think is right. Industrial agriculture has screwed up so many things in our environment for so long, and has pushed the whole “fat is bad and sugar is swell” thing on the American public for so long (to its detriment) that I just can’t support those products any more than I have to.
When I bought EBs eggs in the past, they just didn’t taste like regular eggs . They just tasted different, and not in a good way, compared to the cheapest eggs in a store as well as organic brown eggs (my preference ).
I’m thinking it has to do with the less saturated fat that EB touts? Or the Omega 3 ? Both?
And as previously stated, why do they need to stamp the shelll?
So you don’t buy eggs from chickens that aren’t pasture raised? I try to stick with pasture raised (I but from farmers I know in the spring-fall, but am unwilling to forego eggs for 5 months a year when the pastures are covered with snow here
I said “I try to buy pasture-raised eggs and chicken whenever I can”. During the spring and summer I get eggs from friends that have chickens. During the fall and winter we have at least four different brands of pasture raised eggs in our stores. They are expensive, and the stores will, at times, be sold out, but I try to stick by that rule. I probably eat fewer eggs during that season.
While we’re on you, bdklein, I thought I might pile on a bit more. Shell color doesn’t mean sh*t outside of the breed of bird. Companies love to trick consumers into paying more for their supposedly “superior” brown-shelled eggs when, in fact, there’s no difference in inherent quality (all things being equal, of course).
I’m ok with it .
I do not like them Sam I am.
You know, the chicken contributes to your breakfast, but the pig commits!
I’ve got a dozen brown Eggland’s Best eggs in the fridge right now.
When my parents were young white shelled eggs were considered more desirable. This led to brown shelled eggs being crowded out of the market and as they became rarer they came to be seen as more desirable. Personally, I don’t care about shell color.
I have a farmer I buy from who breed Black Ameraucana chickens. The coolest eggs
Those are lovely David. My aunt has a farm and I get eggs from her. She used to have a variety of hens and many of the eggs were blue and green, but she has since switched and now they’re all brown. I think the blue and green eggs were much less consistent on size from my recollection. Or it could be that the hens that lay the brown eggs are more productive. I’m really not sure, but I do miss those brightly colored eggs.
We had Aracaunas from the time I was a little kid. We actually had a good sized poultry farm and had a large variety of layers, specialties and bantams.
As I understand white eggs became the standard in the market due to there are easier to candle and identify imperfections in the embryo. Brown eggs are more prone to have imperfections (e.g. blood spots) on the embryo which do nothing to the taste/quality of the egg, but consumers found off putting