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Why are some egg yolks so orange?

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Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#101

Post by anonu »

TecoAndJix wrote: post #57

I got five chickens last year and now have more eggs then I know what to do with (so we give a lot away). Everyone that has them says they are so much better and I have wondered if that is just due to them being able to see the chickens and their home. It is near impossible to hard boil the eggs they lay because the “membrane” (layer between the shell and egg-stuff) is so thick. The yolk is a darker yellow as well. I…

> near impossible to hard boil the eggs they lay because the “membrane”

I am curious about this. Is it maybe your boiling technique that is causing this hard membrane? Proteins toughen up if exposed to too much heat.

I get my eggs up to room temperature and drop them into boiling water for 6.5 minutes at sea level. Then I remove the hot water immediately and let them cool. These eggs (no matter where they come from) are always easy to peel and never too tough.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#102

Post by caymanjim »

yostrovs wrote: post #73
TecoAndJix wrote: post #57

I got five chickens last year and now have more eggs then I know what to do with (so we give a lot away). Everyone that has them says they are so much better and I have wondered if that is just due to them being able to see the chickens and their home. It is near impossible to hard boil the eggs they lay because the “membrane” (layer between the shell and egg-stuff) is so thick. The yolk is a darker yellow as well. I…

Keep the fresh eggs on the counter for a week or so before boiling, and your shell will come off properly.

If you do this, it's vital that you do not wash the bloom off. Once you wash eggs you have to refrigerate them.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#103

Post by cinntaile »

riffraff wrote: post #27

Extra bit of trivia: the article mentions that southern Europe prefers darker orange, and indeed it's not uncommon in Italian to hear the egg be divided in "bianco e rosso" (White and red). In recent years it seems the yellow color has become more common though.

Their fanta is a darker orange too!

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#104

Post by Bluecobra »

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…

In the US there is a brand called Happy Egg with a dark orange yolk. They are my preferred brand now, because who wants to buy unhappy eggs? They are the only one I can find with dark orange yolk.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#105

Post by wincy »

TecoAndJix wrote: post #57

I got five chickens last year and now have more eggs then I know what to do with (so we give a lot away). Everyone that has them says they are so much better and I have wondered if that is just due to them being able to see the chickens and their home. It is near impossible to hard boil the eggs they lay because the “membrane” (layer between the shell and egg-stuff) is so thick. The yolk is a darker yellow as well. I…

My friend had some eggs from his chickens in his backyard and I was surprised I didn’t like them as much as the Happy Egg Co. Heritage Breed eggs I buy at Sprouts. The eggs are $8 a dozen and the only eggs I’ll eat now. Everything else tastes off. Maybe the flavor is from the breed of chicken? The eggs are brown and blue.

They definitely have the same hard boiling issue with a strong membrane.

I want it to be placebo as these eggs are expensive and I spend a few hundred a month on them. But I’ve bought every expensive brand of egg I can (Vital Farms, among others, which _used_ to taste amazing then became popular maybe and tasted like any other egg?) and _only_ this brand tastes different than a bog standard cheap egg.

The same thing happened with Kerrygold butter. Regular cheap butter tastes like I’m eating Crisco now.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#106

Post by heftig »

MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #86
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

wasn't the social credit system supposed to fix this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System (i mean it looks like a 'big brother' system, but it was introduced with the objective of fixing abuses like this)

Do corporations and other juridical persons also get a social credit score? This abuse was committed by a corp, not some farmer.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#107

Post by wincy »

Bluecobra wrote: post #104
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…

In the US there is a brand called Happy Egg with a dark orange yolk. They are my preferred brand now, because who wants to buy unhappy eggs? They are the only one I can find with dark orange yolk.

Happy Egg Co. eggs are my favorite! So much so that I emailed them during the early pandemic thanking them for making such amazing eggs.

Have you tried the Heritage breed and their other lines of eggs? I’ve found the cheaper eggs have the same dark orange yolk but the flavor of the Heritage breed eggs is absolutely divine. It’s ruined other eggs for me.

Interestingly Vital Farms used to have eggs that tasted great but perhaps as they got more popular and sourced eggs from more places, their eggs quality dropped and I stopped buying them.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#108

Post by dotancohen »

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

  > Not too long ago in China...
And still happening in Europe and the United States today.

Canthaxanthin is very commonly added to farmed Salmon, to change its natural colour from grey to pink. Known to cause eye diseases in humans, it is also linked to several types of cancer in humans, but not proven as a carcinogen.

And though Europe has banned the Azo food colourings, they are still perfectly legal to add to food in the US. And though their effects are mostly on children, it is specifically childrens' foods and snacks to which these bright colours are added.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#109

Post by tastyfreeze »

TecoAndJix wrote: post #57

I got five chickens last year and now have more eggs then I know what to do with (so we give a lot away). Everyone that has them says they are so much better and I have wondered if that is just due to them being able to see the chickens and their home. It is near impossible to hard boil the eggs they lay because the “membrane” (layer between the shell and egg-stuff) is so thick. The yolk is a darker yellow as well. I…

Do a blind taste test with store bought and home grown eggs. You will be able to tell. After years of eating home grown eggs, I nearly spit out store eggs when I had them. The texture and flavor is so bad it was an immediate involuntary response. Home eggs are velvety and rich in flavor. Store eggs tasted like bland rubber. I say the difference is as stark as comparing scrambled store eggs and reconstituted powdered eggs.

My wife claimed there was no difference for a very long time. She had the same experience when we needed to buy store eggs last winter.

Strangely, when going from store eggs to home eggs the difference isn't as pronounced.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#110

Post by twic »

wincy wrote: post #105
TecoAndJix wrote: post #57

I got five chickens last year and now have more eggs then I know what to do with (so we give a lot away). Everyone that has them says they are so much better and I have wondered if that is just due to them being able to see the chickens and their home. It is near impossible to hard boil the eggs they lay because the “membrane” (layer between the shell and egg-stuff) is so thick. The yolk is a darker yellow as well. I…

My friend had some eggs from his chickens in his backyard and I was surprised I didn’t like them as much as the Happy Egg Co. Heritage Breed eggs I buy at Sprouts. The eggs are $8 a dozen and the only eggs I’ll eat now. Everything else tastes off. Maybe the flavor is from the breed of chicken? The eggs are brown and blue. They definitely have the same hard boiling issue with a strong membrane. I want it to be placebo…

> The eggs are $8 a dozen [...] and I spend a few hundred a month on them

You eat over 300 eggs a month?

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