What comes to mind when you think about the humble, uniform egg? Probably not much; you might consider cooking a few for breakfast on the weekend, what they taste and look like, how much that bald guy on the morning train really looks remarkably similar to an irritable poached egg and disguse a chuckle beneath the daily paper. Perhaps it might interest you to know that eggs have remained a hot topic for a while now (unless of course, you have been living under a rock in Antartica), especially in titillating office conversation when peering into your colleagues lunch box to see if they are having ‘the same old devilled egg sandwich’. A subject of much commotion and contentiousness in recent times, eggs, which we all acknowledge as the primordial symbol of (re)birth and a staple for all our mighty nations, has never seen such diversity as that which is presently thrust upon them by marketing middlemen, speaking on behalf of the farmers tending to them in the first place. We’ve all thought about them at some point in our lives, perhaps dwelled upon their mysteriously perfect shape, marvelled at their cohesiveness as a birth capsule of nutrients and studied the paradox of its solid shell perforated with minute holes for micro-respiration (please say that you’ve thought about these things, otherwise I’ve exposed my inner geek!). A food of the ancient world and a commonplace sustenance of the modern world, present in a myriad of food products from Apple Pie right down to Zwetschgenkuchen. So if eggs are so common, tasty, versatile and nutritious, what’s the problem? Well, they’re getting a little expensive and they’re becoming unusually diverse with too little difference in between – supermarket aisles are bombarding consumers with too much choice on the market, making it harder to discern the ‘forest for the trees’.
Frankly, it’s no longer possible to just ‘buy a dozen eggs’. When you place a carton in your shopping trolley, you are declaring open war. You pledge your allegiance to a choice that rules your conscience and guides your egg-buying pattern. Walking down the fresh produce aisle, you are bombarded with the selection available and must make an educated decision motivated by ethical or economic concerns, or both. Who in their right mind, for example, would understand what ‘carrot eggs’ are or who might be conned into purchasing carb-conscious eggs, omega-3 enriched eggs or even as outlandish as olive oil eggs? In the most epic struggle since The Battle for Middle Earth, the fate of the dominant dozen eggs will be decided. Will you choose to support the parties whose hens produce seventy percent marketing verbiage and only thirty percent nutrition, or those whose nutritive benefits are supposedly like those descended from the Golden Goose herself? Read on and find out why the newly crowned organic eggs are truly worth their weight in gold.
Once upon a time (and indeed commonplace in many poorer nations), eggs never came in pretty cartons with designs and emblems and scrawls of text purporting their superiority. If the shells themselves weren’t permeable to ink, I’m sure that the middlemen would have probably put all sorts of weird and wonderful taglines on each of their eggs to make them more appealing to the consumer. After all, it’s an unspoken rule that everybody opens the carton of eggs before they purchase it to make sure they are all present, all pretty looking and not cracked or spoiled. That being said, back in the good ol’ days, eggs were a lot fresher; we didn’t have cryogenic technology and storage racks that keep the eggs in suspension until a batch of orders is to be fulfilled. In fact, I still remember the days when access to a coop was no problem at all and in one single visit it was possible to gather as many fresh eggs as you could carry. The real concern now is with the depleting quantity of quality eggs (what a mouthful!) as well as a few other negative side effects of battery-farm eggs.
A recent argument in many ‘good food’ magazines is that the nutritional profile of cage eggs are lacking in comparison to organic eggs, which apparently sport higher mineral and vitamin deposits from the kind of feed they eat and the environment and exercise they receive. In my opinion, the fundamental nutritional profile of an egg will not change unless genetically modified. If you think about it, marketing claims here are perhaps suggesting that by giving an enriched or ‘special’ feed, they are able to naturally modify the DNA of their hens to pass to their unborn kin more nutrients, and thus a more nutritious egg to you. Sound a bit silly to you? To be fair, give a hen better feed and you’ll find a tastier, healthier egg, but don’t expect the miracles the middleman promises.
Cartons of the old days also never purported such catchwords as ‘organic’, ‘sustainable’ and ‘ecosystem’ that are rife upon packaging of the modern day. I’m sure that if the hens themselves had their way, they would prefer that their unborn kin were not selectively labelled as we choose to do! At the end of the day, too much choice is simply taxing and overwhelming. What does it mean to be organic?
My attempts to define this term on Dictionary.com were futile, returning with an overwhelming 15 definition results! In egg terms, we are here referring to where marketing is made cleverly pitched to the consumer market. Organic eggs can refer to any number of the following: feed that is rich in grain, corn or millet as opposed to steroid enhanced live-feed, pastures which are pesticide, fertiliser and herbicide free or even so simply as eggs which are produced using sustainable agricultural methods.
The Issue: The word ‘organic’ is very broad and can loosely group a number of factors about a product which may be misleading to the public. A carton of eggs stating its product as organic might follow sustainable agricultural practice for example, but widely use steroid enhanced grain. In order for a product to be organic, it usually must carry this title as a license from a certified body that proclaims the product has fulfilled a stringent product quality and integrity check. Alas, the organic debate is long-lived and a loophole is clearly known for most producers: absolutely everything is organic. That’s right, even that shiny new aluminium and glass iMac on your table is an organic product, where its raw materials were sourced from the same Earth you live and breathe on. Even when we’re talking specifically about artificially synthesised chemical bonds made under contrived clinical settings, everything has an organic basis at some stage.
What does it mean to be free range? Free range eggs are, strictly speaking, produced by chickens not confined in cages or coops and are at liberty to graze and feed in open pastures. Choosing free range eggs is often motivated by ethical concern for the treatment of the chickens, and a rejection of coop-confinement. Dictionary.com gave me a helpful two definition results. Where free range is concerned, it would seem that either your eggs are roaming free or not at all.
The Issue: Though producers might like you to think so, not all free range eggs are the same. The size of the pasture to the number of chickens ratio is very important in determining the happiness and space for activity for the chickens. Many producers hide the fact that they have inadequate sizes of their pastures for their chickens, sometimes suffering the same crowding issues as being in a coop. Finally, not all pastures are free from predators, attacking the chickens directly and taking away with the eggs themselves.
In essence, the problem with selecting the best possible egg from the best possible supplier really comes down to using a bit of critical thinking in the supermarket. Analyse the packaging closely and be sure that it meets your own internal check-list, matching ethical and economic concerns. Is it certified organic, so that true tenets of better practice have been followed? Is any mention made of the agricultural practices, the type of feed used, whether hand-picked methods are used for selecting eggs, and so forth. You will eventually find yourself satisfied with your decision that best matches your wallet and your stomach.
Could these be the perfect eggs? An example of prolific advertisement of a branded eggs' superiority.
Most important of all is the element of taste. Many laboratories and third-parties (CHOICE), chefs and restaurants (Billy Kwong) and even cookbooks are purporting the pros and cons of organic eggs, stating cost as a major turn-off, but edibility a major plus. The only way to know for sure is to try them for yourself and see if you can notice the difference.
Personally? Take a closer look at the picture at the start of this post. What do you see? The egg on the left is certified organic and free range, given natural organic feed mix with rotated pastures to encourage regeneration and sustainable practice. The yolk is plump and mellow orange and bright yellow, somewhat indicative of a more well-formed egg that has had plenty of exercise and contact with the elements of the outdoors. It is a very tasty egg with an almost vinegared taste and texture, tasting very similar to the scent of where it is raised. The egg on the right is battery-coop produced and is consequently cheaper and easier to source. It is more uniformly shaped in its yolk and is a darker in colour, with splotches of minor brown throughout. This is a less exercised egg and coincidentally a less tasty one; it has a heavy feeling on the palate of metals and slight acid. Organic and free range eggs that proudly display their credentials of good practice are the better choice by your kitchen and by your conscience – make the switch if you haven’t already!
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