produce the next. Occasionally two ova drop at the same time, these develop into

double-yolked eggs.

The U.S. is the largest egg producer in the world with good quality, healthy eggs handled

in a highly automated process. The chicken house has been turned into a true egg factory. The

eggs roll directly from the chicken to a soft conveyor belt on a gently-sloping floor, and in

minutes a belt moves them to the washing, sorting and packing area, chilling room and finally for

transportation in refrigerated trucks to the wholesaler within a few days. All these are fully

automated. Large farms work with over 2,000,000 birds, nearly the human population of

Arkansas. Machines at these farm factories can grade and pack 54,000 eggs an hour. For this

enormous egg production we need a large flock of hens. In the U.S. the population of egg-laying

hens alone in 1998 was 256 million, close to the country’s entire human population.

Eggs from free-ranging hens that were fresh-tasting with deep-yellow yolks and firm

whites are gone forever, except for the very few who live in the country with a hen-loving

neighbor. Those eggs certainly beat today’s supermarket eggs. Yet, on today’s large egg farms,

the hens receive an optimum scientific diet to produce wholesome, high-quality eggs, always

sold fresh at very reasonable prices.

TASTINGS Chicken feed and eggs

To produce one dozen large eggs (about 1½ pounds or 680 g), a hen needs to eat 4

pounds (1800 g) of chicken feed. Hens were less efficient layers in the past. In

960, a hen had to eat over 6 pounds (2700 g) of feed to lay a dozen eggs.

What’s in your egg

The seemingly simple egg is extremely complex. The white is two-thirds albumen, an

opalescent-white protein. Egg whites can increase 6 to 8 times in volume when you beat air into

them—a blessing in many baking projects. The yolk is a mixture of protein, fat and cholesterol

with a powerful emulsifying effect.

Inside the egg white are two twisted cord-like substances, the chalazae (pronounced kah-

LAY-zah) that often get wound around the beater while you are whipping egg whites. The two

ends attach to the opposite ends of the yolk and also to the white, with a purpose to keep the yolk

centered. These cords are firm, prominent and rather strong in fresh eggs, but they weaken with

aging, letting the yolk drift off-center. When you want attractive hard-boiled eggs with well-

centered yolks, older eggs with weakened chalazae are less likely to give the best result.

There are two membranes between the egg white and shell, a good defense against any

microbes. One membrane is glued to the shell and one to the white with a thin layer of air

between them, something like a double-pane window. These membranes can be a real pain for

cooks when they aim to have neatly-peeled hard-boiled eggs.

The egg shell itself is something the cook could do without. It is embarrassing when one

of your dinner guests crunches on a small bit of shell in your masterpiece Raspberry Charlotte.

Egg shell gives a truly amazing protection to the otherwise highly perishable stuff inside,

particularly the high-fat yolk, which would turn rancid quickly. It is not like aluminum foil—it

doesn’t seal the egg in completely. The shell is porous so oxygen from the air and carbon dioxide

from inside can exchange places, designed with the embryo in mind allowing it to breath. The

pores are small enough so microbes cannot enter the egg. If the egg is not fertilized, there is no

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