egg-in-a-nest
Sophia Oliver and Clare
I had the chance to eggsperiment this week when my daughter-in-law, Kara and her three little ones were staying with us. While they were here, they visited a family friend’s farm. The girls chased the free roaming chickens, collected just laid eggs and then brought me the eggs. What a wonderful gift!
eggs collected by Sohpia and Clare - marked with s and c
One of my favorite breakfasts is Egg-in-a-nest so I got out both boxes of eggs – farm fresh and store bought – to compare.
I had heard that eggs from a farm: 1) have darker yolks, 2) have larger yolks, and 3) taste better. I understand they also are better nutritionally, but I had no way to compare that, so I set out to test the first three assumptions.
butter whole wheat bread
Ingredients
Whole wheat bread – we used two per person
Eggs – one for each piece of bread
Butter – softened – about 1 tsp per slice
salt and pepper to taste
butter side down on frying pan
free range egg
store bought egg
Directions
Butter each slice of bread.
Cut a hole in the middle about the size of a quarter.
Warm a frying pan and place the bread butter side down onto the pan.
Crack one egg into each hole in the bread right away.
Salt and pepper as desired.
When the bottom sides are golden brown, flip the bread over.
Cook another minute or so until desired doneness.
Note: somw folks like they yolks really runny, others like them firm, so adjust your heat and timing to accomodate.
Did you notice how much biggier the yolks were on the right side? Those are from the family farm.
Did you notice the color difference? Yes, the darker yolks are from the happy hens. These photos weren’t altered – I don’t have the photographic skills to do that!:)
OK, you can’t taste the difference, but we did. We each took one piece from each side of the pan and the range free eggs had an eggier taste. It was subtle, but very nice.
There you have it – happy hens produce eggs that have larger, darker yolks and a denser flavor. Very interesting!
Let me know if you try a similar experiment and what your results are.
yolks on right are from friend's farm
very tasty
What a fun experiment. Interesting to note the difference.
Thanks Joanne. It’s what I love about food blogs – sharing what we’re learning as we cook along.
Amazing! We buy our free range chicken eggs but what a great experience you had! We can’t wait to have our own chickens one day soon:)
Thanks Gabriela! I hope you have happy hens running around you very soon.
Love the pictures of all your Grandchildrens. Really beautiful. all of them. So nice to see Rose again.
Having been raised on a farm I can attest to the difference to farm fresh eggs and ones bought in the sfore.
Thanks Ann for all your kind words. Any other egg-speriments I should attempt? Great to see you too last week.
Very interesting!!
Thanks! I do love the concept as kitchen-as-science-lab. Still need to make those bean brownies!