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Why are some egg yolks so orange?

foodunfolded.com

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Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#31

Post by agumonkey »

steeps wrote: post #17

J. Kenji López-Alt has a bit in his Food Lab book where he explores the effect of yolk colour on taste. Paraphrasing, the takeaway is that people generally perceive redder/deeper yolks as more flavoursome, but if you remove this factor (with food colouring, say), then people can't tell the difference. He summarises this in a twitter thread: [1] [1]: https://nitter.net/kenjilopezalt/status/1176542696724320256

Some french tv channel did a quick game test, asking a bunch of students to sip colored soda and guess the flavour. Green was mint, Red was strawberry, Yellow was citrus, they were all strawberry. Surprising "reality".

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#32

Post by throwamon »

tacticaldev wrote: post #25

Just another example of how Organic (clean food) propaganda isn't based in science. I can't tell you how often I hear cooks swear by their redish, darkwe yolk eggs for having some kind of magic properties. Interesting article, good read.

Not disagreeing that there's plenty of propaganda and bad science out there, but I'm not sure why you chose to single out "organic propaganda". The article talks about the industry artificially adding substances to the yolk, which afaik is precisely what organic food people are against. Also, carotenoids may not be magic, but it's important to consume them.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#33

Post by solarist »

hongloumeng wrote: post #13

Not too long ago in China, consumers preferred duck eggs with red tinted yolks. Market vendors would crack off the top half of an egg and display its yolk, and consumers thought the redder the better. So, of course, farmers started feeding a carcinogenic dye called Sudan Red directly to the ducks. * http://www.china.org.cn/english/health/189567.htm

That’s a perfect example of Goodhart's law.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#34

Post by tekknik »

arkj wrote: post #10
Jaruzel wrote: post #3

To save people a pointless click: In the end, your egg depends on what the chicken eats, and the chicken depends on what the farmer feeds it. So, don’t worry too much about the colour – just enjoy your egg!

>> 4. I will vote you down if you 'tl;dr and summarise' any article; We're all grown-ups, and we all know how to read thanks. Isn’t your comment against your own policy?

did you just research someone’s profile in an attempt to nit pick something they said?

There’s definitely a problem online these days, when people take 5 pages to state 2 sentences worth of points, and it’s not the TLDR people…

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#35

Post by dzhiurgis »

I'm a sucker for premium orange yolk eggs. My partner is sucker for buying eggs from a guy who grows them in his backyard.

Sometimes, especially when making creamy scrambled eggs I can almost taste fishy or shellfish flavour (not something I like). We are based in NZ and I've heard people use sea shells as a source of calcium for hens, but I find hard to believe that it could be it.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#36

Post by Jaruzel »

arkj wrote: post #10
Jaruzel wrote: post #3

To save people a pointless click: In the end, your egg depends on what the chicken eats, and the chicken depends on what the farmer feeds it. So, don’t worry too much about the colour – just enjoy your egg!

>> 4. I will vote you down if you 'tl;dr and summarise' any article; We're all grown-ups, and we all know how to read thanks. Isn’t your comment against your own policy?

You get an up-vote for that. Well done!

I felt the whole article was pointless fluff, and just had to call it out. I feel no guilt.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#37

Post by dzhiurgis »

steeps wrote: post #17

J. Kenji López-Alt has a bit in his Food Lab book where he explores the effect of yolk colour on taste. Paraphrasing, the takeaway is that people generally perceive redder/deeper yolks as more flavoursome, but if you remove this factor (with food colouring, say), then people can't tell the difference. He summarises this in a twitter thread: [1] [1]: https://nitter.net/kenjilopezalt/status/1176542696724320256

But is that because of their past experience i.e. buying premium eggs vs cheap eggs before trained them into a bias?

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#38

Post by em500 »

mcculley wrote: post #28
madaxe_again wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not fresh is an understatement in many parts of the world. In the U.K., it’s up to 60 days - and in the U.S., it’s common for eggs in grocery stores to have been laid 6 months previously.

Do you have a citation for this? I find this to be surprising given that I have heard the exact opposite: That efficient supply chains lead to eggs too fresh to easily deshell when hard boiled. When I had my own hens I would deliberately age the eggs I intended to hard boil.

I'm similarly skeptical. Both the demand and supply for eggs are probably quite predictable (save for the occasional bird flu outbreak), so why would the industry create big egg buffers/stockpiles?

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#39

Post by andrewnicolalde »

bencollier49 wrote: post #20
mintone wrote: post #18

A brand in the UK called Clarence Court started producing a range of eggs (maybe a decade ago?) that have an intensely orange yolk [1] and this became a real differentiator, in some ways an indicator of quality. I know when an egg is Clarence Court in a restaurant for instance (and have confirmed numerous times). They are also delicious eating. The effect is so profound that supermarket own brands have now also start…

I noticed the supermarkets producing copycats and became suspicious of the method by which they achieved the colour. There's something qualitatively different about the darkened yolk in the Clarence Court eggs, and it makes me wonder about additives, I guess they're just adding caretinoids to the feed.

Yes! I completely agree. The yolks of Clarence Court-alikes just don’t feel as “rich”, whatever that means, and I can readily tell the difference when having yolk-heavy food like egg soldiers, for example.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#40

Post by bencollier49 »

andrewnicolalde wrote: post #39
bencollier49 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I noticed the supermarkets producing copycats and became suspicious of the method by which they achieved the colour. There's something qualitatively different about the darkened yolk in the Clarence Court eggs, and it makes me wonder about additives, I guess they're just adding caretinoids to the feed.

Yes! I completely agree. The yolks of Clarence Court-alikes just don’t feel as “rich”, whatever that means, and I can readily tell the difference when having yolk-heavy food like egg soldiers, for example.

English contingent on HN here going peak middle-class. :-)

Speaking as one of them!

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