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I got five chickens last year and now have more eggs then I know what to do with (so we give a lot away). Everyone that has them says they are so much better an
by TecoAndJix 5y ago
I got five chickens last year and now have more eggs then I know what to do with (so we give a lot away). Everyone that has them says they are so much better and I have wondered if that is just due to them being able to see the chickens and their home. It is near impossible to hard boil the eggs they lay because the “membrane” (layer between the shell and egg-stuff) is so thick. The yolk is a darker yellow as well. I feed them mid-priced crumbles from tractor supply and give them scraps maybe once per week.
- mpalczewski 5y agoI finally found a full proof way of making any egg easy to peel. I wonder if it would work with eggs like these. I pressure steam then in an instant pot for about three minutes.
- yostrovs 5y agoKeep the fresh eggs on the counter for a week or so before boiling, and your shell will come off properly.
- caymanjim 5y agoIf you do this, it's vital that you do not wash the bloom off. Once you wash eggs you have to refrigerate them.
- hammock 5y agoNo one does that except the egg processors
- caymanjim 5y agoI've seen many amateurs do it. There's been a big uptick over the past decade of people raising chickens in their back yards without having any experience or guidance. Not that you need a lot; just important to do some research.
- Kerrick 5y agoFor particularly messy eggs I'll do it right before cracking them. But they stay dirty until it's time to cook.
- igetspam 5y agoWe keep ours in a skelter and I boil a dozen of so when it starts to overflow. This has been my experience as well. I have 17 chickens, 16 of them are hens. I get 9-12 a day and my neighbors love me because we don't eat them. The yolks are big and deep orange/yellow and people seem to love them. I have y purchased an egg in a few years so I have no frame of reference any more. They're free range and they eat everything they can find (snakes, frogs, lizards, bugs, plants) and all the feed and scratch I feed them.
- urthor 5y agohttps://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Backyard+eggs&btnG= https://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=B... Research says that the nutritional value is not significantly different between organic and backyard. However, I expect the fact the backyard eggs are fresh laid is the big differentiator. The supply chain between farm and supermarket is huge, whilst backyard eggs can be laid that day.
- simonsarris 5y agoWhat research are you talking about? I've found the opposite: https://twitter.com/simonsarris/status/1487156557146210306?t=Y1hkVSO2DDZWIr0-PMPKXA&s=19 https://twitter.com/simonsarris/status/1487156557146210306?t...
- bombcar 5y agoFree Range is not the same as organic - if you compare backyard eggs to eggs that are basically someone else’s backyard it’s understandable there’s little difference. Free range just means the chicken can go outside or turn around. It says nothing about the feed or breed.
- urthor 5y agoI imagine the eggs used in the Polish study that outperformed backyard were organic and free range.
- tastyfreeze 5y agoIn the US farmers have 28 days to get eggs in cartons. Once in cartoons eggs must be sold in 30 days. Store eggs can be quite old. Freshness is likely a big part of flavor. I suspect that the US egg washing method may affect flavor as well. Home eggs typically aren't washed and are only a few days old. The eggs I sell were laid that week.
- goda90 5y agoIf you're at all interested in storing eggs long term, look up "water glassing". It needs to be done with freshly laid eggs, but the eggs are still edible months later.
- js2 5y agoI recently started using a pressure cooker (instant pot brand) to make hard cooked eggs. I use a 4 minute cooking time, instant release the pressure, then plunge the eggs right away into cold water to stop their cooking. Even fresh eggs peel perfectly.
- giantg2 5y agoThanks! I'm going to have to try that.
- js2 5y agoHmm, seems serious eats doesn't agree, but I've tried everything over the years and the instant pot has worked best for me. https://www.seriouseats.com/the-secrets-to-peeling-hard-boiled-eggs https://www.seriouseats.com/the-secrets-to-peeling-hard-boil...
- drost 5y agoI poach eggs for breakfast in my InstantPot. 3 eggs for 5 minutes on steam. I've found that eggs with orange yolks tend towards a jammy texture, but yellow yolks tend towards a drier texture.
- ncmncm 5y agoWhen poaching eggs in water the usual way, a tablespoon of vinegar in the water keeps them together, not scattered all over the pan.
- googlryas 5y ago+1 to pressure cooker for a few mins + cold water bath. I tried all the tricks normally stated for hard boiling eggs, and always had half the eggs just refusing to come out of their shell. 100% of the time with my instant pot they just slip out of the shell.
- anonu 5y ago> near impossible to hard boil the eggs they lay because the “membrane” I am curious about this. Is it maybe your boiling technique that is causing this hard membrane? Proteins toughen up if exposed to too much heat. I get my eggs up to room temperature and drop them into boiling water for 6.5 minutes at sea level. Then I remove the hot water immediately and let them cool. These eggs (no matter where they come from) are always easy to peel and never too tough.
- wincy 5y agoMy friend had some eggs from his chickens in his backyard and I was surprised I didn’t like them as much as the Happy Egg Co. Heritage Breed eggs I buy at Sprouts. The eggs are $8 a dozen and the only eggs I’ll eat now. Everything else tastes off. Maybe the flavor is from the breed of chicken? The eggs are brown and blue. They definitely have the same hard boiling issue with a strong membrane. I want it to be placebo as these eggs are expensive and I spend a few hundred a month on them. But I’ve bought every expensive brand of egg I can (Vital Farms, among others, which _used_ to taste amazing then became popular maybe and tasted like any other egg?) and _only_ this brand tastes different than a bog standard cheap egg. The same thing happened with Kerrygold butter. Regular cheap butter tastes like I’m eating Crisco now.
- twic 5y ago> The eggs are $8 a dozen [...] and I spend a few hundred a month on them You eat over 300 eggs a month?
- TheSoftwareGuy 5y agoIt’s not that crazy the more I think about it. If he has a spouse and 2 kids (so 4 people in this house), and each person eats 3 eggs for breakfast everyday for 30 days that’s 360 eggs
- justsomehnguy 5y ago> 3 eggs for breakfast everyday Ugh! I would start to crow if I would eat that much.
- ipaddr 5y agoThat could become a health issue if this is longterm.
- smilliken 5y agoIf you have a reason to think eggs are unhealthy, state the reason so that there can be a discussion. Eggs are as close to a miracle food that I know, and I think it would be a shame to discourage their consumption.
- tastyfreeze 5y agoDo a blind taste test with store bought and home grown eggs. You will be able to tell. After years of eating home grown eggs, I nearly spit out store eggs when I had them. The texture and flavor is so bad it was an immediate involuntary response. Home eggs are velvety and rich in flavor. Store eggs tasted like bland rubber. I say the difference is as stark as comparing scrambled store eggs and reconstituted powdered eggs. My wife claimed there was no difference for a very long time. She had the same experience when we needed to buy store eggs last winter. Strangely, when going from store eggs to home eggs the difference isn't as pronounced.
- the_af 5y agoOut of curiosity, did you do a blind test yourself?
- tastyfreeze 5y agoYes, when visiting friends and not knowing the provenance of their eggs until asking after putting eggs in my mouth.
- Kerrick 5y agoCould that be down to your friends' skill at cooking eggs vs. your own?
- tastyfreeze 5y agoPretty hard to screw up scrambled eggs.
- kadoban 5y agoIt's really not. Most scrambled eggs are overcooked, and what you use for oil (or butter) and anything you add (eg milk) has a large effect. Not to mention seasoning correctly.
- 5y ago
- vic-traill 5y agoThis is very true. Years ago we had chickens, and fresh eggs (laid over the past couple of days) were impossible to peel the shell from after hard boiling. We started soft boiling, knocking the head off and using a small spoon to eat. It was either that or fried/scrambled. I never did find out how long a fresh egg would have to age in order to become peelable when hard boiled.
- dredmorbius 5y agoSoft boiled, take the tops off with a chef's knife on a butcher block. So long as the yolks are waxy, little mess. And it's fast and sweet.
- stickfigure 5y agoKenji covered hard boiling eggs with scientific rigor: https://www.seriouseats.com/the-secrets-to-peeling-hard-boiled-eggs https://www.seriouseats.com/the-secrets-to-peeling-hard-boil... We have backyard chickens and hard-boil a lot of eggs. The biggest effect on peel-ability: Start with boiling water, do not start the eggs in cold water. For years I started with cold water because that's what Alton Brown said to do in Good Eats. And for years the eggs were a pain to peel. When I read Kenji's article, I switched, and immediately eggs became much easier to peel. Night and day. No other factor comes close in terms of effect. Not age, not backyard vs store bought. Not the breed (at least, not for any of the dozen chicken breeds we have had). Start with boiling water and 9/10 eggs peel nicely, start with cold water and 9/10 eggs peel terribly.
- jgerrish 5y agoI've been stuck in Egg Hell for years, and old cookbooks and Good Eats (which is so great and engaging on so many other topics). And it was the Internet that just now added more votes for pre-boil and peel-ability. Cool Internet, Cool.
- lazyant 5y agoAdd salt and they peel fine (they say vinegar too but I didn't find it so effective)
- saltcured 5y agoI'm not sure how accurate this is, but I was told decades ago that starting with cold water was mostly based wanting to avoid scalded hands when placing the eggs into water or to avoid cracked shells from impact of the raw eggs with the pot or with each other.
- ______-_-______ 5y agoIf that's the case, tongs are your friend.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- zwieback 5y agoWhen we had chickens I made a lot of flan and meringues, also stuff like lemon curd. Anything to keep up with the flood of eggs.
- jedimastert 5y agoI think that, separate from any objective difference in "quality" of the eggs, seeing happy chickens is a perfectly fine reason to derive more enjoyment from consuming the eggs in question.