Eggs by the dozen

D

Derfish

Guest
For no particular reason I always buy brown eggs. Invariably there is one egg out of the dozen that is a lot lighter in color. or maybe spotted or something. I always wonder if there is a reason for that or just an anomaly. Anyone have any insight?
Derfish
 
L

lifeisgreat

Guest
White chickens with white ear lobes = white eggs dark feathered with red ear lobes brown eggs some speckled all same brown eggs tend be more $$ due to size usuallly bigger egg
 
D

Derfish

Guest
White chickens with white ear lobes = white eggs dark feathered with red ear lobes brown eggs some speckled all same brown eggs tend be more $$ due to size usuallly bigger egg

But my question in my little mind is why one different in every dozen?
 
L

lifeisgreat

Guest
In South America I’ve eaten blue chicken eggs...
 
W

william webster

Guest
Derf
they don't box the eggs as they drop out of the hen

Maybe they only had 11 brown ones.....

Try buying 6 at a time and see if you get a 1/2 & 1/2 ..... as the sixth
 
F

flyinroom

Guest
But my question in my little mind is why one different in every dozen?

Probably the same reason that there always seems to be one almost rotting onion in the net bag.
They're trying to pass it off.
 
A

Auryn

Guest
Besides breed and genetics, diet and stress level in the hen can affect egg pigment. As hens age, the pigment in their eggs tends to lighten as well.

Blue eggs come from a breed called Araucanas, but also from “Easter Egger” chickens. That variety can produce a wide range of pigments, from dark brown, blue, green, yellow, and even light pink.

Source 1: I was a farm kid

Source 2: https://www.farmersalmanac.com/what-are-easter-egg-chickens-11097
 
C

Cdn_Gringo

Guest
In modern processing & packaging facilities produce and uniform products such as eggs are washed and optically scanned for defects or blemishes. Products that don't pass muster are kicked off the conveyor belt and sidelined. So back home all your eggs are brown and pretty much the same size.

Here in the DR I'm guessing that level of automation is a rarity as eggs do not regularly get washed and I am confident are placed in the containers by a horde of manual packaging employees. Thus products in a particular package are subject to some minor variations as employees pack away to keep their production numbers up.

As mentioned, hens can lay eggs with an off colour shell or yolk for a variety of reasons but the egg itself should be fine to consume provided it is relatively fresh. I am sure a purple egg would be passed over, however, a lighter shade of brown or a speckled shell probably would still make it to market. Expecting uniform conformity in produce products seems to be a 1st world obsession among consumers.

In short, minor variations in eggshell colour is not a big deal here for most consumers. You have the ability to check colour consistency when you select which package of eggs you purchase.
 
M

malko

Guest
One thing is for sure, the eggs you see in colmados ( generally in a 24 " box " ) are washed. Garanteed.
An unwashed egg looks like something that was dragged through a hen's backside. ;)
 
T

Tom0910

Guest
One thing is for sure, the eggs you see in colmados ( generally in a 24 " box " ) are washed. Garanteed.
I don't think that is correct because a washed egg needs to be refrigerated
 
M

malko

Guest
I don't think that is correct because a washed egg needs to be refrigerated

Agreed. A washed egg needs to be refrigerated. US vs europe. Europe vaccinates hens against salmonella, US doesnt.

Maybe i should have used " cleaned" vs " washed". Colmado eggs would have stains ( poop, dirt, etc...,) or whatnot if they were directly packed out of the hen.
So I guess they are wiped down with a rag or something before being packaged.
 
M

mobrouser

Guest
Who says so? And why would that be the case?

We have had the washed egg discussion here before.

....So what's the deal with washing and refrigeration? Soon after eggs pop out of the chicken, American producers put them straight to a machine that shampoos them with soap and hot water. The steamy shower leaves the shells squeaky clean. But it also compromises them, by washing away a barely visible sheen that naturally envelops each egg.

"The egg is a marvel in terms of protecting itself, and one of the protections is this coating, which prevents them from being porous," says food writer Michael Ruhlman, author of Egg: A Culinary Exploration of the World's Most Versatile Ingredient.

The coating is like a little safety vest for the egg, keeping water and oxygen in and bad bacteria out. Washing can damage that layer and "increase the chances for bacterial invasion" into pores or hairline cracks in the shell, according to Yi Chen, a food scientist at Purdue University. So we spray eggs with oil to prevent bacteria from getting in, and refrigerate them to keep microorganisms at bay.

Why go to the trouble of washing eggs? A lot of it has to do with fear of salmonella.....



https://www.npr.org/sections/thesal...-chills-its-eggs-and-most-of-the-world-doesnt

Refrigerate is better than vaccinate in my mind.
 
A

AlterEgo

Guest
Being American, I cringe when I see unrefrigerated eggs in DR, even though I know they're not washed like American supermarket eggs are. As far as them being clean from the colmado, I don't know where mine gets them, but they're often dirty-ish and sometimes have straw stuck. Ever since I found itty bitty roaches in the cardboard carrier, more than once, they get wiped and put into the fridge immediately and the cardboard goes straight into the burn barrel. Yuk.
 
C

Cdn_Gringo

Guest
It's all what you were raised to expect as normal. Warm beer in the UK is less satisfying than a fria to me. Absolutely perfect unblemished apples and other fruits with that waxy coating are apparently preferable to a less perfect fruit without the coating to many. After I buy my eggs here, I put them in the fridge. The fridge has a place for them, the counters don't.
 
F

flyinroom

Guest
I'm going to go out on a limb here and make a confession.
The less time I spend dwelling on where the egg came from, the better.

"dirty-ish and straw stuck."
And warm too.

AlterEgo...
You're killing me.
 
M

melphis

Guest
One thing is for sure, the eggs you see in colmados ( generally in a 24 " box " ) are washed. Garanteed.
An unwashed egg looks like something that was dragged through a hen's backside. ;)

It was dragged through a hen's backside whether it was washed or not lol
 
M

melphis

Guest
For no particular reason I always buy brown eggs. Invariably there is one egg out of the dozen that is a lot lighter in color. or maybe spotted or something. I always wonder if there is a reason for that or just an anomaly. Anyone have any insight?
Derfish

I don't know why you get one lighter egg but to put your mind at ease, when you open the box to see if any are broken why don't you swap out the light one for a darker one in another box.
Next year we can answer the guy who has 2 lighter eggs by saying the Derfish did it
 
W

william webster

Guest
I started making a fried egg the other day and wound up with fried chicken

Did I keep the egg too long??