Eggs

Saturday May 12th 2012

Freshness of Eggs

Freshness of Eggs

This is an extract from my beautiful 1960 edition of "New Larousse Gastronomique".

A fresh egg is heavy. When shaken, it should feel well-filled. As the shell is porious, the water which encloses the inner part of the egg evaporates. An eggbloses a tiny fraction in weight every day. It is easy to gauge the freshness of an egg by plunging it into a 12 per cent solution of salted water (Cooking Salt). If the egg is very fresh, it falls at once to the bottom of the water. If it is a few days old it floats.
If it is bad it floats to the top. This method does not apply to eggs that have been preserved in water and limestone or other liquid.

The composition of the egg varies with the breed of the hen and its diet - the latter also influences the flavour of the egg.

The best eggs come from Free Range hens, which eat the right proportion of grain and vegetable matter.

Dietetically, the fresh egg is almost a complete food. It contains easily assimilable proteins, fats, Vitamins A, B, D and E (only vitamib C is absent), an appreciable amount of iron, abnd a number of valuable mineral salts: magnesium, a minute quatity of calcium, sodim, potassium, manganese, copper, zinc, chlorine, iodine, fluorine etc. The egg being a bearer of life, also contains precious oligo-elements.

As we use eggs in almost every cake we bake, I thought may be of interest to know a little more about them. I will not take an egg for granted anymore.

Next week: History of Butter

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