Eggs are one of nature’s most miraculous foods. With a perfect shape, nature designed them to be a balanced life support system for a developing chick. They also contain virtually every nutrient known to be essential to humans.
The chicken’s ancestors were jungle fowls native to India and Asia. The egg-laying hen was probably domesticated in China around 7500 BC but was not introduced to the western world until around 800 BC when it arrived in Greece.
Although eggs of many birds, fish, and even reptiles can be used as food, hen’s eggs are the most common. When offered for sale, the word “egg” applies exclusively to hen’s eggs. All other types must be labeled appropriately—quail’s eggs, duck eggs, etc.
Unlike many other birds, a hen will lay eggs until they collect a specific number in the nest. If an egg is lost to a predator, the hen will lay another egg to replace it and will do so indefinitely. It takes 24 to 26 hours for a hen to produce an egg and only 30 minutes to start the process all over again. There are about 240 million egg-laying hens in the United States today, each laying eggs for about a year and produce between 250 and 290 eggs for a total of approximately 5.4 billion eggs a year.
Eggs are one of the kitchen’s most essential items. From appetizers to desserts, they are prominent in numerous dishes. Most cuisines rely heavily on eggs. They can be used in an infinite variety of ways and are valuable in a significant number of culinary preparations: thickening, coloring, adding moisture, forming emulsions, foaming, binding, and adding nutritional value to other foods.
It is essential to understand precisely how eggs behave under specific conditions because they are very sensitive, and mishaps are almost always irreversible. The egg white accounts for nearly two-thirds of the total weight. It is almost 90 percent water, and the rest is protein and a few traces of minerals, vitamins, glucose. The yolk contains all the fat in the egg and a little less than half of the protein and a measure of lecithin. All of the egg’s vitamins A. D. and E are in the yolk. The yolk also contains cholesterol, and since high blood cholesterol does increase the risk of heart disease, it is recommended to limit yolk consumption. (Egg whites contain no cholesterol.) However, recent studies of moderate eaters suggest that egg consumption has little effect on blood cholesterol. Most of the fat in egg yolks is unsaturated.
The key to cooking eggs is temperature control. When we heat eggs, the liquid becomes a moist solid, but overcooking gives it a rubbery texture, or it curdles into a mixture of hard lumps and watery liquid. Eggs coagulate well below the boiling point, and a hard-cooked egg can actually be cooked at 158ºF.
The ban on eating eggs (because of their ‘richness’) during the Lent established in the 9th century made eggs popular at Easter. It was a tradition to collect eggs on Good Friday, have them blessed, and ready for consumption on Easter Sunday
Shopping Cart