Well it's Easter and we are all consuming eggs, be it from a chicken or a coca bean. Perhaps you are even painting them! Eggs and Easter go hand in hand - the reasons are religious and not for this blog :)
What I was to talk about is the humble egg, that little oval shaped food stuff that can be part of a quick meal (scrambled perhaps) or wow guests at a dinner party (nothing like a high-topped souffle).
But how many of us really think about our eggs? I mean really think where they came from, how was the chicken when it laid her eggs? Scratching around in the elements or in some huge barn with hundreds of other chickens? At the end of they day does it matter...well yes, yes it should matter.
Chickens will lay eggs with no help from us for about two years of their lives. It is a massive investment of energy, nutrients and effort to "make" and lay eggs. When you make something if you are not feeling well/run down the chances are you won't make it very well. Same with a chicken, if they are in a stuffy environment, eating a careful blend of feed and antibiotics, and seeing very little sunlight; would that make for a good egg?
It makes for a cheap egg but is it a better egg? But is there a difference between that and other eggs from other sources? Read on and you can make your own mind up.
I took three different eggs, a basic cheap range, a more expensive supermarket range and an independent range from a local (ish) butcher. All are stamped with the blue RSPCA Freedom food badge. Meaning that all farms are meeting standards set out but the RSPCA, which is good. But make no mistake barn chickens = intensive chickens. Battery farming is now illegal in the UK (thank goodness). More on that in a later post.
So lets get into the boxes:
On the face of things all the eggs look similar, all egg shaped, brownish and for the most part large.
So what about the inside as that's what counts. A - looks good and yellow, B and C look similar in colour. Nothing untoward here.
Another way to tell a good egg is the shell so lets take a closer look at them.
Shells A and B look a little ragged but C's shell looks a clean break, the more calcium in a hen's diet the better the shell.
So now the mix and taste test, A is a lovely golden colour, B looks yellow but not well combined; and C a light yellow but more combined.
How well did they cook? I did a simple scrambled egg. I like my scrambled eggs firm but fluffy, with lots of black pepper and chili flakes on top of a sesame seed bagel. I usually beat the eggs for sometime to create a layer of foam on top and cook in a frying pan quickly. My boyfriend (b/f) says they resemble an omelette and prefers his eggs wetter. But in this case I opted for a quick whisk and no pepper. (A tip for good eggs, never salt before cooking).
They looked like this:
A again nice and golden and B and C look similar. Although C looks nicer, B looks a little smaller and not as fluffy. They were all cooked the same way I promise you.
Taste wise, A had a nice flavour not too strong. B tasted of nothing, and had a slightly sloppy constancy. C had a similar mild taste to A, but was fluffy and light. Overall B failed in the taste test - it didn't do
well in either the yolk or shell test either.
So which brand was A, B and C?
A = Taste the Difference Golden Yolk at £1.75 on special normally £2.00
B = Sainsbury's Basic Barn eggs at £1.00
C - Cobley Farm eggs from the butcher at £1.99
So what is the point I hear you ask? Well B did not fair well at all, it's shell frayed when cracked (in fact there was a hunk of shell in with the egg), it's yolk had already puckered showing it's age. It had no taste and the texture was yuck! But what do you expect from something that costs £1.00 for six eggs, that's just under 17p per egg. Sorry that's too cheap, this is to pay for the welfare of a living creature and give profit to the farmer. Cheap is as cheap does and probably doesn't make for a happy chicken either. That for me does matter.
Now lets think about the money here. How often do you buy eggs? Once a week? Once a month? Can't really say as you buy them as and when? Then how quickly do you go through them? All six in a week? Or do they last a couple or so of weeks? I don't buy eggs once a week, and because they last so long I don't need too. I would say to get around the cost buy less often, but you may find yourself doing that anyway. But try it for yourself, buy some eggs at the higher end of the price range, see if you can tell the difference.
Although I will say those eggs with the blue or dark brown shells probably aren't worth the cost. Pretty as they maybe you don't eat or keep the shells so that is perhaps a cost too far.
I did eat eggs A and C on a bagel and chucked B away - a dreadful waste but they just weren't worth eating. What will I do with the rest of the basic eggs - not sure. I may well separate the whites and freeze them for later on and loose the yolks. I will also never buy them again, there is no quality there.
I hope you found this post interesting, I see I have a number of non-UK readers. I would love to hear about what your eggs are like. Do you get a wide choice to buy? Does the government state all chickens have to have a certain quality of life? Please drop me a line. Do you disagree completely? Again drop me a line.
Please continue to eat eggs they are good for you. :)
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What I was to talk about is the humble egg, that little oval shaped food stuff that can be part of a quick meal (scrambled perhaps) or wow guests at a dinner party (nothing like a high-topped souffle).
But how many of us really think about our eggs? I mean really think where they came from, how was the chicken when it laid her eggs? Scratching around in the elements or in some huge barn with hundreds of other chickens? At the end of they day does it matter...well yes, yes it should matter.
Chickens will lay eggs with no help from us for about two years of their lives. It is a massive investment of energy, nutrients and effort to "make" and lay eggs. When you make something if you are not feeling well/run down the chances are you won't make it very well. Same with a chicken, if they are in a stuffy environment, eating a careful blend of feed and antibiotics, and seeing very little sunlight; would that make for a good egg?
It makes for a cheap egg but is it a better egg? But is there a difference between that and other eggs from other sources? Read on and you can make your own mind up.
I took three different eggs, a basic cheap range, a more expensive supermarket range and an independent range from a local (ish) butcher. All are stamped with the blue RSPCA Freedom food badge. Meaning that all farms are meeting standards set out but the RSPCA, which is good. But make no mistake barn chickens = intensive chickens. Battery farming is now illegal in the UK (thank goodness). More on that in a later post.So lets get into the boxes:
On the face of things all the eggs look similar, all egg shaped, brownish and for the most part large.
So what about the inside as that's what counts. A - looks good and yellow, B and C look similar in colour. Nothing untoward here.
On closer inspection though B's yolk looks a little old, which is odd given they should be fresh. Yet there is definite wrinkling on the top of the yolk.
Shells A and B look a little ragged but C's shell looks a clean break, the more calcium in a hen's diet the better the shell. So now the mix and taste test, A is a lovely golden colour, B looks yellow but not well combined; and C a light yellow but more combined.
How well did they cook? I did a simple scrambled egg. I like my scrambled eggs firm but fluffy, with lots of black pepper and chili flakes on top of a sesame seed bagel. I usually beat the eggs for sometime to create a layer of foam on top and cook in a frying pan quickly. My boyfriend (b/f) says they resemble an omelette and prefers his eggs wetter. But in this case I opted for a quick whisk and no pepper. (A tip for good eggs, never salt before cooking).
A again nice and golden and B and C look similar. Although C looks nicer, B looks a little smaller and not as fluffy. They were all cooked the same way I promise you.
Taste wise, A had a nice flavour not too strong. B tasted of nothing, and had a slightly sloppy constancy. C had a similar mild taste to A, but was fluffy and light. Overall B failed in the taste test - it didn't do
well in either the yolk or shell test either.
So which brand was A, B and C?
B = Sainsbury's Basic Barn eggs at £1.00
C - Cobley Farm eggs from the butcher at £1.99
So what is the point I hear you ask? Well B did not fair well at all, it's shell frayed when cracked (in fact there was a hunk of shell in with the egg), it's yolk had already puckered showing it's age. It had no taste and the texture was yuck! But what do you expect from something that costs £1.00 for six eggs, that's just under 17p per egg. Sorry that's too cheap, this is to pay for the welfare of a living creature and give profit to the farmer. Cheap is as cheap does and probably doesn't make for a happy chicken either. That for me does matter.
Now lets think about the money here. How often do you buy eggs? Once a week? Once a month? Can't really say as you buy them as and when? Then how quickly do you go through them? All six in a week? Or do they last a couple or so of weeks? I don't buy eggs once a week, and because they last so long I don't need too. I would say to get around the cost buy less often, but you may find yourself doing that anyway. But try it for yourself, buy some eggs at the higher end of the price range, see if you can tell the difference.
Although I will say those eggs with the blue or dark brown shells probably aren't worth the cost. Pretty as they maybe you don't eat or keep the shells so that is perhaps a cost too far.
I did eat eggs A and C on a bagel and chucked B away - a dreadful waste but they just weren't worth eating. What will I do with the rest of the basic eggs - not sure. I may well separate the whites and freeze them for later on and loose the yolks. I will also never buy them again, there is no quality there.
I hope you found this post interesting, I see I have a number of non-UK readers. I would love to hear about what your eggs are like. Do you get a wide choice to buy? Does the government state all chickens have to have a certain quality of life? Please drop me a line. Do you disagree completely? Again drop me a line.
Please continue to eat eggs they are good for you. :)
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