White eggs vs Brown eggs

(Robert C) #41

A quick google search says duck eggs are a buck each - my duck egg quest would stop at this point.

#42

Thats Mrs. FancyPants to you :stuck_out_tongue: and i just get them from the farmer up the road, or any of the farm shops around here… costwise there only a lil bit more than the chicken eggs (but since there actully bigger it probably equals out for cost/weight)

#43

On the other hand, there is probably a local farm with white eggs they can’t sell, that might give them to you really cheap!

I’m in a fairly big city, so unfortunately no local farms as such. I do personally know my egg farmer (from the monthly farmers’ market), but his “girls” are all big brown floozies it seems. :slight_smile:

(Brian) #44

I knew of a lady in rural lower Alabama that had duck eggs at one time. We got a few dozen of them and tried them out. They were good, very rich. I never did get to try them for baking, though, and I’m told they’re really good for that.

If they were closer to me, I would probably check to see whether they still had them. As it is, they’re a little hard to come by here.

(Todd Gamel) #45

It’s true that fresh eggs seem to have more issues than store bought and it used to frustrate us when it came to peeling eggs from our free range chickens. And like most people, my wife and I tried all of the various methods but none of them gave consistent results. Then we started using our electric pressure cooker to “boil” our eggs. By cooking them for 6 minutes in either our ‘Instantpot’ or ‘Pressur Cooker XL’, and doing a quick release of the pressure and placing them in an ice water bath for about 10 minutes to cool we have found that the shells come off very easily and the boiled eggs are nice and smooth. Very rarely does the shell stick and or the egg peel off when removing the shell.

For us, success came from changing the cooking process. We have been using either of our pressure cookers to “boil” a dozen eggs every week for more than a year, and most of the time 11 out of 12 come out perfect. There always seems to be one problem child. So if you have an electric pressure cooker and have not tried to “boil” eggs in it then try this method, I think you will be surprised how well they peel.

(Casey Crisler) #46

I had an argument with my step-daughter about brown vs white eggs being no different. That caused a major rift between us for a long time. She is one of those who knows everything, lol. But in my experience, it seems the brown shells are a slight bit thicker. They don’t crack when I boil them in the Instant Pot. The white shells seem pretty fragile. It could be just my imagination though. I end up paying more for the fancy brown eggs nowadays (unless white are on sale for $1 a dozen). But since I don’t eat breakfast anymore they sit in the fridge a lot longer.

(Brian) #47

Thanks, Todd,

The pressure cooker is one of the few methods I haven’t tried. I’ve wanted to but don’t have a very good one, and the one I have does not have a wire rack for the bottom. (I’ve been told to use a wire rack on the bottom when trying to cook eggs in the shell. I haven’t gotten so far as to figure out if there is a good alternative that I could use in place of the wire rack or whether it’s absolutely necessary.

If you don’t mind me asking…

Do you start with cold eggs and cold water in the pot when you seal it up? How high is the water level in the pot? Are the eggs not in the water at all, are they completely covered, or are they partially covered? You suggest 6 minutes, is that how many minutes the pressure cooker is up to pressure and cooking, pretty much ignoring the heat-up time? You did mention dumping the steam immediately upon the end of the 6 minutes. Also, what elevation do you live? I’m at just under 2,000 ft and sometimes that affects cooking times for me when I get recipes from people who live near sea level.

Don’t mean to be a pain with lots of questions, but this is a method I’d like to try. Thanks for any input you’d care to share. :slight_smile:

FWIW, it seems like the quickly changing extremes of temperature and pressure might have something to do with the release of the egg from the shell. About the best I’ve been able to do here is to take the cold egg and put it directly into boiling water, boil 14 minutes, and then take the hot egg and put it directly into ice water. That’s what gives me the best results I’ve had without a pressure cooker. Still problematic, though, with fresh eggs, I can probably get 60% to 70% that are decent enough for deviled eggs that look good enough for company, along with maybe 5% to 10% that aren’t even usable for that purpose. So… I’m looking forward to trying your method.

(Todd Gamel) #48

East Texas, Near Dallas Altitude: about 430’
Basket: Folding steamer basket (see pic)
Egg Temp: We take them cold right from the fridge.
Water Level: 1 cup
Cook Time: 6 minutes

I use a folding steamer basket in my pressure cooker, you can get one a your local big box retailer for $5 - $10 bucks here in the States. To cook the eggs place 1 cup tap water in the bottom of the pressure cooker, set in your steamer basket (water level should be below basket so eggs do not sit in water), cook for 6 minutes (I use manual pressure setting for our Instantpot or the ‘Rice’ setting for out Power Cooker XL. Once the time goes off, release the pressure and those the eggs in some ice water to cool for 10 – 15 minutes then peel. Easy peasey.

steamer%20basket

I have only used electric pressure cookers to cook ‘boiled eggs’ because they are easy to control the cooking times and temps.I wouldn’t want to try this in my manual pressure cookers. As I mentioned we take our eggs straight from the fridge. Occasionally we get one that cracks, but that may be do to the fact that occasionally we get a thinner shell egg from one of our hens. You could however leave the eggs out on the counter until them come to room temperature, this may prevent this occasional occurance, but we are to lazy. Hope this works for you Belllyman!

(Brian) #49

Thanks, Todd, very helpful info!!

I’ve seen those little baskets and wondered if they make one small enough to work. My little electric pressure cooker is only a 1-quart size and it’s pretty small. It would probably only fit a half dozen eggs in it anyway but I was still kinda hopeful I wouldn’t have to buy much to give it a try.

#50

Thickness and hardness of the shells is going to be more down to the chickens diet and somewhat the indivigual breed. The actually Colour shouldent really make a difference.
Chicken that free range and eat bugs and snakes (yeah, my moms ate a garter snake in front of her once lol) and all that good stuff are going to have stronger shells and darker yolks

(Doug) #51

I appreciate the descriptions of cooking techniques. My wife and I are both in our 50s, and never had trouble making hard-boiled eggs, but the last 2 years has been like another world - fresh eggs or not, white or brown, plunge into boiling water or slowly heated - nothing has made much of a difference; it’s like that darn membrane inside the shell always sticks to the egg.

#52

@ OldDoug I do this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nId0VqfG_oI]

It isn’t quite 100% easy peel, but 90+. My wife does hers in an InstaPot pressure cooker for 8 minutes and also puts them in an ice water bath. She says hers are 100% easy.

She went on an EggFast this week and I am doing it with her for support. I no longer need to lose more weight, but as a tool for maintenance, and EggFast is kinda fun! (For me anyways, since I am a BIG egg fan. I like them every which way except raw…poached, fried, hard or soft boiled, deviled, scrambled, sunny side up, over easy, Eggs Benedict, Swedish Pancakes, Picked, the list is YUGE!)