During these inflationary times, food prices have skyrocketed. And eggs are one of the reasons why grocery bills are so high. The cost of a dozen Grade A eggs more than doubled to $3.59 in November from $1.72 a year earlier, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, which tracks the price of eggs and maybe even rudabaga.
Why the increase? Most folks without the insider information available in this column blurt, “Supply chain” without knowing what that really entails because they don’t understand the intricacies of logistics. But they are wrong. The real reason is the bird flu. Millions of hens died in 2022 due to the deadliest outbreak of avian flu in U.S. history.
Fewer hens mean fewer eggs being laid. The price increases because of the simple law of supply and demand. Or is it demand and supply? I’m never sure. Anyway, I urge you to amaze your friends with the real reason for egg prices, thus canonizing you as a Smart Shopper in their eyes.
Let’s move on to the debate between white eggs and brown eggs. This keeps me up at night. What’s the difference? Which is healthier?
Some eggologists say white-feathered hens naturally lay white eggs, and brown-feathered hens naturally lay brown eggs. Others cry, “Fowl!” They contend that many commercial hens have been bred so that white-feathered hens produce white eggs, and brown-feathered eggs produce brown eggs.
Neither is healthier to eat than the other, but brown eggs typically cost more for shopper bragging rights. To complicate the issue, Ameraucana chickens lay blue eggs, but their feathers are not blue. I hope that settles the issue of color.
Staring at the assortment of eggs in the refrigerated case in my local supermarket, I am amazed how eggs have changed since my youth. Back in that simpler time, all we had were regular eggs. Now eggs are organic, vegetarian, cage-free, free range, organic free range, pasteurized, happy and so forth. Sometimes less is more if you know what I mean.
European grocery stores don’t offer such a wide variety of eggs, and they certainly stock them differently. I was in a supermarket in Amsterdam once doing grocery research and found eggs stacked on a table at room temperature. In other words, not in a refrigerated case.
Do the Dutch know something we don’t? No, it’s just a difference in how to prevent salmonella, which can cause digestive distress and lead to death. American producers thoroughly wash the eggs before they go to market. They are rinsed in hot water, dried and sprayed with a chloride mist. Regulations call for refrigeration. Meanwhile, Europeans prevent the transmission of salmonella differently. In the United Kingdom, for example, producers vaccinate laying hens.
Few grocery products have had a more important role in film than eggs. For example, Paul Neuman won a bet in the film Cool Hand Luke by consuming 50 hard boiled eggs in one hour. In the movie Rocky, who can forget Sylvester Stallone as the scrappy boxer who starts his day by downing a protein shake of five raw eggs? Scientists watch gleefully in the movie Jurassic Park as dinosaurs are hatched from eggs in a lab.
Eggs also figure prominently in American culture. As a child, I remember other kids throwing eggs at the local school windows on Halloween. At Easter, children color hard-boiled eggs and place them in a basket next to chocolate eggs.
For breakfast, eggs are the basis of omelettes and frittattas. Housepersons can whip up eggs in several different ways: scrambled, hard-boiled, sunny side up, over easy and poached. I have tried them all except poached because it sounds suspicious. I never see it listed on a restaurant menu.
I will end with one last piece of egg controversy. For years, people with heart disease – or anyone who didn’t want to get heart disease – were advised not to eat egg yolks, which are high in cholesterol. But that’s not true anymore. A “tightly controlled study” performed by the Cleveland Clinic in my hometown found that eating four eggs a day did not raise levels of cholesterol, triglycerides or a gut metabolite known as trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), which significantly raises the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Even with that bit of clarifying news, I still won’t be drinking a protein shake of raw eggs in the morning, running ten miles, and then dashing up the steep steps of my local library. I might get a heart attack.