Are Expensive Eggs actually worth it?
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- Опубликовано: 3 май 2024
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Today, we settle a question I've been wondering about for years: Do expensive eggs actually taste better?
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📚 Videos & Sources mentioned:
- How many eggs are eaten per person (Pg 33) www.usda.gov/oce/commodity/wa...
- USDA Egg Sizing & Grading Standards www.ams.usda.gov/sites/defaul...[1].pdf
- Can technology save male chicks? www.fastcompany.com/90633326/...
- Certified Humane Egg Laying Hen Standards certifiedhumane.org/wp-conten...
- Nutritional Differences in Eggs (Study) pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28339....
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⏱ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
1:33 My favorite Nonstick Pan
2:28 Egg History
6:27 1) Are expensive eggs more ethical and humane?
15:05 2) Are expensive eggs healthier for you?
18:50 3) Do expensive eggs taste better?
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What other ingredient deep dives should we do this year?
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Butter!
ANYTHING! I'm a new fan of yours, but these types your videos are one of my absolute nerdy favorite!!
Can you do one on fresh vs bottled herbs and spices, and maybe a quick set of tests on a bunch of different ones. Off the top of my mind: pepper, garlic, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, dried herbs (basics like basil, oregano, rosemary, parsley), and so on.
Soy sauce :))
Yes, butter would be great!!
Ethan, have you thought about making a deep dive on rice? The various types of rice, how it's farmed, how and why (!) to cook it for various recipes.
I agree!
That's a deeper topic than you can imagine.
@@AsdayasmanThat's what makes it perfect for a Ethan Chlebowski video 🤣
Eggcelent idea! (sorry) lol.
and he should collab with uncle roger
My personal experience on this: I had a neighbor with a connection to someone who raised hens that laid eggs locally. That neighbor gave me a dozen eggs one day and I was AMAZED! I wasn't expecting them to taste any different when I first got them, but they were so much better! The yolk was so deep in color that I could make scrambled eggs that looked almost orange, and the flavor was mind-blowing - to the extent that it totally spoiled me on store-bought eggs, which now taste like bland plastic to me. Naturally from then on I asked my neighbor to get me eggs whenever there were extras to be had, and now that they've moved away I really miss those local eggs! I've tried all the different expensive eggs I can find since then, but I've never found anything in a store, for any price, that can compare to the rich flavor of those local eggs.
Should try just raising your own chickens. I've had chickens for the last 7 years and they are the freshest, best quality eggs at the cheapest price around (when you spread the high initial cost of the coop out over several years). They don't require that much time to take care of them. When we started keeping chickens, we lived in a neighborhood on a 0.7 acre lot (now we have 55 acres and are only actually using about 2 of them lol). So as long as you have a decent back yard that isn't just taken up by sheds and/or a swimming pool, it's doable.
@@RobbyMaddoxthe backyard requirement is brutal 😭 I would love to raise chickens and eat delicious eggs but alas
@@luctisonae It's really not that bad. Set up a nice little chicken coop for them and let them out in your backyard every day for a few hours. They will thank you with delicious eggs.
Taken straight from Google:
"For lighter breeds, like the White Leghorn, chickens that are allowed to forage outside during the day should have at least 3 square feet per bird, so a 4′ x 8′ coop could house 10-11 birds."
I think 4'x8' for a backyard is way more than enough, that's a relatively small surface area, which if you wanted to, you could expand upwards.
@@RobbyMaddox Somehow I doubt it's legal, per the town I live in, to raise chickens in your back yard - but I'll admit I've thought about it.
@@Sourwhatup oh no I mean I don't even have a backyard haha but thanks for the info!
The first time I had an egg from my free range chickens at home. I definitely noticed it taste a lot better.
Same. I have about 70 chickens that are more like pets and eat like kings (queens). The eggs DEFINITELY taste better.
Funny story when we got the first egg from our chickens. I cracked it open and called my mother m saying the yolk was the wrong color. She laughed and said that is how they are supposed to look. Fried it and ex and I shared it. Best egg ever.
That's called placebo 👍🏻
@moolipit It's an anecdotal observation.
A placebo requires a preconceived expectation. An anecdotal report, or study, is about an experience that can be repeated by others and their comparative experience can be investigated further in order to create a proper experiment to garner causal or correlative data sets.
Likely the breed of hen has an effect on the taste. Those bred for the industrial production are probably not bred for the taste.
Thanks for the video. I now get my eggs from a local old farmer couple, who only produces a few dozen eggs a day. They are white, brown, blue & green eggs of various sizes (Large to Jumbo) they sell them for $2 a dozen or $3 for 18, which is cheaper than the local WalMart.
Wow! Where do you live? So inexpensive!!
I know exactly what you mean. I was getting those same prices but switched to pasture raised after asking what feed they gave the chickens if any. They actually showed me and it was gmo corn which im desperately trying to stay away from...
Where. Do. You. Live!? Where I live, northern Virginia, it is very expensive
@@Gohad158. I live in farm country, NE Indiana, where Beef is $3.99/lb.
@@abav811 I live in farm country, NE Indiana, where Beef is $3.99/lb.
Personal experience: I eat eggs almost every morning. But for years I've noticed that sometimes, after a while, I can't stand eggs anymore, they start getting a weird aftertaste so I stop eating them for a bit and start again.
After switching from cheap eggs to free range/organic eggs, I've never had that sudden change in taste again and I feel like the yolk has a richer flavour.
Yeah, better quality eggs are way better tasting and even cook better
I’ve had the same thing happen to me. Countless cycles of loving eggs and then being unable to stomach them. If I ever get to a point of being able to stomach the high price of pasture raised I look forward to never having to go on an egg hiatus.
my take is that eggs behave like breast milk. what you produce is heavily influenced by diet, stress, environment, etc.
Placebo or mental illness.
@@cuy50i bet you got 4 covid injections.
Back in the days my grandmother sold butter and eggs at the local farmer's market. Everyone bought her butter and eggs, and she sold out quickly every time because everyone loved the golden yellow butter and yellow yolks in the eggs compared to the other. The only thing different was she feed her chickens carrot scraps and added a few spoons of carrot juice to the butter mix thus turning it a nice golden color. The orange pigments in carrots turned the butter and yolks this wonderful color. This secret she now shares with you.
So she basically dyed her butter. Literally a scam, legit butter is 100% Milk and salt.
@@02artiom yeah probably could have fed her cows a bunch of carrot and actually gain a similar effect without adulteration
@@xxdragonrenderxx That's literally how cheap cheddar cheese got that orange. In the olden days the orange came from the fresh grass that the cows grazed on (as opposed to some cheap feed), but now they just feed some carrots to the cow.
@@commenter4898 100% bullshit
On the opposite side of this, but still in support of your point, my grandma always raised her hens with full access to the garden, free to roam all day and fed with a verity of plants and grains. The only time eggs became less orange and more yellow was in the winter when the feed they got was mostly grains (very colorless). I think diet definitely counts a lot
We have been keeping hens on our various farms for almost 40 years in central Ontario, Canada. Egg quality depends on many variables. Aside from variables like feed and genetics, there are things like winter eggs vs summer eggs. At our farm, in the winter, our hens are free range. In the summer they are pasture raised. In a couple of weeks, they will be eating toms of dandelions and that will change the colour of their eggs. I don't have the most discerning palate but that must have an effect.
I buy pasture raised eggs mainly to avoid the additives they have in the chicken feed they give to caged chicken, which range from fattening hormones to antibiotics. I think there's a slight difference in taste, for the better, too, but that's not my main reason for switching to pasture-raised eggs.
I’m a poultry specialist and I love you did such a great job explaining this and then detail you into. The only thing you missed I want to point out is. When it comes to organic vs other eggs. Something that might effect certain people and possibly the taste is how the company clean the eggs before they leave there facilities. The cheaper eggs are cleaned with a solution that is almost like diluted bleach. Eggs have these things called pores on them. And trace amounts can go into the eggs. Now the FDA says it not enough to kill or hurt anyone. But in some case this small amount is enough to effect people giving them a upset stomach when they eat the cheaper eggs.
Why are male baby chickens killed without regard? Ugh.
Thanks for this info
@@tolerbearALTII because they can't produce eggs
Same reason human babies are, duh. They're not wanted by some.@@tolerbearALTII
Rooster is mentioned in the Bible..
In EU (or at least in Poland) every egg sold in store has a code, which denotes whether the farm is using cages, cage-free, pastured etc, and also from which farm the egg comes from. The code is printed on the shell.
Same in the uk, so I imagine its the same in all European markets. EU kicking ass for consumers yet again.
Here in America we can't get a straight answer on our food supply.
The Netherlands also uses a code system. Traditional cages have become illegal several years ago and we also want to ban the ´large cages´. 3 is cage, free range is 2, pasture is 1 and organic is 0. Organic has certain strict rules about space, treatment and feed. But what is more indicative of the quality of their treatment and accommodation is the star grading which goes from 1 better life star up to 3 better life stars. 3 stars is indicative of the best living conditions.
Whenever I visit my parents, I buy eggs at an organic farm where they have lots of open space and pasture to roam. Trees provide cover from predator birds. The past several years the livestock has had to sit in the spacious barn a lot of the time though because of bird flu regulations. One sick hen can shut down a farm for several months!
@@TheRealTMar Excellent!
@@TheRealTMar I'd have liked Ethan to say something about organic eggs - especially for flavour.
Beautiful piece of work. Thank you for informing us!
I don't buy eggs less than 4 dollars and never use nonstick pans. ⛔️
Cast iron all the way
@@TG-rf2iume too!
I've always just assumed the only benefit to more expensive eggs was the better treatment of the animal, with no underlying benefit to my health or the taste of my food. Thanks for the highly informative video. These deep dives are always appreciated, its crazy how many things I and many others just take for granted.
The taste can be better since some of those who care enough to go cage free also let the hens eat better, like pecking bugs that give the yolks a rich color. Not all producers do just the minimum required by law for the label. There is a spectrum between cage free and pastured.
@@popeyegordon I have a suspicion that the specific breed and time of year also matters... Less bugs, less foliage, and less willingness for those chickens to utilize their outdoor-access in the winter (or rainy) seasons.
@@Aubreykun When I kept birds I gave them more greens and scraps in winter but keep in mind that I had no day cycle lighting like the factories that adjust the day cycle for maximum production. Long winter nights means less eggs per month.
That's why I buy them, and for Hollandaise sauce. In Winco Foods, the pasture raised are only $2 more.
I remember Kenji Lopez-Alt claiming that the taste was more or less the same, but that high beta carotine eggs look better and that matters a lot for enjoyment.
36 mins I've spent learning about eggs and how they're farmed on a Saturday night in February......this just randomly popped up in my feed. Yet I was thoroughly enthralled, really interesting deep dive on eggs!
I was here with you my internet friend 😊
Oh my. God someone tell me what this says so I don't have to watch it. If you can get here in less than 30mins, I'd be happy
@@dudedavid522 conclusion starts at 34:36
I’m here waiting for the SuperBowl 😊
You posted this yesterday (my time) and it's now Sunday night where I am in Southern Ontario, Canada. So we are half a world apart. 🙂🙃😊
Excellent detailed presentation and great explanations. Very well done. Thank you! Answered a number of my questions on the subject.
This is the second “price comparison”video I’ve come across from you and I loved the chicken one. Now that I see this is a series I’ve subscribed and can’t wait to continue watching your analysis
I actually really love how this video while not directly being about the ethics of the egg industry, it covers the ethical struggles and the reality between different conditions for farmed birds in a non-judgmental way. I think if more videos added details like this, consumers would be a lot more educated on how to make ethical decisions, as well as be more empathetic towards people who make those purchasing decisions.
And empathetic towards animals as well…they are living, breathing creatures with blood, nerves, emotions and feeling of pain.
I wish there would be an expose about food prices, who is committing the outrageous pricing, supplier or seller?
I will continue to buy humanely raised and organic eggs. Not because of the taste, but because of the way the hens are treated.
@@tamarafigge8800 Me too.
@@laars0001 Why not both?
The real difference is in small local farm eggs. My restaurant staff and I compared them and it’s like night and day.
The local farm eggs had a deeper savory flavor to it compared to the typical bland ones we used for orders. Can’t eat regular eggs anymore, they taste watered down.
I agree. You really can taste the difference.
I switch back and forth from backyard raised to the nicer grocery store eggs all the time... i can definitely tell a visual difference but after they are cooked the difference is subtle to me. I'd bet money the backyard eggs are going to be healthier in the long run however.
I'm pretty sure if you regularly eat one type of egg, you would easily taste the difference. You won't see much if you start with low quality to high quality but you will notice it way more from high quality to low.
So basically like all the industrialised crap they vomit on us. I could say the same for the Edible Styrofoam that is sold to the people. My bad, I meant "bread".
@@Steinmetal4Doesn’t get any fresher.
Thank you very much for your valuable information, Sr.
It is one of the best videos I have ever enjoyed!
There's a lecturer at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor named S. Margot Finn. She teaches in the area of "food studies." She wrote what was, to me, a very persuasive essay on this subject when she was a grad student and was regularly writing for a blog called Sour Salty Bitter Sweet. Her conclusion was that organic, free-range eggs did not have enough qualitative difference to justify their purchase on anything other than ethical grounds, and that even those ethical grounds were debatable when factoring in the greater nutrition accessibility of lower-cost food products realized through use of techniques like battery farming.
She also wrote a very interesting and accessible book called Discriminating Taste: How Class Anxiety Created the American Food Revolution. Your channel has started, especially recently, to start examining many of the topics she discusses in that book.
This sounds really interesting! If we really want to work to improve the accessibility of healthy food, we should be working to build a plant-based food system and the government should be subsidizing fruits and vegetables instead of animal agriculture!
@@kimmycushman7418 Those metrics about growing nutrients directly to feed humans instead of growing them to feed animals who are harvested for meat are compelling, but they don't tell the entire story. Finn wrote about that in her grad student days as well; for instance, while grain-fed cattle and even grain-finished cattle lead to a significant amount of waste (she said multipliers of 6:1 and up, IIRC) purely grass-fed cattle take that down to about 2:1... and there are significant ranges of cattle grazeland which aren't fit for other agricultural use. Similarly, she had an interesting piece about nutritional efficiency of pigs raised as they largely were prior to the 20th century, on slops and stovers that would otherwise only be fit for compost.
The larger point of her work, as I understand it, is that we conflate a lot of different things when we talk about food and food access, because we backpack in a lot of cultural, class, and ethical viewpoints, to the disservice of both discussions.
There are also a lot of interesting questions like whether, in a more holistic sense, getting nutrients from locally sourced farm-raised eggs is a more ethically sound choice than eating fruit and nuts shipped in from areas that are either fighting drought or are halfway across the world because those products aren't available and in-season where we are. How do we balance carbon emissions vs the suffering of animals vs fair trade concerns vs other factors? There's so, so much to think about! It's hard for laymen like me to have informed discussion about how to balance it all.
Ethan makes a really great point at the end of this video, which is that some of the more expensive eggs, especially the ones with deeper colored yolks, might be worth buying not because they outperform in blind taste tests but specifically because we _don't_ eat blindfolded, and much of eating, for good and for bad, is in our heads. How food makes us feel is important.
I think there's room for people who care to keep eating animals and animal products to raise their ethical game while continuing to do so. I think there's room for people who care about eating organic, or eating wholly plant-based, to acknowledge that some of what's important to them about it are subjective factors like the ones Ethan identified in this video. It's really great that we're collectively all beginning to educate ourselves more about these things, and I think this channel is an incredibly smart and accessible way for us to go about doing that.
We started eating Vital Farms during covid when there was a run on eggs, leaving only the more expensive eggs left, never going back. I hear Ethan that he didn't see a difference, but we found the Vital farms eggs to be better tasting, and have a better texture. We're eating eggs prepared several different ways weekly. We can tell the difference.
Indeed!
100% difference in Taste..
So much better..😂..Seriously..
did you make a test like this? tasting both kind of eggs in the same situation?
how can you be sure you're not just biased?
There's a Canadian TV show, Marketplace, that is a consumer watchdog. They did a panel, and had farm owners of all kinds (organic, free range and caged), and regular consumers. They all blind taste-tested the eggs. And the organic eggs won for best taste. Also, they had the eggs tested by an independent lab, and much more Omega 3 in the organics. I sometimes get organic from a farmer friend, and hell yeah, they taste better! That show should be on youtube, btw, unless they took it down. I don't have TV. :)
Eat both
@@marcopinchetti5872 Exactly. I would have to prove it to myself because I know I can easily fool myself into believing something. Although most people are perfectly happy being biased, and love to tell others about it, because they like the idea of the thing they are biased about.
There was a lady at my previous job that would occasionally bring me egg salad sandwiches and they were the most delicious ones I had ever had, and one day I asked her what her secret is, and she said that she just literally has chickens so these are just fresh eggs. There is definitely a difference between those and the ones you just get at a store.
Most eggs you get at the store are already two to three months old, and the pointiest side of the egg should be pointed downwards so the air sac is on the top side of the egg, help preserving it better.
With the egg salad, the biggest difference could WELL be what she makes the egg salid WITH, re dressing, spices, etc.
our family farm in now-Zimbabwe, yes. Warm eggs right from the hen's bottom and you could not beat the taste. When I was young nobody was commercially selling eggs, because what is the point when raising them is free money and taste so good?
I like the eggs at the store better than my own farm fresh eggs. I find free range eggs to taste bad whether they are my own or from someone else.
They have dates on each individual egg as well as the carton. They could be 2 months old but they aren't. There is a date on your carton that says when it was packed. They are washed and packed pretty much immediately at any egg plant of size.
Maybe the brown eggs nobody buys or places that don't sell much eggs. No real grocery store will have that problem. As an example, my current eggs, from Walmart, were packed on 017(1/17), I bought them almost a week ago. They were literally packed only days before I bought them. No egg plant is letting eggs sit around unprocessed for a month though 30 days is legal from my understanding. They go pretty much directly to wash and packaging.
I have farm fresh free range eggs from my chickens, I don't enjoy them fried though. I can tolerate them as an ingredient or even scrambled but I find the yolks to be gamey when over medium.
@@allouttabubblegum1984
Ethan, I appreciate your deep dives into everything food. The reason we buy the more expensive eggs is because 1) I’d like to think the animals/animal products live a humane life, i.e, get to peck around for their normal foods; plants, insects, seeds, etc. 2)It is hard to imagine that pellet food given to cheap egg layers has all the various nutrients that are available in a pasture. It has not been that long ago since egg producers started feeding “vegetarian foods to chickens and stopped grinding up unmarketable chicken parts; those chicks that are ground up at 2 weeks, feathers, fats and all other “waste chicken”s. All that said, a more useful study would be to examine the difference in available NUTRIENTS in eggs raised in large egg production vs. pasture raised. Thanks to listening, I appreciate your research and hard work.
especially for animal products, quality can really be tasted and is also reflected in the nutritional value.
I always pay extra for "happy cows"/eggs etc.
Thank you for this excellent video! I love that you laid out the ethical perspectives first. You made it very visual for people to see that when they pay more money, it makes such a big difference in the chickens' life - and that's a wonderful thing to spend money on.
When it comes to health, I suspect the less space each chicken has the more antibiotics and other medicines the farm will have to use to keep the chicken from getting sick. An important aspect to consider when you're choosing food!
Would be interesting to see this experiment with another group of eggs that are freshly laid. Like from a local farmer/homeowner that lets them roam. Would like to see the freshness taste, vs a grocery store egg that had to be shipped from a pasture raised farm.
From experience with having my own chickens, farm fresh/small farm/home chicken eggs are much firmer. They usually have the best possible living conditions and are able to be individually treated for issues. You can get them on average $3-5 per dozen, in fun colours. The egg shells are thicker from being able to forage for more varied foods, food scraps, and a feed supplimented diet. Obviously how people raise their own chickens will vary by individual but IMHO If you dont want to pay $10 a dozen for certifications for how kindly they are raised, go find a local farmer. You wont be dissapointed. They are also almost always fresh, and if they dont wash them they can be counter stable for a month or more stored roughly like squashes and the like (cool, dry). Depending on how they are collected there may be some small amount of poop on the shell which can be washed off, but worth noting for people who are severely immunocomrpomised or who have small kids who may be prone to it (I think concerns end around age 3 but dont take my word for it exactly, I dont have kids just know its a thing)
Oh, and the males are usually not killed after hatching, they tend to be raised to make more babies, or turned into cooking chicken, and slaughtered as humanely as possible. While its again varied farm to farm, still a win IMHO
I would like to see a video comparing month old unwashed eggs not refrigerated vs washed and refrigerated eggs.
I have a relative who keeps chickens, and honestly their eggs tasted really good compared to the grocery store eggs. They tasted a lot richer and more savory.
I would say you will see a difference, as everyone I know that either gets fresh eggs or sells them says they see a huge difference. From the reading I have done before this video, the majority of eggs we are buying in the grocery store are four to six months old if you can believe that! Absolutely must degenerate quality
I had a flock of about 20 chickens and one year there was a population explosion of little frogs and toads from our pond... the chickens had a FEAST and a few days later I had the most rich looking (and tasting) egg yolks I've ever experienced lol. I miss having egg laying hens :( . I'm left with post menopausal hens now lol.
I have to agree. My chicken eggs looked darker and more orange when we allowed them to run around and forage for bugs rather than eat a lot of corn and grain.
@@jim73challenger Ethan was right that the egg white will taste exactly the same, but the egg yolk will have a deeper flavor if they're foraging for themselves instead of being force-fed one type of feed.
The post menopausal hens is hilarious.
OK, I'm feeding my fucking chickens frogs.
Buy dry insects for your hens 😊👍
Really appreciate the detailed and non bias review. Thank you❤
This is clearly a DEEP dive into eggs, and much appreciated. As a retired professor I admire your commitment to doing the extensive research necessary to come up with your answers. And as others noted, you share the information without taking sides on personal ethical choices, you leave that to each of us, with enough information to inform our choices. Thank you for your hard work and your commitment to understanding the food we cook and eat.
You know, not only are these videos informative af, you're very personable without being showy or fake. If you made full length food documentaries, I think they would be regarded as some of the best.
My favourite story.....my grandmother was raised on a farm her entire life. My memories of her started when she was in her age 60s. Her kitchen window overlooked the pasture where the chicken flock foraged. And Grandma could tell which hen ran back to the hen house to lay. If one hen missed laying for 3 days she was either into the stove / oven or freezer the next day
MEE MAW SHOWED NO MERCY
@@ShmoopDooper ...Which is why Mee Maw would be just fine during some apocalyptic disaster and millions of city slicker consumers would discover how useless, savage and feeble they really are and how thin their veneer of civility actually was. Talk about 'social constructs', woah.
My wife can tell with our 40 hens, but they will “live out their lives here forever” because they have names and we love them. “How would you feel if you couldn’t work anymore so we murdered you!?!” 😂
One of my elderly customers is extreeeemly wealthy. They've build a very nice chicken house. I guess its one of those things that transcends. As a child in the 60's we had chickens and I wish the kids today would go outside and touch the grass.
@@Yensen2020 Probably wouldn't feel anything if you're dead.
Thank you so much for making this video!!! Very informative! THANK YOU 🙏
For me, the real difference was discovered eating a farm fresh egg straight from the hen house to the plate after a week of hard work. The color was rich, the yolks clear, the smell more pronounced, the flavor obviously full. The energy received was evident during our days work. Eggs can be compared to petrol grades in a cars octane. Everyone I talked to said the same thing, you can tell a noticeable difference in farm foods in your body and egg difference was an easy indicator.
I worked for a large egg plant in Boulder CO back in the 70's and they sent old hens and/or dead hens to Campbell soup company. They came with a large open bed tractor and trailer with a tarp to cover after filling with the old hens. The plant was torrid hot during summer and hen death would increase at this time of year. The hens would be tossed in a pile until pick up on Fridays with flies all over them. By the way, Campbells boils the chick meat until it's safe to eat, but often tough. If I hadn't seen this first hand I'd never believe it. The laying house was elevated high above the cement floor below where a loader constantly scraped up the waste into piles for fertilizer production. The driver had cardboard on top to prevent getting splattered throughout the day. The laying hens were in cages in rows as far as you can see with augers running down the line to bring in food and/or ground calcium. The calcium was added when the eggs began to break due to thin shells. Water was provided in troughs next to the food auger troughs. There was a boardwalk for workers to cull sick or dead hens. Each cage had from 6 to 8 hens per and no place to lay down. The rows ran along side each boardwalk on either side. It was very smelly with lots of ammonia in the air. The cages were tilted towards the back where a conveyor belt ran constantly bringing in laid eggs gradually downhill to a wash/inspection/packing room. Eggs were candled for blood then washed an packed in cartons.
yeah expensive eggs aree about sustainable and morale farming not this mechanized hell food production. Now the FDA is being deregulated and defunded like many other gov agencies so the rich can get rich while the peasants eat tainted food!
Yeah, this is very typical still around the world. In most parts of the western worlds standards have increased a bit, but its still horrid in those facillities.
The thing is though, for your personal consumption, you can easily buy the "mid" tier priced eggs without losing too much money and you're still going to to do a lot for the animals. Here in germany you're going to pay 1.80-2.00€ for the cheapest eggs (10 pieces), just paying like 0.40-0.60€ more will guarantee free ranging chickens. That's something everyone can pay, eventhose with minimum wage imo. Atleast I can.
In the near future, humans will be eating bugs for protein.
This canned food sounds awesome in comparison.
wow! i've been vegan for over 40 years, but stiull, it's good/horrific to read a first hand account.
A friend of mine worked at a small chicken farm in the '90's and the stories she tells are just sickening. I always shop for eggs marked "certified humane." I hope those birds have a better life.
Very helpful, and as a former small scale chicken farmer and egg supplier I appreciate giving pasture-raised and humanely handled good mention. If you ever revisit this topic consider adding the curious difference between US and EU regs, specifically that US eggs are washed and refrigerated where EU eggs are not washed nor refrigerated. This is one of the advantages a direct-to-consumer egg suppliers in the US can offer, unwashed eggs with the shell membrane intact… less oxidation as the shell is less porous. Then you can always talk about duck eggs… eggs never go out of style :-)
hit us with some bubba shrimp vibes. all the things you can do with eggs! they really are a great food & so versatile.
I definitely can tell the difference in taste of eggs, I normally get the best eggs I can get, got a couple of favourites. In between I would try out other eggs, just for experiment & also to see if I can find any tasty eggs at lower prices (eg farmers just starting etc).
Only this week I did that with a new brand, it’s cheaper by half the normal price I paid, and it tasted half of my normal tasty eggs. After the first egg, I know I will only use it for baking etc, rather than have them as fried for my toasted egg sandwich lunch.
Eggs from Home grown chikens that feed on actual food they find outside/ bugs and my leftovers but not on commercial chiken food taste 10 times better than any grain feed egg ever.@@H_A_L_7
FYI, some years ago, the Canadian consumer TV show "Marketplace" did a taste test and also chemical analysis by an independent lab. The taste testers were farmers from commercial, organic and free-range farms, as well as a couple of regular folk, egg lovers.
Taste testers chose the pasture raised, and the lab confirmed that organic eggs have more Omega 3 and other nutrients. I thought you would enjoy hearing that. Take care.
Oh, and a big YES on the unwashed and room temperature. I'm lucky to get farm eggs from a local grocer that has hens. Not organic, but fresh and at least they are outdoors. We do the best we can, right? Eggs are $10/dz and up for organic.
@@jennifermarlow.Dang, I sell my organic pasture-raised eggs for $8 a dozen, but then again, people don't appreciate it much out here
Brown eggs are actually cheaper at Wal-Mart but you have to order them online and pick-up or delivery. Kind of an Easter Egg! 🥁🥁
Thank you. I've been told it's healthiest to eat eggs from hens that *forage* for food outside instead of eat grains, so I've been eating Nellie's Free Range Eggs that claim "Outdoor Forage". I would love to save money but I'm not sure you've convinced me.
Farmers charge $10 a dozen for organic eggs here in CA. You got a great deal.
Having grown up on a small farm, and eating farm fresh, completely free range eggs, I can tell you for 100% sure the flavour is extremely different. When I was used to farm fresh eggs and I'd eat non farm eggs, it would taste to me like I was eating plastic. I must say, that I believe the diet of mass production layer chickens must be improving, as I feel like over the past 20 years mass produced egg flavour has improved.
depends what you buy, I normally buy free range, but once i bought shitty standard farmed wal-mart eggs... I could barely finish the carton, they were just so flavourless and kinda gross.
Very true, okay for cooking, but I'd rather support a farm that is free range@@Jordonzo
We had free range chickens for 30 years, it's a difference like night and day. I sometimes have to deal with that industrial whole egg stuff out of the bag/tetra pack and just the smell makes me gag uncontrollably. I couldn't eat that.
When I worked in a restaurant where we made our own hollandaise sauce (40 years ago) I would occasionally bring eggs from my farmer neighbor. The chickens were out all day in the yard and fields. One of those egg yolks would make a batch of sauce where it would take 3-4 yolks of the store bought eggs. Harder shells, too.
I wish he had included a farmers market egg in this shootout, rather than all store-bought. I’m convinced the results would have been different. My own experience is that supermarket eggs taste very similar, whereas farmers market eggs have better yolks.
I've tried both. Local farmers market eggs and Top-shelf pasture raised eggs look and taste exactly the same. No difference.@@sub-jec-tiv
@@sub-jec-tiv I think that's mostly down to the difference in breed. Small-farm hens aren't bred to lay the biggest eggs at the fastest rate possible, and their eggs taste noticably different (and are usually smaller too).
Wonder what the omega 3-6-9 profile and other inflammatory markers look like.
That's good those chickens got to run around in the sun. Majority of the poor chickens are stuck in cramped factories. The food industry is out of control. It can't be healthy to consume animals who do not have natural living conditions. Sad
First time viewer here, you came up in my feed. Really enjoyed the content. Liked and Subscribed.
You really did this well. It efficiently addressed all my questions.
Best way to taste difference in egg yolks is with a soft boiled egg, such that the yolk is still creamy but firm. I can definitely taste the difference in pasture raised vs caged eggs with soft boiled eggs, and pasture raised tastes much better.
I can too, I believe its possible here that Ethan just had a fantastic batch of both.
@@mohitbhole6781Or maybe he just isn't an eggspert on eggs.
I don't really taste a huge difference in any store bought eggs. However, the eggs I get from my backyard chickens taste amazing!! I didn't even know eggs could taste that good and flavorful until I tried them. I really believe it's because we give them all our kitchen scraps as well as let them free range. Our chickens eat really good!
Totally agree!
i also had Chickens as well and we gave em kitchen scraps as well and leftovers that we didnt eat and the eggs was more flavorful and the yolks more vibrant.
dont have any chickens now tho since it can get expensive...... i miss the chickens
Our chickens eat well too, but when I did a blind test with store bought ones, I could detect no difference in flavor whatsoever that wouldn't be drowned out by a tiny amount of salt.
The only store bought eggs that taste different to me are Vital Source. They’re as close to backyard chicken eggs as you can buy.
Just trying to figure out if they are actually healthier to eat than store bought eggs or if the difference in health is negligible.
This video is extremely well written and produced
Many thanks, excellent overview!
I grew up in Europe, lived in Africa and have travelled in Asia and the eggs there have so much more a darker yellow yolk and to my mind tasted better than US eggs. Recently I started buying Pasture raised, specifically Vital Farms, and these just like those in the rest of the world.
Agreed. VITAL Farms' PASTURE raised are THE way to go. If it were only for ethics I would BUT they really do look and taste better also. 🥚 🐔 😊 🙏
Just got back to the US from Spain. In the US, scrambled and fried eggs have always been barely palatable but in Spain it was great
Yes, this is one of my favorite brands, and I believe it’s called the happy hen company brand. Those are my two go too.
Egg yolks are naturally a light yellow. If you have a dark yellow or even orange yolk it is because the chickens get fed colorings.
@@eily_b This is from the Times of India and seems right.
Eggs with a dark orange yolk are mostly laid by pasture-raised hens. The colour of the yolk is influenced by a healthy and well balanced diet. Pasture-raised hens are allowed to roam on outdoor pastures, where their diet is supplemented by fresh grass and nutritious omnivorous foods like worms, beetles, grasshoppers, and spiders. This diet is rich in carotenoids, which gives living organisms a red or orange colour, therefore causing the dark orange yolk colour. However, a hen doesn’t have to be pasture-raised to lay an egg with a dark orange yolk. Any hen can lay such an egg if fed nutritious food.
When there was an egg shortage, we were forced to buy the more expensive, small farm, pasture raised eggs because those were the only ones available. There was such a huge difference in taste and satiety level. Whereas before, I'd make an omelet with 3-4 eggs, I only need 1-2 to feel full because it packs quite the punch. Those yolks are liquid gold! We've never gone back. (Besides, the price evens out if you need less to make you full)
Side note: I still do keep some cheaper eggs for baking.
Amen! I finally bought 5 chickens last yr and now have fresh eggs daily....I'll never go back to the flavorless store eggs.
Yes. I used to buy both kinds of eggs. I would add one or two "fancy" eggs for cooking up egg dishes and use the cheaper eggs for any recipe that just required eggs. Prices have gone up enough that I'm out of the habit of buying both though.
The difference is drastic, I can't go back lol.The best eggs are the pasture raised eggs.. not a fan of vegan fed chickens, no matter if they're organic..
So why did Ethan f this up then? I do agree, there's a MAJOR difference to me.
I plan on keeping my girls till the day I die...they make great company as well as great eggs! @@esm1817
I will say this... There is 100% a difference in the beneficial quality of the egg from a pasture raised as opposed to a caged egg. My wife and I were starting to get sick when eating caged eggs and the taste was not good. We would get bloated and start feeling gross. When we switched to pasture raised all those symptoms went away and our eggs tasted better. Maybe we are just sensitive people but for us there is a night and day difference.
Definitely did your research on this video, good work! One thing I would suggest looking into in the ethics category: in free range/ pasture raised birds there can be a lot of chicken loss by predatory birds (hawks and such). Because the chickens are in such large areas that a netted cover above them for protection isn't often feasible. Indoor (caged/ cage free ) never have to worry about this issue. Appreciate the time you took putting this video together
This was the most useful thing to pop up in my feed in a while. I recently(ish) transferred to the dairy department and have been asked many questions that I don’t know how to answer. Like, “Why are these eggs brown?” and, “What does “Cage Free" mean?” Thanks so much, for your very detailed yet clear explanation.
See my post above, "A historical fact..."
cow eggs?
@@7jcjg A lot of places sell dairy products and chicken eggs near each other. So it's not unusual for me to hear this in a comment.
@@ArtisChroniclesThank you. I was so confused. Yes, I work at a place where the eggs are in the same cooler as the milk. Sometimes, I am again reminded that the inter-webs ARE a global phenomenon.
Ethan, great video! One thing - you were measuring age of eggs from the time you bought them. Eggs in the grocery store are often 3 weeks between the newest and oldest. You can tell the packing date on all US eggs (which is usually the same as the laid-on date) by looking for the three-digit number that represents the day of the year (January 19 would be 019, December 31 would be 365). Once you start looking for it, its amazing how much older some eggs are!
Eggs have a thin film on the exterior, when laid. It comes off when they are washed. Eggs sold in store have, of course, been washed of this film. But, not washing that film off extends the freshness further. So, anyone that raises chickens for personal use should benefit from delaying on the washing, as well as refrigerating asap.
I was amazed he talked about age of eggs without talking about the dates on the side of the cartoons. I noticed at the Sprouts, the other expensive grocery in Arizona, all the organic and free-range eggs were 1 1/2 to 2 weeks older than the cheapest eggs. In NH/MA Pete and Gerry's (NH grown) eggs are about a week newer than other national brand organic eggs.
@@rogelioortiz3003 Unwashed eggs that still have the bloom do not require refrigeration.
Exactly, age is the bigger factor with eggs taste. If you can get freshly laid eggs from a caged/cage free commercial operation like Purdue or Tyson they taste just as good as local producers. Because they're weeks fresher than anything on store shelves.
That was great! Thank you. ❤
Thanks for the in depth video. What I felt was missing though is antibiotics use and hormones added to the chicken feed and their effects on the egg and the health of the consumer.
YES!!! That’s a HUGE part and I’m surprised this man didn’t elaborate on that major part of information!
I was looking for this part, too! I would like to know if he would notice a difference between hormone-free eggs vs cage eggs.
I was looking for this part plus, a quantitative chemical analysis of the trace minerals and vitamins in the eggs.
This is my main reason for getting the more expensive eggs
Do more expensive eggs contain less antibiotics or other potentially harmful ingredients(like chemicals) for long term consumption, especially for kids? This is the main point my wife insist on buying the most expensive eggs she can find, and I was hoping this video can confirm or deny that argument. :(
If you store eggs in the refrigerator, keep them in the carton near the back. Storing eggs in the door will vary the temperature and humidity, and so the eggs will age faster.
Appreciate that you went in depth. My brain keeps getting stuck on a couple things regarding flavor, though:
Price doesn’t necessarily equate to a “category” of egg. Where I live, there are a lot of “expensive egg” vendors and I’ve found they all taste different from each other.
As you point out, the reason an egg is expensive can be the ethics around their treatment, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the chickens had a different diet or that the parents are substantially different.
Second, if the reason an egg is different is identified, then I think the comparison method used to highlight how that matters. It’s reasonable to say that it’s not worth spending more on eggs if you’re going to fry it and put it in a taco. But if, for example, the chemical composition of the egg yolk is different, then I would try to understand the different qualitative aspects of the yolk or with preparations where the yolk’s characteristics are important.
As is, I think what the conclusions draw is that the price you’re paying is for ethical reasons and not necessarily chemical reasons. That’s totally valid and helpful as a metric to know if the specific eggs selected are worth it to buyers.
Excellent thorough educational!
The only eggs I could substantially taste a difference in were ones that I had gotten from a roadside store on the way to the Oregon Coast. They had almost a metallic undertone and a richness that was unlike any egg I've gotten from a regular grocery store. I was told that they fed their chickens oyster shells for calcium, and they were free range. I don't get them often because they're expensive and out of the way, but I always pick up a carton when I pass by.
Oyster shells are a wonderful source of calcium for chickens. Add some live grub worms and it’s a great snack for them and gives the egg shells more density, keeping them from cracking as easily.
Is this west of Eugene on the way to Florence? I may have to check it out if so
@@sharpcookie791 yup! It's Morning Glory Farm & Espresso.
Most chicken feed has oyster shells in them. Adds zero taste, is just for shell production.
@@quengafarm could be something else, I'm not sure. All I know is there is something qualitatively different about them.
We have 5 Novagen red laying hens . They're very happy, spoiled hens. My hens were 4 months old when we purchased them, and from day one, they were as lovable and tame as a bunch of puppies! The shells are med brown. I can only say that they're the best eggs for over easy, poached, and hard boiled. I treasure them like pieces of gold. It's about the texture! I'm not sure the 'flavor' is 'different', but I'll say "richer" for certain.
(The NOVOgen Brown is a Red Sex-Link. This particular breed has been developed in France, derived from a cross between Rhode Island Red and Leghorn genetics.)
I guess that might be like buying two different brands of heavy cream that both tastes similar but one is just richer and creamier. For a certain dishes or occasions that sounds justifiable to me
It also sounds like you have a strong connection to them, which is naturally going to be a confounding varaible. You love them, so they will taste better to you no matter what. Similar to how darker yellow/orange yolks make people think an egg tastes better when it doesn't.
We have a mixed flock of copper Marans, lavender orpingtons and Americaunas. The Marans lay beautiful dark brown and speckled eggs, the orpingtons are light brown and the Americaunas lay a pastel blue shade. I don't believe that I save any money by owning chickens, but I do believe that they are more nutritious than the alternative, which when I'm shopping I go for the cheapest. I also appreciate that my children get to experience this relationship with animals. They enjoy our table scraps, we enjoy their eggs, there by we are mutually benefitting each other. My kids have the memories of buying them as chicks, building the coup, holding them and watching them grow. I'll pay extra for that.
@@taylorsessions4143 That's the spirit! Awesome and a great lesson for your children
They absolutely are better texture! When I first got my chickens and scrambled one I was surprised it came together like “a real scrambled egg” - imagine a French omelette type mixture, rather than the clumpy half mixed scramble I was used to.
Wow! I am blown away by the Quality of this video! Science-based, entertaining and unbiased testing, we truly need more of this in the world. You got a new subscriber for sure. Would love to see you do the same with rice.
such cruel treatment of chickens forced to live in such cramped unhealthy conditions. With no exposure to grass or sun, or entertainment, or joy or fresh air. How insane are we as humans. Ours lived very long lives. We had 12 and they were outside all day in the field and forest. The way they should be. Got the distance and visit a local farmer who has a few . Our chickens were sweetie pies. Their protector, Stanley the rooster was not. But he protected them perfectly.
How ethan manages to keep his mustache clean despite aggressively chomping so many different foods is nothing short of amazing.
I think in the taste test he couldn't tell a difference because he kept tasting his mustache and not the eggs. 😄
A point about your Omega 3 statement. While technically true it has been known for years that many modern foods, mostly industrial raised beef, is higher in Omega 6 than naturally raised or grass fed beef, which is higher in Omega 3. This imbalance between Omega 3 and Omega 6 has been linked to inflammation in the body but especially in the blood vessels and can be a contributing factor in clogged arteries. Inflammation is also at the heart of many other illnesses so while there isn't technically a defined Omega 3 deficiency, the imbalance in the modern diet between 3 and 6 causes many health issues. Great video, just wanted to point that out. Keep up the excellent work!
Very thorough and comprehensive. Thank you. Btw the darker orange yolks are from chickens eating bugs and pasture raised. It has higher beta-carotene.
Thank you so much! Nothing like no vais reports! Excellent work!!!
Videos like this are exactly why RUclips is one of the best tools ever created. Sincere thanks for sharing!
RUclips is digital library with all types levels of education and horror 😅 it's the beast of knowledge. This digital library can easily be taken down by cutting cable in the ocean. That's why we have spaceX . Unfortunately all space junk needs to be clean up to protect internet. We are doing better than anyone in 1920s . We have more knowledge for better or worse.
@@threewishes777 Yes God bless the navy for guarding the undersea cables. One of our ships was attacked by the Chinese a while back while on guard. The navy covered it up by court martialing the captain of our ship. The Chinese ship first covered its ID ping with the ID of an oil tanker. Then used an EMP weapon to put our ship dead in the water and blind and make the weapons system useless. Also no communications? No excuse for that there should have been a radio on board hardened for that I used to fix that type in the Army. Then boarded our vessel and shot at sailors. There were wounded.
I hope we learned from the incident and closed up the vulnerabilities. We cannot always count on satellite communications. Ever had satellite tv (DISH) or internet? Have a good day.
Source?@@JoyPeace-ej2uv
Great presentation! I may have missed it, but one factor important to me is how much a product relies on the transportation system. I own a butcher shop and BBQ restaurant in Denison, TX (north of Dallas), Heritage Butchery & Barbecue, and our eggs are pasture-raised, 15 miles from our restaurant. The rancher drives the eggs to us, often with his kids, and they often have lunch at the shop and occasionally have the chance to speak with our customers. Maybe it’s less efficient, but maybe it improves the customer experience. It definitely allows us to support a local family business. If you’re ever up our way, stop in and say hi!
Interesting that this good video about eggs are from a person who does not eat breakfast.
I do bit I do intermittent fasting, I skip lunch
Great show! Excellent information, thank you. I spend the money for pasture raised eggs.
One thing I think you missed here is how some cheap eggs can be difficult to cook with. My experience is that many cheap eggs yolks are very fragile, and so they break when I try to separate them for a meringue or emulsion, or if I put them in a pan to fry them. While I think your criteria (ethics, health, and taste) are important, I think cheap eggs can be a barrier to entry to new or occasional cooks because they can make essential cooking techniques seem really difficult.
Just in your head.
I switched to brown eggs because the white egg shells were thinner and kept cracking when I boiled/steamed them. I get the cheapest brown eggs which are about 2x more expensive than the cheapest white. Still like $3 though…
I find the size of the egg is a much greater factor in consistency of behavior between specimens. Large eggs have a bit of variation, while XL and jumbo are wildly inconsistent. Similarly, small and medium eggs are very easy to get consistent results with.
My chickens butt nuggets need to rest for about a week or be put into the fridge before I can fry one without breaking the yolk. If I try and eat same day, the yolk almost always breaks when flipped.
@@lamebear1000I'm having the opposite experience lol always buy white shells and last week bought brown by accident and yesterday it took 4 attempts to successfully boil an egg. They all kept cracking immediately
Fantastic video, thanks! I only eat pasture raised eggs, and Vital Farms is a mainstay as well as a neighbor, who has a small farm with the best eggs which she sells even more expensive than Vital Farms. Even though they’re expensive it is important to support your local Farms and look out for the well-being of the animals that feed us. Additionally, besides any taste differences pasture raised eggs are nutritionally superior to caged raised. They are much better for you.
It’s not as good as Happy eggs. And, not as expensive as Happy eggs. 😂 Happy is the only brand that does not trigger my Hashimoto’s problems.
@@AnotherWorld_DeepRestLove Happy eggs, but, no joke, I wish the yolks were runnier. But are they delicious !🎉
@ Hashimoto comment… I’m gonna give that a try. I know organic (in everything else) has made a difference for me, as well as increasing my “healthy” fat consumption.
Eggs kill hens and male chicks. None of it's humane where a female animal's reproductive system is exploited for profit. Disgusting.
@@r0nea Wanna give you a hug. Hashimoto’s literally makes us live in a different dimension. 😂
One of the few benefits of living in a rural area. Chickens wander about the farm all day. Every morning, collect eggs for breakfast or lunch. City folk have to pay for such healthy food. We just gather it up.
I'm so lucky to have a friend who keeps chickens. I get fresh eggs - as in, the egg was laid this morning - for $3.00/dozen. The chickens just roam in a pasture, with a large chicken coop for inclement weather. Best eggs I've ever eaten.
I try to go to local farms where I know that the chickens are kept more humanely. Seeing the conditions that the caged animals are kept in make it a struggle to stay with meat based products.
I do the same thing. Eggs are one of the main sources of protein for me, and knowing the hens are treated well and personally knowing the farmer is good to them is a little piece of mind. yes they are a bit more expensive, but I don't really buy meat, so that money I save, I am more than happy to put towards high-quality eggs and supporting local businesses
Yeah agreed - I do it for the ethics
I feel so nauseated seeing so many chickens crammed indoors in terrible condition 😢😢 and the male baby chicks.. why are humans like this
I raise hens - and let me tell you - they have acres to roam - they eat bugs - they jump in the air to catch flies - they barely touch their feed until the snow covers the ground - this tells you a lot about what grocery hens eat eh? Mine eat clover, flowers, worms - a factory hen usually lives 2-3 years ..... My head rooster is 7 years old !!!!! and I have many 6 year old hens .... Please buy directly from a farmers market from someone who brags about their hens - some of the farmers are still old school and don't really free range but just have a dirt fenced in yard - the nutrition difference is huge
@@bookswithatwist-vanvelzerp9262 that sounds amazing! I definitely must look closer. And hopefully have my own chickens some day
I raise a few hens and definitely much more orange yolks, and fresher eggs taste better. Between harvest, pasturizing, shipping, and making it to the floor of the market, fresher eggs do taste better. Orange scammble definitely turns some heads, but it definitely aligns in the taste with everybody. Besides the fact that the natural curiosity and personality of the hens definitely blends well with the overall calming effect of the yard/garden. Keeping chickens is one of the most rewarding things I have ever taken on.
The taste is drastic.
Same. Honestly before I got chickens I thought eggs were meh. After eating my own backyard eggs I can’t get enough of them. I’m replacing 2 dinners a night with eggs as it is and the whole family loves it. We eat so many eggs now days, they are so much better than store bought.
Yes! 💯
I used to have 6 chickens (now it's down to 3) and I'm an egg addict.
The taste is slightly different but in no way "better".
And they also vary a lot while store bought caged eggs are consistent.
The only advantage is that my chickens make way bigger eggs.
You people clearly have a bias that doesn't have anything to do with taste.
You could pick the ones you own but only because you are used to the taste (leaving aside salt and pepper). Cuz I could.
But give me free range eggs from other chickens and it's a zero from me. And I'm VERY picky with my eggs. I used to eat an unhealthy amount cuz we were swimming in them. Once we had over 80 eggs and they kept laying them, so we gave 40 away and cooked a bunch of them in all kinds of ways and recipes, eating 6-8 eggs a day (and I'm not a fat american)
I have an orange tree and can definitely say my oranges taste better than store-bought. Same goes with my eggplants, broccoli, etc.. I am sure an outsider may or may not agree. As proven in this video, there is a very big psychological aspect to taste. Your eggs taste better to you, no doubt about it. You raised them, you know what your chicken eat, you care for them, etc etc.
Subbed because I’ve learned so much from this channel
As long as I'm getting ripped off buying fake stuff my experience is free range farm raised hens in small batches (hard to find) are best in terms of taste and quality.
I live in eastern Europe and still have family living in the countryside and, goddamn, are the eggs from their hens delicious. No expensive store-bought eggs come close to that richness and texture.
I hated eggs until I moved to Europe. Even the store bought ones here are just a level above what I could get in Florida.
You should post a blinded test of you eating them and consistently identifying those eggs over store-bought ones then!
I have hens. I was really against it, but my mom decided that she really wants to have good quality eggs.
I never was a fan of egg dishes, but goddamn, the difference is big. The yolk is very yellow, not orange, the taste is much richer. I actually eat much more eggs now.@@SuperMrgentleman
@@FilipFromNM Yeah go ahead and post a blinded video where you taste the difference
Do a blind test. You will fail, exactly as presented on the video.
Ethan, your level of details in this series is something I admire and appreciate. Amazing job. Forever a fan!
Easy life!
One needs only one video to learn about eggs as food and get answers all questions he/ she may have had. Thank you
Thanks for the egg info. nice to know. 👍👍
During the lock down in the us back in 2020 my family started buying farm fresh eggs ( we live in a very agricultural area) and I noticed a massive difference in any dish I would use them in. Since then I actually have almost completely stopped eating store bought eggs. The farm fresh eggs were no more than 24 hours old when we would get them and had such a better flavor. I know it’s next to impossible for most people to get access to those sorts of eggs but in my opinion they are much better. Love your content man!
I raise hens. You are correct. The fresher the egg, the better it taste.
I work with guy that has about 70 hens. He brings in eggs for sale every week. They are excellent and at $4 a dozen, a really good value for the product received.
When I lived in Texas one of my friends had chickens and ducks on her farmbthat were free range. Best eggs ever, except for the free range eggs we got from the egg truck that visited our German village once a week.
@@gozer87 Duck eggs are delicious.
Not trying to be a jerk, but is it possible that this is more confirmation bias than an actual difference?
Ethan's video (and previous testing by Kenji L-A at Serious Eats) has shown that well versed tasters can't distinguish between egg types and ages when tasted blind. I'll add myself to that camp, as we have some backyard chickens, and while I love their egss, I can't tell any difference in "quality" between their eggs and store bought caged eggs.
As a baker who uses egg whites to make meringue as a part of my main product, I have noticed a significant difference in the end result depending on the type of eggs I use. The actual age of the egg has the largest impact. Shells are porous and will absorb odors of anything else in the fridge (like meat or fish). So fresh eggs are best. But then the texture of the meringue will differ with the type of egg. Just look at the meringue in this video... it's kind of chunky and gritty and not a proper meringue, but that could come down to technique.
Glad I wasn't the only one giving that meringue the stank eye. 😂😂😂
We do not wash the eggs in Europe -> eggs stop absorbing smells from fridge... and we don't even need to refrigerate them.
If your chickens are fed oyster shells along with their feed, their shells will be stronger and harder. We also feed ours lots of fresh kale we grow because they produce more often and more colorful shells with strong, golden yellow yolk. If you buy farm fresh eggs, DO NOT REFRIDGERATE. They stay best on the counter...might help to know.
@@Mtaalasintelligent Americans/farmers don’t wash their fresh eggs either… Americans know nothing about food 🤦♀️
High omega 3 eggs have a distinctly different taste that I would not describe as being better. In fact, I wouldn't use them for some recipes and for general baking because omega 3 fats degrade in heat. Just because he can't taste the difference doesn't mean they don't. It's also possible that the eggs he used didn't have the claimed omega 3 content. Omega 3 eggs are useful if one poaches the yolk and then cooks the white more fully (to destroy the anti-nutrient in it). For baking and cooking, more omega 3 is actually a drawback, since the omega 3 degrades in heat.
This was a great video to watch. thanks
My attitude was an egg is an egg. Everyone hyped up fresh eggs. I had chickens (still do...just watched this video while eating 4 eggs 🙃) and I never noticed a difference. Then...my hens went through a long molting period and I ran out of eggs. I bought some cheap eggs like I always use to do and then I noticed the difference. Kinda like when you can't tell if it's dark navy blue or black until you hold it up to something black. My hens laid eggs that had more flavor. The cheap store eggs were more bland. I never noticed the difference until switching back. Now, that wasn't just the human element because I was a little shocked to come to that conclusion. Maybe, it's just the difference between local fresh eggs and mass produced. Great video by the way. I love the depth and dedication you have put into these videos. Very insightful and entertaining. I just subscribed.
I think that a lot of commercial eggs, even the pasture raised ones, will ultimately have a very similar diet. I'd like to see a comparison with some home raised or small farm eggs. Places where the chickens will get a much more varied diet. I can definitely taste a difference between those and any grocery store eggs I've had.
that could be a point
I have backyard hens that eat layer pellets and as much grass, bugs and garden produce as they want. Their eggs are comparable to the pasture raised ones at the stores. It's the beta carotene in the plants that really makes difference. In my opinion, pasture raised eggs are worth it, but cage free tastes the same as the cheapest eggs.
That may be true but its also not useful information for a lot of people because the extra cost and living situation can easily make it impossible to get fresh eggs at a reasonable price
It probably varies from farm to farm and time of year. I definitely notice with my parents chickens that the eggs have a deeper orange yolk in spring/summer when they are out foraging for bugs and weeds and such versus winter when they are eating more layer pellet feed and spending more time indoors (chickens prefer heated barn to snow and ice on ground).
As a physics teacher I always used grade B eggs for demonstrations; the shells are thicker and tougher.
So grade B eggs give you A’s in physics!
@@EthanChlebowski sobbing
Funny, I recently bought a dozen eggs (Nellie's??) and the shells seemed to be amor plated.
McDonald's had grade B eggs when I worked there and the shells were paper thin.
@@poughquagpops3379when egg shells are washed, as they are for production, they lose the protective coating that keeps them strong. If you have ever purchased locally grown eggs or eggs from a small local grower personally, they're dirty for sure. They are also stronger and last longer under refrigeration. Drawback is they are usually smaller and like this video shows, usually not worth the extra money because you get less volume and hardly any extra nutrition
How can "pasture raised" chickens lay eggs year round? There's very few places in the US that don't have winter weather that would effect not only a "pasture" to roam and the space needed for them to roam and not need to have a heated
Great video. There was one huge variable missing that might be the most important of them all and that is size. I have heard that smaller eggs have a more delicate taste. That might be something to look at doing in a follow-up up video.
I kept laying hens and meat birds for over 20 years. Thanks for a great look at the intricacies of hens and eggs. The only thing I think you could have added to your study is the variation between refrigerated and unrefrigerated eggs. Otherwise, flawless.
should be good as long as the eggs are chilled without ice crystals forming within the cells resulting in protein degradation etc. Consistency varies according to egg temp during use. varying temperatures may cause a rupture/microtears to the membrane separating the liquid from the shell due to thermal contraction/expansion which could affect the taste because the shell is semipermeable. refrigerated eggs experience less degradation and oxidation because the shell becomes less semipermeable due to thermal contraction.
We used to have eggs growing up. Just a couple, but enough that all the eggs we ate came from them. One thing I noticed that while I was used to eating "our" eggs the store bought eggs tasted slightly metallic and strange to me. But going the other way, from being used to store bought and eating "our" eggs I couldn't tell the difference. Have you noticed anything like that?
spittin facts! thanks for the info @@BxBxProductions
I tried doing a taste test before with cages eggs and pasture raised eggs. I made scrambled eggs multiple times with both and the pasture raised always tasted far better to me.
yeah I've definitely had the cheap eggs from Aldi and then pasture raised eggs and noticed a difference in taste
Thou that could be because the Aldi eggs aren't as fresh? I do wonder how their produce can go bad so quick and it often looks questionable in the stores lol so maybe the same is true for their eggs.
you expect the pasteurized to taste better, so it does.
confirmation bias
@@brewtalityk if ur from the UK then i spose Aldi is on the sort of lower end.
caged Aldi eggs vs, say, Tesco "free range" - decent difference in taste! not toooo much price difference. you will end up paying more. I'm feckin obsessed with eggs. I swear that if the hens are fed better, it just "tastes more right". I get through so many eggs I thought it was placebo. It's really not - but with that said
No point seeking eggs that have marketing gimmicks on them, like overdesigned packaging is also a decent indicator that the eggs are... average. We still macerate our male chicks in the UK, quite often :/
When you start getting into the fancy "I live in a six bedroom house in Devon" eggs, delivered online from Ocado or something, they all taste the same even when they are mega expensive. Some expensive brands taste worse than cheaper ones! they're just ripping us off sometimes.
@@goldenant9450no and no.
It seems people don't understand the meaning of bias.
1. It's not the same in everyone, just as if every person puts exactly +2 on the taste. In this case it might be the opposite, expecting no difference and decreasing taste sensitivity.
2. the existence of bias does not deny the existence of difference, as in this case taste/aroma difference.
If you actually want to bring in scientific terms, you should also add these: randomization and n=30.
Meaning, one person does not give a conclusive result, in fact even as scientific this test appereared it is statistically pointless.
It may have dozens of reasons why one individual can/cannot taste the difference and condensing all of these into a bias can by itself be confirmation bias, trying rationalize your own believe and lack of understanding
In the end: ignoring empiric data of people who have differing experience is bad scientific practice
ive raised hens more than a few times and through research found out the different ways what you feed the hens has an effect on the eggs they lay. For instance if you have a problem with the shells being too thin and getting crushed by the hens keeping them warm, you can give them crushed eggs shells to up their calcium and thus make the shells thicker. its actually very interesting.
Thank you very much indeed for doing all this research and making such an easy to follow video. One question though on whether more expensive eggs are healthier: in the uk we’re told often that more expensive, organic, eggs are healthier because the hens are not given steroids, or other hormones, numerous vaccines and chemically enhanced food. Is this marketing or does it affect whether eggs are healthier as well?
To boil eggs (Jacques Pepin?): I put a pin hole in the end, drop into simmering water for 12min, crack once before I drop into ice/cold water. The pin hole forces extra air out as they cook, making the egg fill up the whole shell with no air pockets. Cracking before ice bath makes it easier to peel - the ice water seeps in between the egg and shell . Also, i never get the green ring around the yolks or a sulfur smell/taste. I’ve been cooking eggs this way for years, works every time. 😁
I start my eggs in cold water, then set the timer for 10 minutes after the bubbles start to form on the bottom of the pan. I boil them at medium heat to avoid overcooking, because I have 75 year old memories of Mom's boiled eggs with the khaki lining on the yolks. I thought then that it was because she bought them at the Army PX.
I use the ATK method of steaming - cold from the fridge - eggs and then the ice bath. Steaming prevents overcooking which I like a lot.
That pinhole method is how all those hard boiled egg makers at stores work. I pop in 7 of them and they are ready in like 2 min.
@@uli3119 I’ve never seen those things. I learned the pinhole method many years ago. What’s nice is the eggs are perfectly formed for deviled eggs.
@@chezmoi42 This is all about controlling your variables: starting egg and water temperature, water and egg volume, applied heat, and time. My tap water temperature fluctuates a lot, so boiling is nice because it's always the same - but 15 seconds makes a big difference when aiming for a ramen egg.
Hi Ethan❣️ I was brought up on a small farm in Norway ages ago, and we had lots of chickens. My dad told me the best eggs should have a hard shell and a deep yellow yolk. We had all the neighbors buying our eggs in those days.
Great video👍😎❤ subbed.......
Your Dad was right! the colour of the yoke is decided by the diet. Free range hens roam and eat green plants which make the yoke a richer deeper yellow. Hens that are not free are fed on gains which make the yoke more pale. Free range hens also can find grit and eat as much as they like this forms the shell . Battery hens have to be fed it. The way we treat animals affects the quality of the food they produce as well as their quality of life. They are not separate they are part of the same thing.
Some children are born with intelligent/entrepreneurial dads.
I will ticket my friends truely free range eggs from coco morans and other heritage breed chickens. The only ones you tested are all hybrid breeds. But a good video packed with useful info thanks.
Ticket should read stick to.
Why are male baby chickens killed without regard?
Great video. We have 21 Welsomer (brown egg) and Americauna (green egg) hens (pasture raised . . . because we shut down the sheep enterprise) and we get 9 to 17 eggs a day all through this past winter in an unlit and unheated coop in Upstate NY! Insane. We've never had yields like this. We give ours away to friends, neighbors, church members . . . we can't get rid of them! If you serve me a sunny side up egg I can tell by sight about how old it is. Our yolks are deep yellow, stand tall, and are full of buggy protien deliciousness. A home with pasture raised eggs and a Breville Barista expresso machine is a happy home at breakfast time. ;-)
great as usual, thank you
The dark greenish-gray ring around the yolk in boiled eggs is due to iron compounds from the egg yolk combining with sulfur ions from the egg whites (ferrous sulfide). Cooking slowly and immediately cooling boiled eggs in ice water (as you did) allows the iron ions to diffuse back into the yolk and the sulfur back into the egg white, preventing the unsightly blue green color and avoiding the stink of ferrous sulfide when eating them. Love your videos, great job once again!
1. There is a difference between the fresh eggs I get from my free roaming chickens and store bought. However, the difference is fairly small. Most of the difference is in the yolk, it is bright yellow, more aromatic and has more intense flavor. But even then, as I've said the difference is small.
2. Most people don't know this but eggs typically spend 4-12 months at warehouses before being sold. So, a few weeks in your fridge will not make any difference.
3. The taste of eggs depends a lot on what the chickens eat. Store eggs will have a more consistent taste, as those chickens eat the same thing all the time. My own eggs change taste according to season. Fall eggs generally tend to be the best tasting, while winter eggs are closer to store bought.
I was raised on double yolk brown eggs from my Aunts farm. They ate cracked corn, whole corn on the cob fresh from the farm as well as other chicken feed. They had lots of room in the barn as in the space of a whole stable with thier coop there as well. She kept only 3 chickens. Mostly she kept pigs as business and her corn as business. The chickens were for family eggs and the horses for enjoyment. The taste of the yolk and colour is much deeper and creamier.
Awesome video. I actually watched the hole video