I was at a certain upscale natural foods store today buying eggs. They offered a bewildering variety: organic, cage-free, omega-3 fortified, grade A or AA, chickens fed entirely on prime rib, etc. Whenever I’m faced with an egg dilemma like this, I settle it the same way: I look on the end of the carton for the pack date.
The pack date is a number between 1 and 366 corresponding to the day of the year. On this day, which is no more than a day or two after the lay date, the eggs were washed, graded, and packed. The eggs I ended up with (organic hand-gathered grade AA large, although I’m sure “hand-gathered” is a euphemism) said “50” on them. That means they were packed on February 19–four days ago. Not bad. Some of the eggs at the market were six weeks old. Eggs are supposed to be pulled a month after the pack date, but obviously this doesn’t always happen.
Does egg freshness matter? I did a taste test with chef Sara Moot at Persimmon in Seattle, and we found that the fresh eggs from a local farm were great (duh), but regular supermarket eggs were pretty much just as good when they were purchased shortly after pack date. The fresher supermarket eggs were way better than an old carton of organic eggs.
So, that’s what I know about eggs. If anyone knows what “hand-gathered” really means, let’s hear it.
I just went and looked at the eggs in my fridge that I bought early this week. They’re local (within 10 miles of my house and place of purchase) and only have an unlabeled date of March 31. Do I assume that date is 30 days from packing? I could easily drive over to the farm stand, which, oddly for New England, is open year-round, but these eggs are sold an absurdly convenient block from our place.
Oh, actual small-farm eggs often lack the julian date. I think it’s only USDA inspected facilities that have to print it, and very small producers selling in-state don’t have to be inspected, but that’s sort of a guess.
Also, since today is February 23, I think you should probably not assume that March 31 is 30 days from packing.
CHOW: The Grinder (I thinki, may have been Serious Eats) posted a link to an article about eggs a while back, saying that pastured eggs (NOT pasteurized) were by far the best. That’s what I know.
MATH IS HARD
Still, I agree, but for flavor, a fresh battery egg is going to beat an elderly pastured egg.
mamster, do you add up calendar days before you run out to the store? do you get USA today every day, and check the little blurb about “today is the 216th day of the year. there are (365-216) days remaining in the year?”
(see how lazy i am? i wouldn’t even do the math for my own question!)
also, i have always always always wanted to gather eggs. this may be my george h.w. bush jumping-out-of-a-plane moment, only on my 80th birthday, i’ll stick my hand under a chicken.
heather, I just look for the highest number.
I think “she who sticks her hand under a chicken…” is the beginning of a proverb you don’t want to finish reading.
I would assume that hand-gathered means that the eggs are picked by hand, rather than having them roll out onto a conveyor belt that scoots them along to be stuck on racks.
I worked on my uncle’s smallish chicken farm picking eggs on weekends back in high school. The chickens were still in cages, and the eggs rolled out onto a little trough, then you’d walk down the aisles with a cart and load up the eggs onto trays.
If that’s all “hand-picked” means, then I’m not sure why I’d care as a consumer. When I was doing the job I sort of wondered why every farm didn’t just have a conveyor belt system to scoot the eggs into one central location. (They could still have paid me to load them onto trays, but then I wouldn’t have to walk the length of the barn multiple times pushing a friggin’ heavy cart!)
But I guess any marketing term that makes people think “old-timey farm” is a selling point, even if it makes no practical difference to the food or the environment.
There are a few perks to working at a living history museum–one is free, freshly laid eggs! We have three sets of chickens and sometimes we end up with tons of eggs, which I get to take home. I’ve noticed that these seem creamier somehow, but haven’t really done a side by side comparison with supermarket eggs. They can also vary widely in size, whic is interesting. Last week, one chicken laid an egg that was about the size of a quarter. Not sure what was wrong with that chicken.
Last week, one chicken laid an egg that was about the size of a quarter. Not sure what was wrong with that chicken.
Sorry, this was my big ha ha for the day. All I keep thinking is, “That chicken did eat her Wheaties.”
aww, man! i wish i could bring home superfresh eggs from MY job! all i get are stupid office supplies!
i’ve read that eggs from chickens who live regular chicken lives–walking around outside, scratching and pecking, eating plants and bugs–have tastier (and better for you) eggs than the superstressed “factory” birds, whose terrible lives we’ve all heard all about.
though i reckon being a chicken in a living history museum could also be stressful, what with being chased by entire field trips of fourth graders, and all.
Matthew,
Check out this article: http://www.skagitriverranch.com/pictures/Better%20Eggs.pdf
Eggs from true free range chickens (as opposed to the bare minimum required for free range, which is something like a door that the chickens can potentially use to get out but never do) can have up to 10X the beta carotine, 4X the Vitamin E, double the Vitamin A, 3X the Omega 3, and 100 mg less cholesterol per egg.
I do notice a difference in how the eggs perform in a recipe. I can’t say that the taste in a single cooked egg is much different, but I do believe that if you can get eggs that are from completely pastured chickens, they are a lot healthier.
My egg spoilage is killing me. Meaning, I got so spoiled when I lived with a few hundred chickens, that the memory of the taste of those eggs lives on, and nothing else quite does it.
It’s fun to stick your hands under a laying hen! It’s warm!
I’ve sworn off Trader Joe’s eggs, even though they’re hand blah blah omega blah free blah blah organic blah, they suck. Eggs.
I often get mine at the farmers’ market, but they’re eight freaking dollars a dozen, surely a record? Has anyone heard of more expensive eggs than that??
It’s funny you post this on your blog now, because the eggs I bought at our local farmer’s market last Saturday smell fishy and taste terrible. They will be tossed. This the first time I can ever remember buying noticeably bad eggs!
I tend to try and buy eggs from a farmers market if I can, from local providers that actually let their chickens run around free. These to me have the best taste, and are a healthier egg (well duh)..
I find all the different labels on eggs complete rubbish to be honest. I think the larger egg companies are just looking for new ways to get a market share. “free range” eggs from battery hens really taste no different to eggs from a regular battery hen. So the cage is a tiny bit larger (so they can turn round..) – it makes no difference, they can still hardly move.
I would love to see a photo of a chicken farm that labels “access to pasture”.. I picture this tiny tunnel that a chicken could squeeze itself down if it ever wanted to – or some complicated gate that it had to figure out how to open – but it does technically have acess to pasture, once it is has figured out how to get there.
At the end of the day, I want an egg from a chicken that has done what a chicken does. Walk around, peck at grass, eat the odd bug (a proper chicken is NEVER vegetarian), lay an egg where it wants to. Shame this is actually bloody hard to find.
matt, I completely agree with you, and I regularly buy eggs like that. If you’re saying you never buy eggs in a supermarket, good for you. But I do buy supermarket eggs, and when I do, I look for the freshest eggs.
One trend that could be seen as good or bad is that supermarket eggs have been getting way more expensive for the last two years, which means the price difference between farm eggs and battery eggs is getting slimmer.
Kathy raised an interesting topic. What do you do when you get something bad from a local farmer and have to look them in the eye if you want to return it? Anyone here returned something to a farmers market stand?
mamster – I buy about 60% of my eggs from the supermarket. The shame of it is is that I haven’t got to a farmers market in a month or so. Too busy at the moment. And yeah, I always go through and look for the freshest.
I am at somewhat of a loss as to why some of our local co-ops (Madison Market?) don’t stock eggs from the same people that sell at farmers markets. That would be good for me!
I have never had to return anything to a farmers market, and in all honesty I wouldn’t have a problem doing so. I would maybe go when they are just setting up however, so that it doesn’t effect their running of the stand at high-time. A friend actually wanted to go back to a seafood distributer at a farmers market and say how dissapointed he was with some oysters he bought, but I don’t think he ever has done. So far I have been lucky, everything I have got from a farmers market has been top notch.
I’m actually thinking about raising some chickens.