Friday, July 21, 2017

TIPS FOR EGGS

Currently we have a dozen chickens and 4 female ducks and let me tell you, they can lay some eggs when they want to. Occasionally we get inundated with them and we can sell them or I need to cook something to get use them up. Sometimes, I will hard boil a dozen or so and eat them for breakfast or make a scrambled eggs in the morning before I head to work.  Some of the ideas here are for storage and they are great tips for when eggs are on sale and you can buy some extra.  Here is a bunch of egg facts I have collected. 

 -There is no difference between brown, white and green (yes there is a chicken that lays green ones), except for the chicken that laid them (and of course what the chicken ate and how it lived its life).
-To determine whether an egg is fresh without cracking it, put into a pan of water. If it sinks it's good, if it floats, it an old egg. It does this because the air pocket in the egg gets bigger as it ages.
-Room temperature eggs beat up fluffier than cold eggs.
-For fluffier scrambled eggs and omelets, add a pinch of cornstarch to the eggs before beating.
-Season your eggs BEFORE cooking to get a good flavor. I recommend a pinch of onion powder, salt and black pepper, but fresh (or dried) herbs are good too. Adding seasoning prior to cooking always yields better flavor.
-I recommend using schmaltz or bacon fat to cook your eggs in. You will get even better flavor from these fats and they have a high burn temperature so you can cook the eggs quickly on high heat.
- Scrambled eggs should be cooked quickly in a very hot pan. I use a heat resistant rubber scraper and shake my saute pan back and forth while scraping the pan with the scraper to get light and fluffy eggs. The high heat, fat coating of the pan and fast cooking time keeps the scrambled eggs from sticking to the pan
-Duck eggs can be eaten just like chicken eggs except they must be cooked a little less because of the higher fat content in them. If over cooked, they become rubbery. Duck eggs are EGGCELENT for baking with. the higher fat content of the yolks produce better leavening for your cakes and a richer taste.
-Backyard or farm eggs ARE better than store bought. You can tell by the color of the yolk- the deeper the yellow or orange, the more nutrients the chicken ate and passed on in it's eggs.
- A fast way to separate eggs- put your small funnel into a mason jar. Crack the egg into the funnel, without breaking the yolk and the white will fall through the funnel and the yolk will remain.
- Egg whites can be frozen for up to 1 year. I put 1 into each cell of an ice cube tray and freeze. When fully frozen you can crack it out of the tray and put into a container or zipper bag in the freezer. When a recipe calls for X number of whites, you can simply pull them out of the freezer and defrost.
-When a recipe calls for beaten egg whites, add 1t of cream of tartar to each CUP of egg whites (7-8b egg whites). This helps stabilize the white from weeping and separating.
-Chickens are NOT vegetarians. They are omnivores and if allowed to feed themselves (like in a backyard where they can roam freely) will eat bugs, grasses, weeds, mice, snakes and other (baby) chickens. In fact, the more protein they eat, the more eggs they produce.
-To determine if an egg is hard boiled, spin it. If it spins, it's hard. If it wobbles and won't spin, it's fresh.
-Use a tack or push pin and pierce the shell when making hard boiled eggs and the shell won't crack.
-Add 1T of white vinegar to the water when making hard boiled eggs and any cracks that form won't allow the whites to pour out. This also works to keep the whites in one mass when making poached eggs.
- Egg shells can be easily removed from hard boiled eggs by running cold water over the hot eggs.
-Backyard eggs can be stored on the counter for up to 2 weeks without refrigeration as long as they have not been washed like commercial eggs. The egg gets a coating as it exits the hen's vent which prevents bacteria from entering through the shell. Many bakers prefer room temperature eggs as they fluff up better than cold eggs.
- Backyard eggs will have a much thicker shell than commercial eggs since the chicken was able to graze and get more nutrients in it's body that help produce the shell. I have occasionally gotten a shell less egg from my chickens and I know they are deficient in calcium.

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2 comments:

  1. Thanks Greg! Great post!
    Quick question - what do you do with all the egg yolks when you freeze the whites? Any use for them?

    Mom taught me that last trick, we've been doing that for years!
    Thank you!

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  2. You can freeze the yolks separately as well. I am not sure how well they will work if you were making a hollandaise/bernaise or a sabayon sauce, but when thawed out and scrambled for eating, they work fine. I am not sure if the freezing alters the proteins so that they won't retain the fats as needed in the sauces.

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