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Why are some egg yolks so orange?

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Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#141

Post by [deleted] »

dotancohen wrote: post #108
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…

[deleted]

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#143

Post by taneq »

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

Reminds me of the studies which show that wine connoisseurs are describing the colour, not the taste, of the wine. I've always found this highly suspect because I guarantee anyone who drinks wine regularly could fairly accurately judge what price bracket a wine came from, at least within a factor of 2-3. You could mistake a $10 wine for a $15 wine or vice versa but a $50 wine is noticeably different.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#145

Post by supportlocal4h »

code_duck wrote: post #93
gbear605 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of this was common in the US and Europe a hundred years ago, but laws and changing culture have stopped it. Just look at snake oil, or the many other “remedies”. See, eg, “ Down and Out in Paris and London” by Orwell, where among many other things he talks about how the restaurant kitchens in early 1900s Paris were extremely gross and dangerous, but because the front of the restaurants were clean, the customers…

I’m not sure much has changed in regard to the anecdote you shared. Kitchens are under a lot of pressure to get food out quickly and finish all of an order at the same time. I worked at a restaurant in the 90s as my very first job, and one day someone dropped a steak on the floor after it was done. I said oh dear, I’ll get another from the fridge. The cooks told me no, just wash it off and serve it, reasoning “If we…

Your anecdote sparked an old thought for me.

In your story, the customer would perceive the service as inferior if their food was late. A cook, knowing that the service isn't really inferior (there was just one little snag), justifies a little action to put appearances back closer to reality.

That last sentence is a study for me. I see it in everybody including myself. Somehow we convince ourselves that our ideal is the normal and the actual reality is an aberation. Then we rationalize little efforts to hide the aberation.

It can be hard to acknowledge the truth about ourselves and accept the consequences. But it is very hard to improve otherwise.

(At the same time we need to be careful of imposing overly severe consequences for mistakes.)

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#146

Post by stickfigure »

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…

Kenji covered hard boiling eggs with scientific rigor: https://www.seriouseats.com/the-secrets-to-peeling-hard-boil...

We have backyard chickens and hard-boil a lot of eggs. The biggest effect on peel-ability: Start with boiling water, do not start the eggs in cold water.

For years I started with cold water because that's what Alton Brown said to do in Good Eats. And for years the eggs were a pain to peel. When I read Kenji's article, I switched, and immediately eggs became much easier to peel. Night and day.

No other factor comes close in terms of effect. Not age, not backyard vs store bought. Not the breed (at least, not for any of the dozen chicken breeds we have had). Start with boiling water and 9/10 eggs peel nicely, start with cold water and 9/10 eggs peel terribly.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#147

Post by technothrasher »

dotancohen wrote: post #108
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…

> Europe has banned the Azo food colourings

Europe has indeed banned some Azo food colorings, however canthaxanthin is not one of them, as far as I am aware. The EU has evaluated the safety of it on multiple occasions and found it safe to consume at the levels used in the food supply.

> Known to cause eye diseases in humans

Extremely excessive intake of tanning pills containing canthaxanthin was shown to cause accumulation of deposits in the retinas of a small number of individuals. Once the intake of pills was stopped, the condition completely cleared up in all individuals effected.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#148

Post by justsomehnguy »

TheSoftwareGuy wrote: post #120
twic wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The eggs are $8 a dozen [...] and I spend a few hundred a month on them You eat over 300 eggs a month?

It’s not that crazy the more I think about it. If he has a spouse and 2 kids (so 4 people in this house), and each person eats 3 eggs for breakfast everyday for 30 days that’s 360 eggs

> 3 eggs for breakfast everyday

Ugh! I would start to crow if I would eat that much.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#149

Post by yojo »

code_duck wrote: post #93
gbear605 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of this was common in the US and Europe a hundred years ago, but laws and changing culture have stopped it. Just look at snake oil, or the many other “remedies”. See, eg, “ Down and Out in Paris and London” by Orwell, where among many other things he talks about how the restaurant kitchens in early 1900s Paris were extremely gross and dangerous, but because the front of the restaurants were clean, the customers…

I’m not sure much has changed in regard to the anecdote you shared. Kitchens are under a lot of pressure to get food out quickly and finish all of an order at the same time. I worked at a restaurant in the 90s as my very first job, and one day someone dropped a steak on the floor after it was done. I said oh dear, I’ll get another from the fridge. The cooks told me no, just wash it off and serve it, reasoning “If we…

My last boss worked at a sandwich shop in college (Pasadena, CA). One shift he knocked over a 5 gallon bucket of olives, which spilled all over the floor.

He was mortified, but the owner seemed unperturbed. He handed him a broom and a dustpan and told him to get them all back in the bucket.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#150

Post by 0ldskool »

BenjiWiebe wrote: post #133
bombcar wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve always wondered if part of the reason the “clear” craze for sodas died off is that you didn’t have the right signals to tell you what it tastes like.

What about canned soda? If drinking from a can it's pretty hard to see what color the soda is, without making a point of checking. I wonder if the can color is then the signal?

color is probably associated with certain flavors. For most people our eyesight is used to identify things more so then other senses. If you don't see the color you probably have to work slightly harder to identify what is being eaten. How many people have a tongue so accurate they can eat/drink food blindfolded and identify it?
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