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Why are some egg yolks so orange?

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Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#181
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Out of curiosity, did you do a blind test yourself?

Yes, when visiting friends and not knowing the provenance of their eggs until asking after putting eggs in my mouth.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#182

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…

This is very true. Years ago we had chickens, and fresh eggs (laid over the past couple of days) were impossible to peel the shell from after hard boiling. We started soft boiling, knocking the head off and using a small spoon to eat. It was either that or fried/scrambled. I never did find out how long a fresh egg would have to age in order to become peelable when hard boiled.

Soft boiled, take the tops off with a chef's knife on a butcher block.

So long as the yolks are waxy, little mess. And it's fast and sweet.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

How do you square your results with actual blind tests that show no results? How confident are you that you actually controlled for things like color?

Did I sit down with a blindfold on and eat unknown eggs? No. I will eat anything that is food. I had every intention of eating the store eggs with no hesitation. I even ate them after taking pause at involuntary revulsion to the tasteless gelatinous mass I was chewing on. I grew up eating store eggs. Now I will avoid them when possible.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#184
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, did you do a blind test yourself?

Yes, when visiting friends and not knowing the provenance of their eggs until asking after putting eggs in my mouth.

Could that be down to your friends' skill at cooking eggs vs. your own?

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

No one does that except the egg processors

For particularly messy eggs I'll do it right before cracking them. But they stay dirty until it's time to cook.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#187

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 rea…

Add salt and they peel fine (they say vinegar too but I didn't find it so effective)

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#188
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

I mean, you can definitely tell the difference between, say, a mass-produced egg and one from a naturally raised chicken. The latter often has more orange-y yolks. That being said, some large-scale producers add stuff to the diet to get more orange yolks and some naturally raised eggs aren't super orange so yes, colour alone doesn't mean much.

It's almost as if you did not read the article, especially the last two sentences.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#189

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 rea…

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but I was told decades ago that starting with cold water was mostly based wanting to avoid scalded hands when placing the eggs into water or to avoid cracked shells from impact of the raw eggs with the pot or with each other.

Re: Why are some egg yolks so orange?

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, you can definitely tell the difference between, say, a mass-produced egg and one from a naturally raised chicken. The latter often has more orange-y yolks. That being said, some large-scale producers add stuff to the diet to get more orange yolks and some naturally raised eggs aren't super orange so yes, colour alone doesn't mean much.

It's almost as if you did not read the article, especially the last two sentences.

Almost like I was responding to a comment, not the article itself... That's why there's levels to comments.
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