Eggs better for you and the hen

Think hard about buying Cage-Free Hen eggs instead of regular eggs. There's not a massive amount of price difference. But there is a massive difference for the hens.

Battery farmed hens live packed together in crates so tightly that often they will have their beaks cut off to prevent them from pecking their neighbors in desparation. They stand in their own faeces. They are never let out.

There is also a difference in their content. Battery farmed hens are fed antibiotics and chemicals that will be transferred in some measure to their eggs.

Cage-free eggs actually have flavor.

The rules on the Organic label for eggs are not entirely clear to the consumer. An egg can be called organic simply because the hen is not fed antibiotics and chemicals. The hen may still be cooped up in a tight cage. 

Egg tips:

• When using them for baking, bring them out of the refrigerator in time for them to reach room temperature before use.
• For the best froth from egg whites, whisk them straight from the fridge.
• If your bowl has the slightest grease, the egg whites won't rise.
• To get a whole egg inside a bottle - why wouldn't you want to try? - soak it for 24 hours in vinegar. This will soften it. Then get a clean, empty bottle and drop a twist of burning paper into it. Put the egg on top of the open neck. The burning paper will suck up the oxygen inside the bottle and then the egg, vacuuming it in. Then you can run the whole thing under running water to get rid of the paper ash. How cool is that?
• Kids love the tiny fried eggs made from quail's eggs with miniscule soldiers of toast.

Why the French beat egg whites in copper bowls:

Some of the copper ions in copper infiltrate the egg whites, bonding with their conalbumin quotient. This not only produces much more shiny and frothy egg whites, but also makes them less vulnerable to collapse. 

Incidentally, in French farmers' markets you know how fresh the eggs are: the date they've been collected is pencilled on the shell. Not a bad practice, eh?

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