Tuesday, January 20, 2009

not all they're cracked up to be...

Well, this is the first time I've gotten to cook my eggs. Joi has used several eggs for this and that, but tonight we had breakfast for supper.

Here is my account. I cracked nine eggs that I received by the grace of God from my chickens. I then cracked six eggs that I received by the grace of God from the store. The end result is the picture on the left. I should note that we receive eggs regularly from some friends who have a lot more laying hens, so this was not my first experience with non-commercial eggs.

The first thing I noticed was that the egg shells were very, and I mean very, hard. I have a pretty good single strike and crack in half reputation when it comes to egg cracking. I struck the egg on the metal bowl several times. I noticed that the outer/inner membrane did not break. I literally had to tear this bag like membrane. I know what you are thinking... Is that good? I was talking to Joi, and it dawned on me... It is virtually impossible for me to get part of an egg shell in my cracked eggs... so I believe it to be not just good, but very good.

Joi asked me about the color, and I did notice the color to be very vivid. You can see a distinct difference in color in the picture. Can you tell which side came from the store and which came from the backyard? I'll let you know in the comments which is which.

The last thing that I noticed while cooking the eggs was that when I removed the eggs from the iron skillet there was very little remnant of egg in the pan. When I placed the store bought eggs in the skillet, the remains were absorbed into the uncooked eggs. When I was done, I'd bet there was half an egg stuck to the skillet. To their credit, I was cooking them very hard for my dear wife.

The last step was the taste test. I placed some on the right and the other on the left of my plate. I ate from my eggs, and then from the store bought. I then reversed the order. There was a distinct taste as well. I am grateful that we have made this venture. It has been good... by the grace of God.

3 comments:

Shane Bradley said...

The left are without color and are from the store. The right are vivid in color, and came from our barred rocks in the back yard.

Anonymous said...

Pretty cool! Enjoy! When will your Chickens produce enough to provide the daily supply of eggs? Just curious.

Shane Bradley said...

Hah! Sorry. That was funny. We have 3 chickens. I don't expect them to ever produce a daily allowance (especially the way our kids usually eat eggs). This is kind of our start into our agrarian ways. These are to supplement what we already get elsewhere. If/when we make cakes, brownies or other deserts that require eggs, we plan to use our homegrown eggs just to make them extra special.