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Eggsistential angst innit.
My issue with eggs is, if whilst eating them, I remember that I'm eating a chicken embryo. Puts me right off.😐
Probs the same chap who saw road kill and thought that looks nice and ate the flesh
Why is it I like my yolk runny yet if the white is not fully cooked and firm it gives me the boak and will chuck it away ?
I've recently found a solution for this [presuming fried eggs] - cook egg in pan as usual but after a couple of mins get a blowtorch to cook the top of the egg white and blow over the yolk so that it's not too runny.
Perfect eggs every time - for me.
If I did that then they’d be overcooked.
see what happens when skimp on the lard 😕
I wonder who first observed a chicken having its period and thought “mmmm, tasty”?
Given that all sorts of animals eat eggs of all kinds going back to pretty primitive life forms I think that the eating of eggs predates thinking about eating eggs by half a billion years or so.
I remember that I’m eating a chicken embryo.
Unlikely, if you buy supermarket eggs as they won't have been fertilised. It is a game of Russian roulette we play though, as we have 10 hens and one cockerel. Though 'embryo' is at most an almost invisible red speck as they get lifted within an hour of being laid and we never let the chooks sit on them.
Agree with the OP though, runny yolk, firm white all the way.
100%, although I have recently taken to eating scrambled eggs cooked in a little bit of butter and they are lovely.
They’re even better in a bit more butter. 😉
I have recently taken to eating scrambled eggs cooked in a little bit of butter
Have you just invented this recipe?
I had such a shock the other day, when I paid £2.49 for half a doz large eggs in a local green grocer. 18 months ago these were £1.69 – Oeuf (ough).
We charge a pound a box for ours and we give that to the British Hen Welfare Trust. Shop eggs are often a week or two old when you buy them (legally up to 30 days). Ours are a day or two old, have incredibly bright yellow/orange yolks and taste night and day better than shop eggs. Commercial laying hens have a crap existence. Buy from a local hen keeper for a better, cheaper, higher welfare egg.
@sharkbait you're over thinking this, if you make sure there is enough oil in the pan, all you do is use your spatula to scoop the hot oil on the top of the white bit and the hot oil will cook the white leaving the yoke completely 'pop-able'.
My issue with eggs is, if whilst eating them, I remember that I’m eating a chicken embryo. Puts me right off.
You wouldn't want to meet my friend who likes to point out what milk actually is.
@blokeuptheroad - I love your hen (not cock 🐓 s****).
Yes we normally buy our eggs from a local farm, but I can't cycle atm to get there. The farm eggs are £3 per doz.
Blokeuptheroad wearing a t- shirt of the hens most feared enemy
Gordon k-----d Ramsay version of scrambled or fried are pretty good but he's still a k--b
You wouldn’t want to meet my friend who likes to point out what milk actually is.
...And yet loads of folks continue to eat meat?
Is wearing a T shirt with the word FOX completely appropriate when considering hen welfare ? 😱
@robertajob lol! Probably not 😆
I wonder who first observed a chicken having its period and thought “mmmm, tasty”?
Reminded me of the thread from 10 years or so back when the guy who raised chickens was distraught about one of his birds being sick and then gave a very detailed description of fingering their aperture to check on their health. Up there with the Pixolax thread in my memory of the legends.
What kind of cooking are we talking here - fried, boiled, poached?
100%, although I have recently taken to eating scrambled eggs cooked in a little bit of butter and they are lovely.
What else would you cook scrambled egg in?
Poach them in water with a little vinegar in it.
i'll just leave this here
Pinking is the terminology…
What do you think a chicken would think if it saw you cooking its freshly laid egg then eating it right in front of it?
I'm not vegan, I like eggs, just an interesting thought I once read.
Pinking is the terminology…
I've never been able to look at a chicken the same since.
Yep, there is something about eating eggs from your own chickens that have the run of a large garden to forage around in and get fed nice mix of food rather than crappy layers pellets. The eggs taste better.
Plus it is nice to have them around the garden.
there is something about eating eggs from your own chickens that have the run of a large garden to forage around in and get fed nice mix of food rather than crappy layers pellets. The eggs taste better.
What always gets me is the colour of the yolks - much deeper yellow than the pale yolks of battery hens.
What do you think a chicken would think if it saw you cooking its freshly laid egg then eating it right in front of it?
I’m not vegan, I like eggs, just an interesting thought I once read.
I doubt it would be that bothered, they sometimes eat their own if you don't gather them up soon enough. For most of the time to they are completely uninterested in their eggs unless they go 'broody'. Then they will sit on them for days at a time if you let them. This only happens very occasionally and only with some breeds.
What always gets me is the colour of the yolks – much deeper yellow than the pale yolks of battery hens.
Guessing that is down to being fed the cheapest pellets possible versus eating the corn, insects, seeds, fruit and even sardines that we feed them.
Has anyone else noticed supermarket eggs nowadays are more often white instead of brown? What's that about, are they using different breeds of hen or are they doing the bad American thing where they strip off the outer protective coating?
Different breads. When I were a lad… we had a variety of breads at home, and they laid different colours… brown, white, blue, green… and spotted and variegated variations between them.
EDIT: thinking back… I think one laid eggs that were almost mahogany brown. Not seen an egg that dark for decades… research time…
EDIT: Googling suggests a Maran.
Has anyone else noticed supermarket eggs nowadays are more often white instead of brown?
Interesting(ish)…
Prior to the first national lockdown in 2020, the majority of white eggs were used by a very large restaurant chain, when the pandemic caused that chain of restaurants to close, the eggs which had been intended for restaurant use made their way to supermarket shelves.
https://www.rspcaassured.org.uk/rspca-assured-foods/free-range-eggs/do-white-hens-lay-white-eggs/
Another cool thing about keeping your own hens. Different breeds do indeed lay different coloured eggs. We get blues, olive green, light and dark brown. The only common colour we don't get is white.
Random factoid of the day, you can often tell what colour eggs a chicken will lay from the colour of it's ear lobes. Yes, really! The really dark brown egg in the pic is from a Maran cross and the blues from our Legbars. Our ex commercial layer rescue hens lay various shades of light brown.
Our rescues also lay very large eggs compared to their body size. Due to selective breeding because apparently this is what customers want. It does however take a toll. They do seem to suffer more discomfort when laying them than our other hens and they are far more likely to suffer from ailments related to egg production which are usually fatal.
If you must buy eggs from the supermarket, avoiding 'large' eggs is a small thing you can do for animal welfare.
Wow that's actually super interesting, I didn't know about that restaurant chain. Thanks for the info! I wonder who it was though, what chain uses so many eggs?
I'd love to get some chickens of my own at some point, even if they're too old to lay eggs they're just such pleasant creatures.
they’re just such pleasant creatures
For relatives of T. rex. We’d love to have them but it’s something else to look after and M. Reynard is a worry locally.
Is it true they’ve got a real taste for slugs?
Why do the French only have one egg for breakfast?
Because un ouef is enough!
M. Reynard is a worry locally.
We live right out in the sticks and see foxes out and about all the time. In 8 years of chicken keeping with up to 15 hens at a time we've only ever lost two to one particularly bold fox who took them when I was actually in the garden. Our neighbours lose hens to foxes all the time. The reasons we don't? We have built a very secure run. We only let them out of it to free range if we are keeping a fairly close eye on them. A radio in their coop helps too - human voices act as a good deterrent. The hens particularly like woman's hour on R4!
Is it true they’ve got a real taste for slugs?
Yes but they are a mixed blessing in the garden. Great for eating slugs and other pests, but their scratting about in the flower beds can make a mess!
"For relatives of T. rex. We’d love to have them but it’s something else to look after and M. Reynard is a worry locally."
We lived for 5 years or so with a fox colony only about 20 yds from our girls. They were well protected though with the wire netting of their tennis court size run extending a couple of feet down and 6 feet up.
we didn't lose a single one! Though maybe the presence of a couple of terriers helped...
wire netting of their tennis court size run extending a couple of feet down and 6 feet up.
Our run fence is about 8 foot tall. Not just to keep foxes out, but to keep the chickens in. We have had a couple of able fliers who could clear the old 6 foot fence!
who it was though, what chain uses so many eggs?
it is / was Macdonalds
they bought pretty much all the white eggs as Uk buyers are oddly suspicious of them - even during lockdown when supermarkets stocks were low buyers would leave them on the shelf. There was someone on here who was doing home deliveries for a supermarket and apparently customers were refusing them if they were in the bag
there was a guy who revolutionised the egg industry when he discovered you can predict what colour eggs a hen will lay by looking at their earlobes - brown eggs sell for more so there’s no point nurturing hens that will lay cheap (but actually perfectly identical eggs)
oddly in the US it’s the other way round and people don’t want to buy brown eggs- presumably there Macdonalds buy all the brown ones
no point nurturing hens that will lay cheap (but actually perfectly identical eggs)
I thought you had to wait for them to hatch before they cheap?
For the op- you can do something called ‘egg pockets’ instead of fried eggs if you want runny yolk without the Boak
pour the egg through a slotted spoon into the pan so only the white goes in and the yolk is reserved - fry the white to your liking then add yoke and fold the egg white over it like a little burrito
also the older the eggs the flatter the white will lay on the frying pan. Fresher eggs white sit in a stiffer blob shape in the pan and heat doesn’t get through to the top easily but older ones spread out flatter and thinner and cook though better
Our run fence is about 8 foot tall. Not just to keep foxes out, but to keep the chickens in
Foxes will climb over 8ft fences if they're determined. Biggest issue with foxes is they'll kill for the sake of killing. When the parents had hens, if a fox got in, it wouldn't be unusual for them to kill a dozen and leave a single eaten carcus.
Trimming the hens flight feathers on one side will stop them getting over any fence more than a few feet high.
relatives of T. rex.
And they outnumber humans by an order of magnitude. I think they're just biding their time, watching, waiting....
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Foxes will climb over 8ft fences if they’re determined.
Not ours, it's got a big floppy overhang at the top!
Biggest issue with foxes is they’ll kill for the sake of killing.
Urban myth. Yes a fox in a coop will kill the hens in one go if it can, but it's not 'killing for the sake of killing'. It's just a wild animal instinctively taking advantage of an unexpected glut of food. It can only carry one away at a time. Given the opportunity it will keep coming back over a period of days to collect all the slain one by one to eat or feed to cubs. As a poultry keeper I have a love hate relationship with foxes. They are intelligent, adaptable and resourceful animals and I love to watch them. In some circumstances though I accept that a particular problem fox may have to be culled, but there's little point in doing that routinely as you just create a vacant territory which will rapidly be filled.
Ultimately however it's my responsibility to keep my hens secure, the fox is just a wild animal trying to stay alive. Saying it's doing it for fun or whatever is just anthropomorphisising.
I think they’re just biding their time, watching, waiting….
the moment chickens evolve arms we’re doomed. Arms, hands, thumbs. And that’s all chickens think about all day. The prospect of arms and the many and various ways they’ll use them to kill us all.
then once we’re all dead they’ll take all our PlayStations and XBoxes and reenact killing us all again, and again and again.
still. Eggs are nice though
the moment chickens evolve arms we’re doomed.
We joke that if one of us tripped and banged our head when cleaning out the chicken run, all the other would find the next day would be a pile of bones!
Two legged piranhas!
They joke about what message the bones will spell out to your partner
Never turn your back on them.
