Everyone eat eggs often, but how much do you really know about them?
1. Chicken Eggs Come in Different Colors: Different breeds of chickens produce different colors of eggs. In addition to the typical white and brown, some chickens produce blue, blue-green, reddish-brown, or even speckled eggs. A great place to look for atypical egg colors is at your local farmers market; one vendor at my market sells a dozen eggs in a mix of blue, white, cream, and brown.
2. You Can Tell The Freshness Of An Egg With Water: If you have eggs of questionable freshness, fill a bowl with enough water to cover the eggs, then add them to the bowl. If an egg sinks to the bottom, it’s fresh. If it floats to the top, it’s not. This happens because as an egg ages, it develops a larger and larger air pocket in its shell. According to The Oxford Companion to Food, it’s actually better to choose a less-fresh egg if you’re hard-boiling it, because in fresh eggs “the white adheres closely to the shell, making it more difficult to remove the latter.”
3. Eggs Are a Great Hangover Cure: eating eggs is a great way to help shake off the previous evening’s festivities.
4. Raw Eggs Can Make For Delicious Food and Drinks: Classic recipes for mayonnaise, caesar salad dressing, lemon curd, and cocktails include raw eggs. While salmonella is certainly a concern in using raw eggs or other raw animal products, you can reduce your risk by using the freshest eggs possible (ideally locally produced) or purchasing pasturized eggs.
5. Chickens Aren’t the Only Birds That Lay Edible Eggs: Duck, quail, emu, goose, and ostrich eggs can all be cooked up.
