# Which kind of eggs to buy?



## Anonymous (Feb 20, 2002)

Is it just me, but I've noticed that there about 5 different types of eggs you can purchase. In the "old days" you just had plain normal eggs, but now you've got organic, intensive, free range...

Is there really any difference in how healthy these eggs are? The most expensive are free range organic eggs, but are they really worth it? What are the dangers of eating the others?

Thanks.


----------



## gnome (Feb 21, 2002)

You  know i, not relly sure but i think it is better to eat an egg that is from a nice healthy happy chicken like in the old days


----------



## Carol7368 (Feb 22, 2002)

I've always heard that the difference in brown eggs and white eggs is the color and that only.  Some people have a phobia about eating fertile eggs,  and the free range chickens are probably that "happy" category.   If there were any huge differences, you can be sure somebody would be trying to sell their product with alot of hype about the merits.  Martha Stewart raves about the quality of her hen's eggs and when you see them as opposed to regular eggs, you can see that difference because of the color.  Other than that - I've never heard anything.


----------



## gduncann (Mar 1, 2002)

OK ladies.  I was born and raised on a commercial poultry ranch and beyond that, I have almost always lived where I could keep a few hens and have my own eggs.

First: there is no nutritional or flavor difference between brown shell eggs and white shell eggs.   The color of the shells is determaned by the breed of hen.  Whiteleghorns are the only hens that lay white eggs.  They are very productave and that is why they are used commercially.  That and the fact that even if it's only subconcious, the American public equates white with purity and cleanleyness.

Arriconas (sp) lay green, blue or pink eggs.  They aren't used by large producers because the henns are quite aggressive.

Almost all other breads of henns lay brown eggs that range in color, depending on the breed, from the palest buff color to a dark brown.

Most large producers feed their henns feed that is hyped with harmones and stimulants that make them lay more.  They are also kept in very tiney cages in huge sheds with thousands of henns in a shed.  This is called "battery," rearing.  The sheds are artifically lit so that the hens think it is summer year round which increases egg production.  Normally a hen's laying begins decreasing after the autumn equinos and doesn't pick up again until spring.  She likes there to be at least 12 hours of light a day.

So called "free range," eggs are from chickens that are kept in larger pens so that they can walk about some.  They may or may not be fed the hyped up feeds.

"Organic," eggs come from hens that are fed feed with no artifical harmones or stimulants.

Organic, free range, means that the henns have a little bit of space and that they are not fed any artifical stimulents.

The best eggs of all that you can buy will be from a non comercial little old layd down the road who has 2 dozen henns in a nice big pen and feeds them grain and garden clippings.

If you buy some of her eggs and a carton of regular store bought eggs,  crack open one of each and look at the color of the yolks.  The yolks of her eggs will probably be a bright orange while the yolks of the comerciall eggs will probably be a pale yellow.  

Her henns have probably also been able to eat a lot of bugs and worms which makes for good nutritional value.

Now a true "free range," chicken is a chicken that is not penned at all.  I know of only one small producer in my aria that raises true "free range," henns.  He has a lot of acherage and has it fenced into 1/2 acer pens with trees and bushes in each.  he has about 100 hens in each pen and rotates them so that the trees and bushes can regenerate themselves.  His eggs are bloody expensive.

In general, if you eat most comercially produced fruits and vegetables and most any frozen, packaged or canned foods you are already getting enough additives in your food that a little more from commercial eggs won't make a difference.

If however, you shop only at totally organic or certified stores then of course you want to buy organic eggs.

Sorry for the long winded answer.  I hope it helps clear up the question.


----------



## Finally (Mar 3, 2002)

*Eggs - any better ???*

We have Omega - 3 Eggs in our supermarkets. the claim is eggs which offer a better mix of  Trans fats and Acids; the cost is sllightly higher.
Fresh counts too, as Geraldine identified; eggs are eggs, feed and consumption counts and exercise helps, but it still goes back to Fresh for most of us.
Our eggs have a best before date, which  helps, I hope.
Try your own tests; keep an egg or three for a longer period and look at them closely - try the float test - crack them beside fresher eggs and see what the differences are (proud yolks, thicker whites, less watery substance) - try beating the whites too, if you have enough saved/fresh eggs for the tests.
Oh yes, how about the tastes?

Finally,
David


----------



## gduncann (Mar 6, 2002)

Eggs in general keep a lot longer than most people think they do.  The egg, like the uterus, is a steril field.  If it wasn't we wouldn't be able to have baby chicks.  Eggs can keep one heck of a looooooong time iwithout refrigeration if kept in a cool, dark invironment.  Heat and light will cause them to go off a lot quicker.  

The white being high and tight is not always an indication of freshnesh because refrigeration causes the white to loose it's structure and break down a bit.  

A good way to tell just how fresh an egg is is how easily it peels when hard boiled.  As an egg sits, a gas developes between the shell and the membrain around the egg.  This gas allows for easy peeling.  My own eggs laid by my own hens have to sit for at least a month before they will peel when hardboiled.

And hay, it makes no difference whether the eggs are cool or room tempreature, whether the water is warm or cold, whether you put vinager in the water, whether or not you let them sit in the hot water after poiling or whether you put them into cold water after boiling; a really fresh egg will not peel properly.

Something that sometimes helps however is, after boiling, run under cold water until they are cool enough to handle, then crack the shells all around and leave the eggs sit in cold water for about an hour.  Some water will seep in between the cracks and sometimes this helps to loosten the shells.

Good luck.


----------



## Michelledawn (Jun 17, 2003)

Eggs are not the villian we all thought they were. They now know that saturated fat in our diet is what causes high cholesterol and not as they once thought " dietery cholesterol". Eggs are very healthy until we fry them in pork fat.The American Heart Association has changed its standards to allow for an egg a day in our diet. However, I still use the eggs high in omega 3 since omega 3 fat is healthier than other fats in our diet.


----------



## leigh (Jun 18, 2003)

Geraldine, thanks for your comprehensive and well written information.    Seems like I learn something every time I'm on this forum.  I didn't know that refrigeration affects egg white thickness.  And I was brought up on a farm!!   It's also good to know that all my old recipes for keeping eggs over the winter packed in sawdust or waterglass (to mention only a couple) are as valid now as they were a hundred or more years ago.  

I have really lucked out in the egg department.  A couple of months ago I discovered a woman who keeps a flock of free range, organically raised hens and sells their eggs.  Wow.  I had forgotten how wonderful real eggs taste.  These are the eggs of my childhood: rich, upstanding, and utterly delicious.  In fact, I've even stopped reading the morning paper while eating breakfast, the better to enjoy my eggs - a real departure for this certified 24-7 bibliophile!

Furthermore, it seems that this gal has an organic farmer friend who keeps cows . . . omyomyomy   

I found my egg lady when our local paper (I call it the Daily Endeavor, which conveys a rough idea of my opinion about its overall quality) ran a front-page story in its Easter food section, about--what else--eggs, which was beautifully illustrated with a photograph of colored-by-the-hen eggs perched in some lovely cut glass egg cups.  

Being interested in obtaining some egg cups of my own, I called the article's author to ask about the egg cups.  She told me they were family heirlooms belonging to a friend who had lent them for the photograph and that she herself had brought in the eggs.  One thing leading to another, I inquired whether she ever sold any of her eggs.  Bingo!  She not only sold eggs, she sold a LOT of eggs, and even offered to deliver them.  

So I'm now getting 2 dozen beautiful, wonderful eggs every week, and extra if I need them, at $2.00 a dozen, and consider them a very great bargain.

She also grows organic veggies.  I can hardly wait!!


P.S.  (Did you know that eggs are the most nearly perfectly balanced protein there is?  I didn't either, until I read Frances Moore Lappe's "Diet for a Small Planet".  Excellent little tome, that.)


----------



## debthecook (Oct 6, 2004)

Just get the box with the LATEST DATE.


----------

