The "100% vegetarian fed" thing drives me crazy. Chickens are omnivores! Their natural diet includes bugs and sometimes even rodents or small reptiles.
I think it was originally intended to communicate that there's no animal meal or byproduct fed to the chickens - thus preventing any disease transfer risk between the food and the chickens.
thanks for mentioning how hard it is to buy humanely for low-income families. as much as an individual might want to, you have to realize that being able to buy from farms that treat their animals humanely is honestly sort of a privilege for those who can afford to do so. I do hope there comes a day when the humane treatment of farm animals becomes a standard everywhere 💗
Came here to say this myself! It’s really hard not to feel shame when purchasing conventionally raise animal products, but it’s SO much harder for low income families.
You should see if you have a natural grocers around you, if you sign up for their free rewards program they sell certain eggs for a lot cheaper. Wife and I like these soy free eggs they sell, very nice orange yolk. Otherwise try to find a local farmer that lets their chickens roam, you’ll honestly probably find a great deal for buying directly with farmers
Oh my God, I was so damn happy to see him mention that because I would love to eat more organic, humanely raised or cared for products from my local grocery store but, that stuff can be so damn expensive. As someone who grew up in a lower middle class household, buying and owning cheap has just always been my way of doing things. Spending so much on myself just makes my wallet cry
Eggs can last a surprisingly long time. We just keep ours in the fridge and sometimes they’re still good after several months, honestly I don’t recall ever having a bad egg. Once we got one but it was from a brand new batch which can happen. I’m pretty sure the eggs we get aren’t washed since they do tend to be dirty at times so maybe that’s why they last so long.
Great video. I had no idea there was much difference between "Cage Free" and "Open Range" chickens. I guess I'll need to start buying the $9/dozen eggs afterall...
Yeah its so weird that they unessisarily wash their eggs therfore ruining the integrity of the shell meaning that they HAVE to be refrigerated. It started thanks to the horrific practice of facrory farming and caging birds. The eggs were getting so dirty due to the poor living conditions that a work around had to be found. And instead of not forcing a living creature to live in its own filth for its entire life they decided to spend billions of dollars adding a whole other completely avoidable step to the process. Washing the eggs. Which then need to be refrigerated and STAY refrigerated. Because if they warm up samonella could contaminate the egg. Isn't the US marvelous? Eggs would be cheaper and safer if they just ensured that conditions were clean. Most hens don't like to poop on the nest anyways. I've had chickens my whole life and worst thing I've seen on an egg was some straw or a feather.
The size of the egg absolutely matters because recipes are made assuming a certain egg size. Recipes used to be made assuming medium eggs but unfortunately that has shifted to large eggs over time and it's usually not clear what size a recipe uses. There is little reason to ever buy extra-large or jumbo.
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The American Egg Board has a substitution chart, if you're really worried. However, it suggests that it only matters in large quantities (as does an article at Kitchn, which led me to the chart). For home baking, if you're using jumbo eggs, just adjust your baking time to cook out the excess water. Also, there's actually little difference between large and extra large, in terms of both weight and volume (large eggs tend to be at the upper end of their range).
As already stated, there isn't that much off a difference. But, if you really want to be on the safe side: There's still recipes out there that state: Take twice the weight of flour of your eggs. (Yes, I do have a recipe book that states something like that in a recipe). Dunno if it's twice the amount, the same or depending on the recipe. But you could start measuring and try to find the right ratio.
Thank you for such an informative and nuanced video. I’ve been trying to support more ethical farming practices when shopping but cost consideration is a significant factor for many, and I appreciate that you mentioned it.
People in the supermarket are always amazed when I explain the Julian date to them. And no, you don't need to do math to see what the Julian date is (unless you want to) - just buy the eggs with the highest Julian number on the carton. They will be the freshest.
this is very helpful, thank you! I love eggs so much + like to ensure I'm buying eggs from decent sources at the very least. however no store-bought eggs have ever come close to how delicious the eggs from my parent's 5 hens are, the difference is pretty drastic!
Size might matter when it comes to baking, depending on how many ounces of egg a recipe needs versus how much the egg actually has. Or, more generally, how much any one person can eat in one setting.
True. I once read that the base standard for eggs in Indonesian baking recipes is "50 grams per egg" and is *never* stated otherwise (no "large eggs", "medium eggs", etc.). I also found out long time ago that there's around 5 grams difference between egg sizes, so... it might mess up with the ratio in baking recipes.
@@thaliafaudith9387 I actually weigh my egg yolks and whites when I’m doing a really precise recipe (especially French baking)! It’s useful because it means I can use various sizes and even stored egg whites.
My grandma said that if you are making hard boiled eggs, you want to use older eggs so that the shells are easier to remove. fresh eggs are tough to peel, but older eggs are not.
My family has had chickens as far back as I can remember. When I first made eggs for my wife, who was raised in the city, she thought the eggs were bad because of the color. She thought egg yolks were supposed to be pale yellow. However, I assured her that the eggs were just fine. After tasting free range pasture raised eggs, she now refuses to eat anything else!
Thanks for making useful educational content! I like being an informed consumer. I have been buying vital farms eggs for a while. I don't know if it's all in my head, but they just seem to have consistently better flavor and texture than other eggs I've purchased in the past.
I do taste a great deal of difference between the egg yolks of caged hens vs free range/pasture raised eggs. If I’m making something that eat yolk forward, I will go and grab the more expensive eggs, but when the recipe mixes the egg yolk with the egg whites I just use the cheap eggs.
Great video! I remember having to research all of this information myself a couple years ago (which has led me to buying Vital Farms ever since), so it's great to have this all condensed into one simple video.
didn't he say it may matter if you personally care for the complete chain, like production of the chickens food? So, it's a personal choice if it matters or not, but doesn't really matter in a quality aspect?
@@KyleBaran90 not exactly. You are paying more for less artificial fertilizers, use of certain chemicals etc. so that the envirommet is taken care off more. So, if you want that, than organic is your choice. At least in Germany and Europe, there's regulations what you are allowed to use to call things organic. As an example: pestizides. They may help to protect a crop, but also harm useful insects like bees, which we need to survive as without them, theres not fertilization of crop etc. And to use alternative, less harmful methods, you pay more. As said: it doesn't change the quality of the egg itself. But the background is different and thus a personal choice. Organic does matter, just not for the quality of the egg, because that has to do with the hens also eating bugs etc outside, which they can also do with pasture raised.
An important note always overlooked about "Organic" food. It refers to the type of pesticides used on the food - in that, no man-made chemical pesticides are supposed to be used on the product in question. HOWEVER, what is NEVER mentioned is that most naturally occurring pesticides are proven to be more harmful to human health than man-made chemical pesticides. That was the whole reason we started making our own pesticides over 100 years with chemical science - to get it in large quantities at cheaper cost and also to eliminate many of the dangerous / harmful components of naturally occurring pesticides. If you are eating "organic" food, you are likely consuming food with more harmful natural pesticides than the non-organic chemical pesticides.
@@delavidaebella Straight from USDA, the governing body of the term: "It’s important to note that labeling a food ‘organic’ does not mean that the product is nutritious, healthy, or safe; the labeling standards are based solely on agricultural field or farm practices." It just means the pesticides and fertilizer are not man-made. Nature creates equally dangerous pesticides and fertilizers as mankind does. Anyone paying more for "organic" food thinking it is in any way better than non-organic is delusional and a fool.
Literally what difference does it make, wether I die at 85 or 84 doesn’t really make a difference to me. I grab whatever’s cheapest. Not to mention most of the organic stuff looks like it’ll go bad by the time it goes from the store to my fridge
@@dantethunderstone2118 You have a child's comprehension of health. It's like dummies who used to argue "Who cares if smoking shortens your life? It shortens the end of your years, I don't want those years where I'm old and feeble anyway". Quality of life is far more important than length of life. Who cares if you live to 84 vs 85? Well, what if you spent the ages of 60 to 84 in utter misery and suffering from cancer or other ailments due to the poisons you eat, vs living to 85 but having a greatly reduced chance of living in agony due to cancer or other terrible health problems caused by chemicals? I'm a cancer survivor, I know all too well about pain and misery. I would rather die by age 60 never having had cancer than live to 85 in constant misery and agony caused by cancer. The quality of life matters more than how long you live.
Every country in Europe has different regulations. In Germany e.g. caging is completely forbidden since 2009. The lowest possible standard is cage-free and there have to be less then 9 chickens per qm². The next one is free range where every chicken gets at least 4qm² outdoors and the same space indoors as in cage-free. Best is organic and there get chickens also more space and organic food. We also have the weight classes of eggs, of course, but aside from that there ist not often additional marketing trash on the egg cartons. Only two more notes: In Germany eggs aren't washed to prevent what was said in the video. And germany is one of the few countrys where it is forbidden to kill every young male chick like they do in most other countrys.
The thing that stuck out to me the most is how expensive eggs are in the US. I'd be willing to bet EU regulations are more stringent regarding the requirements for different labels.
@@michaelgates991 Wouldn't that have the same issue as anywhere else regarding localized pricing and transport costs/inflation impact? At least here in the USA the more expensive eggs generally are the higher-end grocery. Lived in Ireland for a bit and my eggs cost was just about the same barring the washing thing.
@@Crazyasian123456 Here in Finland I can get "cage free" eggs for less than the battery farmed ones presented in this video. Maybe there are government subsidies involved, who knows.
@@michaelgates991 Probably to some extent. Corn and soy bean subsidies are pretty high here in the states so the result is cheap sweeteners, ethanol fuel, and lots of animal feed corn production. I imagine there is at least some form of subsidies depending on the primary industry for each state.
Okay I’m not sure if I misunderstood what he said but he said that the Best Buy date shouldn’t be more than 30 days after it was packed but if the packing date was 111 days which is somewhere around the end of April and the expiration date is jun 04 isn’t that more than 30 days? Or did I misunderstand him
I'm in France where eggs aren't washed, but I still refrigerate them at home. They're not usually refrigerated in professional settings, turnover of eggs is too high to have any benefit and bringing them to room temperature is needed for some dishes.
Also, in France, almost all eggs are brown, and the date is stamped directly on each egg (in addition to on the box). The eggs sometimes have a little caca on the shell, but they do keep fresh longer.
@@pynn1000 I heard that the Easter Bunny has a hard time finding white eggs (try looking in refrigerated section at Auchan), and when he does find them, they have the date on them.😉
10:35 Part of the reason people may think brown eggs are better is that old jingle "Brown eggs are local eggs and local eggs are fresh". I'm sorry if I just got that stuck in anyone else's head.
The color of the shell is determined by the color of the legs and beak of the hen. I raised egg-laying hens for years. My kids grew up watching them and learning all about hens and eggs. That is why Araucana Hens lay "easter eggs" which range from blues to greens. Wonderful! Duck eggs are most delicious.
some years ago we and a few neighbors bought some chickens. The kids distribute the eggs and get an collective allowance. We haven't bought eggs for quite a few years.
here in the uk we have a charity called RSPCA which is the UK's version of PETA that amongst other things certifies animal products, generally if I were to see that id assume that while they maybe aren't 'pasture raised' they're at least looked after decently and humanely
Lucky for me, we have 6 hens at home. We haven't really bought eggs in years, only occasionally during the winter/colder months , when there wasn't enough sun and even then rarely. The eggs have really yellow yolks and have a smaller yolk to eggwhites ratio than the store bought ones. Also how to say, they seem less watery?
I bought 6 hens (well... one turned out to be a rooster) just last April. Expecting to get some eggs by October. Can't wait. Now to figure out what to do with the rooster. My kids won't let me eat it.
@@ptrinch Good luck with your hen endeavor. And just wait a bit with the rooster, kids tend to loose interest in a lot of stuff, depends on the age though. If they are older just explain it to them and ease them into it.
@@StormCrusher94 LOL. I should have explained better... my daughters are 16, 21, and 23. And the rooster has recently learned to make his presence known at sunrise. I'll be figuring out something soon.
@@ptrinch you could try a crow collar. Some roosters get so embarrassed by how it muffels the sound of their crow that they barely crow at all. Your best bet is probably rehoming it to farm. Although if your daughters insist that that farm also don't kill the bird that may be difficult if it isn't an exceptionally beautiful and big rooster. Roosters can be pretty nasty and r@pey to their hens. That might change your daughters minds a little about preserving his life. All my roosters get planted under a tree as soon as I notice they're boys. Its a little less brutal than turning them into dog food (and none of mine ever escape notice to get big enough to be eaten).
Hens, which lay brown eggs, on average tend to lay less eggs over the year. The number of eggs is not truly significant. It comes down to the breed. In the US, over the last few decades, preference had been for white eggs so white chicken breeds had undergone more intense breeding programs to develop a chicken that lays more eggs. Brown chicken breeding has not quite caught up. And then of course you have your Silkies, which are unique birds in a variety of colors producing fewer and smaller white to cream colored eggs.
As a non American I find it so odd that white eggs are the norm for you. I have litterally NEVER seen a white egg that wasn't from one of my own chickens. To the point where if an egg isn't brown then I almost don't trust it lol.
@@aviendha1154 LOL, for the longest time, we had multiple choices of white eggs and then maybe only one choice in brown. Now there are so many choices between white and brown. The cheapest eggs (those raised in deplorable factory farm cages) are white eggs. I, myself, can afford to buy eggs from humanely raised chickens so I have done so for years. They are usually brown eggs.
I WISH pasture-raised eggs here in New York cost $6.49 a dozen. I consider that to be a sale, I've seen some pasture-raised eggs cost $8-$9 regular price! At the very least, I go for organic. Pasture-raised also aren't as readily available as organic.
I really wasn’t expecting the expensive eggs to be 5-6 bucks. I only ever get eggs that are 6-7 and not because I’m choosing to get more expensive eggs. They’re just what’s in my area…in all fairness I don’t buy eggs super often because I don’t have a lot of money…maybe I should check the prices at the stores though to see how big the difference is. Either way this was an interesting video about chickens and companies.
do you live in a food desert? / what area do you live in? prior to the crazy inflation we're experiencing now, I used to be able to regularly find a dozen eggs on sale for $1.
I buy Eggland's Best. Yeah, the vegetarian feed may be a gimmick, but they seem to taste better, smell better and last longer than run of the mill eggs. I don't go through that many eggs so its worth it to me to get good quality ones.
If you live outside the city and know someone that keeps chickens, they’ll probably have more eggs than they need. They’re so much better and keep longer than the store bought ones.
If you will excuse me, I have to go out to buy my AA grade, flaxseed fed, high in omega 3, pasture raised, double yolked, organic non gmo, certified humane and extra large jumbo eggs for 20 bucks a pop to brush them over my pigs in a blanket.
As far as I'm concerned, the whole ideology behind 'Organic' is ridiculous. Just because something is organic does not mean its free of pesticides or harmful chemicals, it just means the ones that are used are naturally derived; some of which are MORE toxic to humans than artificial ones.
Buy the most expensive eggs you can afford - by the most expensive chicken you can afford. When it comes to steak and eggs, go to your local farm and get them fresh and amazing eggs :) We should all do what we can do at the times we can do it.
I am absolutely NOT going to buy the most expensive things I can afford, because all that does is tell producers that people are willing to pay more for things. You vote just as much with your dollars as you do with your ballot - if people refuse to buy things because they are overpriced, the producers are forced to bring the prices down or get out of the business. Someone will have the sense to meet the price demands of consumers, so long as they are reasonable. As someone that works for a large corporation, I can tell you that prices go up on products when consumers show that they are willing and able to pay higher prices, and corporations only care about their bottom line. There is a range of prices now because most people aren't willing to spend three times as much to buy those high-end eggs when there is so little practical difference between them and the cheapest option, but some people are willing to pay a little more for one or more of the labels presented in this video. Every farm in the country will gladly switch to pasture-raised organic chickens if it means they can sell every egg with a 1000% markup over their cost to produce an egg, but if every farm is selling eggs at that price, most of the eggs aren't going to be sold because most people can't afford it. Nothing should ever be sold at that high of a markup, yet stupid people like you will pay ridiculous prices for things because you don't really understand economics or know what it is like to be poor. And for what its worth, many stores purchase eggs and other perishables from local farms already.
Eggs are one of those foods where I absolutely taste the difference. The few times where I haven't been able to keep my own hens I've always had a bit of an egg shock when I had to go back to buying my eggs! Caged eggs taste NOTHING like pasture raised eggs. And barn raised eggs usually taste a bit better than cage eggs but only marginally. And thats presumably because farmers who care enough to not cage their birds also feed them a higher quality pellet. Hell ive noticed a seasonal difference in my chickens eggs! The few eggs that they lay in winter aren't as tasty as the ones in spring and summer. And if I change their feed the taste of the egg changes too.
@@daltigoth3970 jeez, chill out! I'm going to buy the most expensive eggs just to spite you now. Frankly, taste and quality increase with increased price for eggs. AND despite inflation, my Vital Farms eggs are the only food item that is still the same price. Get over yourself and come up with solutions instead of mocking others, corpo
Not all white chickens lay white eggs, and not all brown chickens lay brown eggs.... there are so many colors and breeds of chickens, and other egg colors. Those just happen to be the 2 most common chickens bred for eggs. Generally, most white egg layers are thinner bodied and have a better food to egg making ratio than most brown eggs layers.
Someone who says "generally, x happens when y" already know it's already not the case 100% of the time. That's why they specifically included the word "generally"
Organic means they were fed organic corn. Only eggs from free range, pastured chickens that eat bugs and worms. I discovered real eggs when I had chickens and there is no comparison.
