Eggs

Author
Discussion

Square Leg

Original Poster:

15,075 posts

199 months

Sunday 10th March 2024
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I eat a lot of eggs - currently 3 -4 every day for breakfast - poached, fried, scrambled or omelette.

Recently I’ve found no matter what brand I try (always says free range on the box, but…) I’m finding them quite tasteless.
Apart from finding someone local with laying hens (none that I know of and not always a guarantee of great flavour), and to make things as simple as possible, what are the best eggs available from a supermarket ?

Ta.

hungry_hog

2,420 posts

198 months

Sunday 10th March 2024
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I like Burford Brown, quite expensive, I think 3.50 a box?

Those are the best supermarket ones I have found but I imagine local / farm ones may taste better.

There is also the option to try duck eggs I guess? I haven't had them for years as Mrs Hog doesn't like them.

hiccy18

3,089 posts

77 months

Sunday 10th March 2024
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We've found Waitrose Essentials eggs give pretty good flavour for the money.

LimmerickLad

2,742 posts

25 months

Sunday 10th March 2024
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Square Leg said:
I eat a lot of eggs - currently 3 -4 every day for breakfast - poached, fried, scrambled or omelette.

Recently I’ve found no matter what brand I try (always says free range on the box, but…) I’m finding them quite tasteless.
Apart from finding someone local with laying hens (none that I know of and not always a guarantee of great flavour), and to make things as simple as possible, what are the best eggs available from a supermarket ?

Ta.
Guaranteed local supply may be a problem ......We have about 16 bantam free range hens (we do supplement them with corn / pellets though) but the amount of eggs they lay is very variable throughout the year (currently about 6 a day)...........over the winter we get none at all so we have to buy them ourselves....never found anything that tatses as good as ours but that may just be a "brain" thing.

Ironically son ate 5/6 a day but has moved to the smoke so, although I eat some, I end up giving lots away the the postie / binmen who all say the eggs are the "best" they have ever eaten....but they might just be saying that because they are free. biggrin

Sheets Tabuer

19,818 posts

225 months

Sunday 10th March 2024
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Morrisons the best eggs are pretty good, deep golden yolk and full of flavour.

Poached obviously.

Square Leg

Original Poster:

15,075 posts

199 months

Sunday 10th March 2024
quotequote all
I’ve had the Burfords and had high hopes for them.
Whilst the yolks are radioactive yellow, I didn’t find them to be much more flavourful than standard free range for the extra cost.

Had a bad experience with a duck egg when I was younger and have never forgotten hurl

Will look at the Morrisons ones, thanks.

LimmerickLad

2,742 posts

25 months

Sunday 10th March 2024
quotequote all
Square Leg said:
I’ve had the Burfords and had high hopes for them.
Whilst the yolks are radioactive yellow, I didn’t find them to be much more flavourful than standard free range for the extra cost.

Had a bad experience with a duck egg when I was younger and have never forgotten hurl

Will look at the Morrisons ones, thanks.
AIUI yolk colour is easily controlled by the feed / additives and make no difference to taste / quality.

eta "free range" may also be a bit of a misnoma in many cases.

Edited by LimmerickLad on Sunday 10th March 11:52

AndyAudi

3,298 posts

232 months

Sunday 10th March 2024
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LimmerickLad said:
AIUI yolk colour is easily controlled by the feed / additives and make no difference to taste / quality.
What he said.

What they are fed on makes a bigger difference, Free Range potentially are getting less natural feeding in winter months so probably eating same as colony/barn at the minute until spring/summer kicks off.

Commercial flocks also have various green/cuts pressures that has seen changes in bird diet.
Protein is largely from Soya Meal & Soya oil shipped from Brasil/India… but this is getting substituted in some part by U.K. produced oilseed Rape which does affect taste so only partially substituted. Morrisons has been mentioned as good eggs, they have been switching to insect protein farmed off of their fruit & veg waste in a number of places as a doubly green measure instead of soya (although not sure how much they’re publicising that as I think that would put sone folks off)

theplayingmantis

4,602 posts

92 months

Monday 11th March 2024
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St Ewe, but all much of a muchness

dontlookdown

2,015 posts

103 months

Monday 11th March 2024
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Interesting stuff about what the chickens are fed on, tks for that.

Fresh and local is the answer if you can get 'em.

IME when buying at the supermarket, just buy the freshest (longest dated) eggs you can, the fancy eggs may have nice speckled shells and v yellow yolks, but they don't taste much better.


Sheets Tabuer

19,818 posts

225 months

Monday 11th March 2024
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dontlookdown said:
the fancy eggs may have nice speckled shells and v yellow yolks, but they don't taste much better.

The ones I suggested earlier absolutely do, me and the Mrs have Avocado toast twice a week and we've been experimenting with eggs for about 6 months or so. The ones I suggested the white holds together better when poached, isn't snotty and the yolks are like cream.

I actually live near an egg farm and theirs are free range but taste like normal eggs, I presume it's the corn feed making a difference.


Edited by Sheets Tabuer on Monday 11th March 19:29

LimmerickLad

2,742 posts

25 months

Monday 11th March 2024
quotequote all
Sheets Tabuer said:
[quote=dontlookdownthe fancy eggs may have nice speckled shells and v yellow yolks, but they don't taste much better.

The ones I suggested earlier absolutely do, me and the Mrs have Avocado toast twice a week and we've been experimenting with eggs for about 6 months or so. The ones I suggested the white holds together better when poached, isn't snotty and the yolks are like cream.

I actually live near an egg farm and theirs are free range but taste like normal eggs, I presume it's the corn feed making a difference.
Sorry but corn should only be fed in small quantities ( I do as a daily treat to mine) but the vast majority of their feed should be made up with layers pellets.......... even if fully free range like mine are that roam from dawn to dusk.

eta https://www.livestrong.com/article/557705-the-disa...

Edited by LimmerickLad on Monday 11th March 19:33

daqinggregg

3,611 posts

139 months

Tuesday 12th March 2024
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I’ve always been a bit sceptical, about claims of hen eggs being ‘free range’, preferring duck eggs instead.

Duck eggs are a phenomenal treat, a ramped-up version of a chicken egg that has a much bigger, unctuous, creamier yolk, busting with flavor. The yolk, sports a deep orange hue, a higher concentration of nutrients and more protein than the standard hen’s egg. The enhanced flavor is in no small part down to.

Ducks having a single hole that functions as a termination point for excretion and urination, the waste is converted to guanine or uric acid.

And that’s what gives the duck eggs, a unique, flavorsome, creamy taste.

Some of the above may be codswallop.

Venisonpie

3,776 posts

92 months

Tuesday 12th March 2024
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My local deli sells Fenton Farm eggs which I think are pretty good.

AndyAudi

3,298 posts

232 months

Tuesday 12th March 2024
quotequote all
Should also be noted but where the hen is in its life cycle majorly influences egg quality.

A young hen lays fantastic eggs, & in modern systems lays for about a year before egg quality & %lay tapers off to a level that’s not economically viable.

In a supermarket the eggs in a box are almost undoubtedly from the same aged flock, however deliveries on different days will come from different flocks at different ages (packers stagger ages of supplying flocks to maintain supply) so really hard to get a consistent egg quality.

Poulets eggs (young birds) are a treat & are often smaller as the bird comes on to lay, for that reason I recon the best chance of good supermarket eggs might be going for the small ones (yolks the same size apparently).

snuffy

10,732 posts

294 months

Tuesday 12th March 2024
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I think it's The Netherlands where red yokes are preferred, so they just feed them on food that makes the yolks red.

Also, what's the difference between eggs with brown shells and ones with white ones? Nothing at all.

Eggs is eggs.

Big Pants

514 posts

151 months

Tuesday 12th March 2024
quotequote all
This article is a couple of years old now, but nonetheless interesting. Especially the comparative taste tests at the end.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/sep/10/when-...

Whoozit

3,822 posts

279 months

Tuesday 12th March 2024
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I recall reading somewhere recently that due to avian flu a couple of years ago, flock sizes are smaller and so farmers are keeping birds laying for longer. Might be relevant?

Mr Roper

13,323 posts

204 months

Tuesday 12th March 2024
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LimmerickLad said:
Square Leg said:
I eat a lot of eggs - currently 3 -4 every day for breakfast - poached, fried, scrambled or omelette.

Recently I’ve found no matter what brand I try (always says free range on the box, but…) I’m finding them quite tasteless.
Apart from finding someone local with laying hens (none that I know of and not always a guarantee of great flavour), and to make things as simple as possible, what are the best eggs available from a supermarket ?

Ta.
Guaranteed local supply may be a problem ......We have about 16 bantam free range hens (we do supplement them with corn / pellets though) but the amount of eggs they lay is very variable throughout the year (currently about 6 a day)...........over the winter we get none at all so we have to buy them ourselves....never found anything that tatses as good as ours but that may just be a "brain" thing.

Ironically son ate 5/6 a day but has moved to the smoke so, although I eat some, I end up giving lots away the the postie / binmen who all say the eggs are the "best" they have ever eaten....but they might just be saying that because they are free. biggrin
Very similar to us....We have 11 chickens that free range, mainly Rhode Islands reds that are currently laying between 6-8 a day. It's good to have a decent stock eggs after what was a pretty dire winter.

OP.

Clarance court is supposedly very good quality.

Petrus1983

9,947 posts

172 months

Tuesday 12th March 2024
quotequote all
Have you got any local farmers markets you could go to? I get through a lot of eggs and usually went for Burford Brown - but since moving to Swansea found them hard to get hold of. That turned out to be a blessing as now I'll only buy from the farmers market and it's been a game changer.