They should. This isn’t the ultimate beauty shot and you wouldn’t have eggs with your eggs, but see the perky verticality of that poached egg on toast? That’s the sign of a VERY fresh egg. The older the eggs, the thinner the whites, and the more flaccid the cooked egg. Now check out the deep color of the 6-minute egg yolk. That tells you that the chicken’s got a varied diet of grubs, seeds, grains, and grasses, which yield a more nutritious and delicious egg. I’ll get back to the flavor in a moment.
The most common complaint I hear about farmers’ market eggs is that they are too expensive. And this isn’t necessarily from folks on a tight budget. “Why pay $4 or even $5 a dozen,” some say, “when I can get them for $2 at a big box store or $3 at the supermarket?”
Here’s why. In addition to superior freshness, small-farmed eggs are the most likely to be conscientiously raised in a super clean and healthy environment (for you and the chickens) and therefore hormone- and antibiotic-free, and free range like this:
Now about the flavor. I taste-tested my farmers’ market eggs against industrially farmed ones. The eggs in the photo above tasted rich and “eggy.” Honestly, all test participants tried to come up with a better description. The other eggs were blander, which gave them an “off” taste. In fact, the tastelessness of the one helped us identify the “egginess” of the other. Maybe this is why those who can don’t buy better eggs; they think of them only as cyphers for other flavors.
And, it takes only 5 minutes, 1 small pan, and 33 to 42 cents to make a boiled or poached egg-on-toast breakfast (plus the cost of a slice of bread) that has 135 calories, 9 grams protein, 6 grams fat, and 340mg sodium (the bread and a pinch of salt to season the egg).
An Egg McMuffin costs $2, has 300 calories, 18 grams protein, 12 grams fat, 780mg sodium, and requires drive-and-wait time. A grande Starbucks Latte and blueberry scone sets you back $5.40, 650 calories, 25 grams of fat, never mind the sodium and have you seen the lines. On the plus side, you do get 17 grams of protein.
True, it takes the same 5 minutes to make breakfast no matter where you get your eggs, but when the ingredients are more flavorful, this very inexpensive, easy-to-prepare meal is far more satisfying. When you crunch the numbers, the market egg is 8 to 15 cents more expensive than a conventional egg, but way less the cost of just about any meal you could make or buy. Next time you question the price of market eggs, think of the extra pennies as an investment in the future.
Thanks for this! I’ve been trying to decide if I should spend the extra money for the pasture raised eggs from Dey Dey and now I think I will try them:)
Yes, please do and let me know how you like them. Let’s support small-farmed eggs!
To an Italian, or more exactly to an Italian from Emilia-Romagna, the most important thing one wants from eggs (forget breakfast!) is yolk with such an intense reddish yellow hue that it produces pasta colored a deep gold. Will your eggs do that?
Hello Marcella and Victor, I’m delighted my post piqued your interest! American small-farmed egg yolks give a pretty close result color-wise and certainly an excellent one in terms of flavor. Do you know what Italian farmers feed chickens to produce the yolks of red-orange brilliance that we see in the famous uovo rosso in raviolo? Red chard? Beets?
Beets and chard are the wrong hue. We feed the chickens corn. My housekeeper Maria would never eat corn on the cob whenever we were in the States because she said it wasn’t for people – non è roba per cristiani – it’s for chickens.
As I typed chard, I thought perhaps too blue. But I don’t think corn alone would make for red yolks….unless it was a red variety. And yes, not a tender “green” corn that we Americans are so fond of.
i just had two scrambled with a little bit of goat cheese, mushrooms and yellow pepper. still less calories and sodium + more protein and flavor than mcdonald’s.
Exactly. Scrounged through the veg and cheese drawer and used up bits of this and that?
Here’s my own post script to this egg story. As soon as I finished the post, I went off to a wonderful birthday lunch here in Santa Monica where we were served oeufs en cocotte from my friend’s backyard chickens! Otherwise known as coddled or baked eggs, the dish was simple and supremely lucious. I wouldn’t say raising chickens is necessarily cheaper, but it can be a lot of fun to have access to freshest eggs of all.
Hi Amelelia,
This Marcia Brockman your friend/nurse from rancho la puerta. Loving your cookbook!!!
I miss you Tara is getting a chicken coop I will forward this to her.
Whats new? Are you coming to St.Louis ?
Keep in touch.
Love, Marcia
Thank you Marcia! Tara will be sure to have the best eggs ever right from her coop! Hope to get to St. Louis, but more to the point hope you’ll be “nursing” at RLP when i’m back in October!
Now I am craving a good farmers’ market scramble!!