Hi everyone, it’s my first post
here on my blog. First of all, this post will talk about chicken eggs. I’ve
always been a huge fan of eggs. I eat eggs almost every day and it’s just tasty
and super easy to cook.
When I was a little, I only knew
one type of chicken eggs. But now, if you go to supermarkets, they have lots of
different eggs for different needs and consumers such as free range, cage free,
organic, vegetarian, omega 3, etc. They are also available in different
sizes. In the name of research, I
picked up three different types of eggs that I had never tried before. Two
different techniques were used to find the differences between these eggs in
terms of flavor, smell and taste. Moreover, at the end of my research I found something
interesting about the nutrition fact. So, stay tuned!
What did I pick?
1. Free-range
eggs. A box of 12 costs me $6.
2. Organic
eggs. A box of 6 costs me $5
3. Vegetarian
eggs. A box of 12 costs me $5
These eggs will be compared to the
normal eggs that I have at home which normally costs $3 per box of 12.
Techniques
First of all, I fried those eggs
with a little bit of oil on a flat pan. Second, the eggs were boiled in the
same pot.
Process
On the first day, I fried all the
eggs on a hot flat pan. When the normal egg hit the pan, the white spread out
immediately, filled up the pan and formed a long uncertain shape. However, it
didn’t happen with the free range and organic eggs. When the free range and
organic got its own turn, the white didn’t go all over the pan but formed a
pretty nice round shape instead. But I think it’s just because the normal egg I
used wasn’t as fresh as the others. Anyway, I asked my cousins (flatmates) to
taste the eggs. I didn’t tell them which one is the normal egg. Here are the
results:
Cousin A: She just preferred the organic
one.
Cousin B: He preferred the
free-range one because the texture was the smoothest.
My opinion: I think the free range
and organic eggs are odorless and cleaner in taste. If I had to choose one,
I’ll go with the organic eggs.
However, my experiment didn’t stop
right there. The next day, I bought a case of vegetarian eggs. This time, I
boiled them all together and put them in different bowls. I asked the same
people as yesterday to do the blind testing once again. Here are the results
before I told them which egg in which bowl:
Cousin A: Her favorites were the
normal and organic eggs. She didn’t like the taste of vegetarian eggs.
Cousin B: His favorite was the
normal egg.
After that, I asked them to guess
which one is the normal egg. They came up with the bowl A and D which is the
free-range and organic ones.
Differences
There are some differences between
these eggs in terms of texture, flavor, taste, color, farming and packaging
system. After done with the blind
testing, we experience the left over eggs and explore them once again. We noticed
that each egg is slightly different from the other. Free-range egg tastes a bit
saltier than others while vegetarian egg tastes very weak and plain. In terms
of texture and color, the yolk of each egg is different for some reason.
Organic has the yellow orange-ish color/brightest yolk and the vegetarian egg
has the palest yolk ever. However, in my conclusion, these eggs might taste just
slightly different and you won’t notice it if you didn’t know its organic or
free-range.
Anyway, here are the truly
differences between these eggs:
Free-Range eggs: Eggs produced by hens that have access to outdoors,
fresh food and water, and may forage for wild plants and insects.
Organic eggs: Eggs laid by free-roaming hens that are certified
organic feed. These hens have access to outdoors and free from antibiotics and
growth hormones.
Vegetarian eggs: could be seen from the picture below
Fun Facts (sounds like Ted Mosby)
1. In my
research, there has been a pros and cons about the nutrient content of these
eggs. But, my research shows that they all have the same nutrient content and
vitamin in each egg. The difference could be depending on the size of the egg.
2. In the
first round, my cousins didn’t get tricked. It could be caused by “mindless
eating” theory. “Mindless Eating” is a book that I’ve been reading recently.
This book breaks down why people eat more than they need, why we use our eyes
to judge and taste food more than our tongue. In this case, the shape of normal
organic and free-range fried eggs were much more nicer than the normal one. So,
the eyes might judge the nice one as the winner in taste and send it to brain.
3. American
magazine called mother earth news found that Free-range and organic eggs are
pretty much producer’s marketing strategy. These hens might have access to
outdoors, but, in reality, they don’t usually go outside and stay in the cage
instead (because chickens always stay near foods and water supply located in
cage). If you truly care about nutrition, I would suggest you to buy the real
free-range or also called pastured eggs. Pastured eggs contain:
1/4 less
cholesterol
1/4 less saturated
fat
2/3 more
vitamin A
2 times
more omega-3 fatty acids
3 times
more vitamin E
7 times
more beta-carotene
4 to 6
times as much vitamin D
What are
pastured eggs? They are eggs produced by hens raised on pasture and eat natural
diets, insects and worms.
If you are
interested to see more about the research, please check out motherearthnews.com
People are now becoming health and
environmental conscious. They chose to buy these eggs because they know and
conscious that they came from happier and healthier hens. What do you think
about these eggs? Which type of eggs did you buy? And also let know if you want
to know more about the “Mindless eating theory”. Cheers.
