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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?

#151

Post by simsla »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #37
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?

It's not just colour acting as an equaliser, but people being unable to distinguish when you take yolk colour out of the equation entirely.

From the linked thread:

> "blindfolded tasters couldn’t really tell the difference between fresh pastures backyard eggs and 2-week old supermarket eggs"

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#152

Post by jonathanlydall »

I live in South Africa and the yolks of the eggs my wife and I buy are absolutely not nearly white. It may differ by supermarket though, I generally shop at Woolworths which markets itself as having the best quality food, while also charging extra as a result.

Otherwise, perhaps it's only something which tends to occur with chickens grown by people for themselves in rural areas?

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#153

Post by kixiQu »

elefanten wrote: post #135
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…

And yet none of those examples compare to consciously using known poisons as a replacement for or additive to real food. That’s cynical brutality on another level.

How about preserving milk with formaldehyde?

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/poison-squ... https://allthatsinteresting.com/poison-squad-harvey-wiley

One of the tricks here is that "known" poisons are the same as "agreed-upon" poisons -- or that the definition of "poison" isn't as clear as you might assume.

If one compares the US/Canada and EU restrictions of additives with the assumption that the latter are founded, you'd come to the conclusion that the only thing North America must have more of than cynical brutality is cancer. However, while I'm not going to say they're right, there are typically plenty of folks in HN comment sections happy to say that many of the EU's food restrictions are ascientific pandering.

Everyone has some intuitive threshold about what they'd consider reasonable and what they wouldn't, but they don't always align. Acrylamide from roasting coffee? https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-judge-rules-... Nitrates and nitrites are indisputably poisonous as hell, so are cured meats out of bounds? https://www.bbc.com/news/health-34615621

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#154

Post by [deleted] »

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

[deleted]

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#155

Post by Tagbert »

OJFord wrote: post #29
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.

Wow, 6 months ?! Why? Supply is pretty continuous, can keep them pretty much anywhere (even if there was just one county in one state suitable for rearing hens.. you could post them to any other faster than that?), what introduces such delay?

I am skeptical of that statement. It would be 6 times longer than the legally allowed time, for one thing.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#156

Post by [deleted] »

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

[deleted]

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#157

Post by hbarka »

While we’re at it, can we also talk about the use of glyphosate aka RoundUp in our farms? It’s routinely used before and after a harvest in order to accelerate desiccation and allow the farmers to have multiple yields in a single season. Dyeing egg yolks and dying organs from RoundUp what have we become.

[1] https://investigatemidwest.org/2019/05/26/controversial-pest...

[2] https://www.cornucopia.org/2017/10/glyphosate-use-desiccant-...

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#158

Post by px43 »

simsla wrote: post #151
dzhiurgis wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's not just colour acting as an equaliser, but people being unable to distinguish when you take yolk colour out of the equation entirely. From the linked thread: > "blindfolded tasters couldn’t really tell the difference between fresh pastures backyard eggs and 2-week old supermarket eggs"

Who were the participants? Random people off the street, or professional tasters who actually pay attention to what they're eating?

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#159

Post by 0ldskool »

itsoktocry wrote: post #55
ryanmercer wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "fishy" taste is likely indicative of a higher omega 3 content, you get the same taste from 100% grass fed and finished beef and buffalo due to the higher omega 3 content.

Omega-3 doesn't taste like fish unless it's literally fish oil, which is often an additive to improve the 3-6 ratio of foods. Flax seed doesn't taste like fish... Grass fed beef tasting "fishy"? I've never experienced that and can't imagine how it would work.

i guess it depends on what type of fish you eat. I often eat relatively fresh salmon. I wouldn't say it tastes fishy even though its fish. It tasty oily, so much oil comes out in the baking process.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#160

Post by igetspam »

margalabargala wrote: post #114
igetspam wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should give them back to the hens. They prefer them fresh but they'll eat them cooked too. Producing an egg takes a lot of nutrients. They'll any that crack, to help replenish. They'll eventually eat the shells too, which helps with their digestion.

This is a good way to teach hens that "eggs are food" and they may start eating their own eggs before you can get to them.

I have not had that experience. None of my current hens, or the dozens I've had, will eat them unless they're cracked. I toss them eggs every day and of the egg bounces without breaking, they will tap it with their beak and then leave it be. I know it can happen but I've not had it happen in the four or five years I've been keeping chickens. Although we wouldn't mind. We have them as pets and don't eat many of the eggs.
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