http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x70602Oh my.
beac (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-03-09 12:38 PM
Original message
Question for hippywife and other chicken raisers:
A neighbor gave me some fresh eggs from her chickens. They are clearly straight from the coop, based on some of the...um... debris... on the shells.
So, how does one clean an egg shell in order to avoid transmitting any unpleasantness and/or cleaning agent on the outside to the eggy inside?
(I did ask 'The Google' about this and got all KINDS of conflicting info, so I thought I'd turn to this well-trusted forum.)
FYI, this woman is a bit of a flake, so I am also wondering if her chicken husbandry has somehow contributed to the ookiness of her eggshells.
Well, considering where the egg usually exits from the chicken, one doesn't think "animal husbandry" has anything to do with the "ookiness" of shells on recently-emerged eggs.
Stupid primitive.
First up to answer, even though she wasn't asked, the defrocked warped primitive:
Warpy (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-03-09 01:25 PM
Response to Original message
1. Don't wash the egg until you're ready to crack it open
There is a coating on the outside of the shell that keeps bacteria from the chicken, um, detritus from getting inside the egg and infecting the growing embryo. You can brush the loose stuff off with a paper towel, just don't use water.
Fresh farm eggs are always covered with straw and chicken doodle. Commercial eggs are dropped through the bottom of the tiny cage the chicken lives in and never get a chance to be dirtied but they all come from the same place and you really didn't want to think about that, did you?
So tolerate the dirty shells until you're ready to use the egg, safe in the knowledge that the dirt means the interior has been kept safe for you.
Tesha (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-03-09 03:24 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. you made me laugh..."but they all come from the same place and you really didn't want to think about that, did you?"
beac (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-03-09 06:35 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. Thanks, Warpy.
Makes sense that Mother Nature would have a system to protect the growing chickie inside.
It's not so much that "didn't want to think about that"-- as I only buy eggs at the local farmer's market, never factory-farmed eggs-- but I'd never seen eggs with quite so much... um... doodle... on them before.
That's because the "farmers" at your local "farmers'" market get their eggs from factories down in Florida.
Grandma, who probably stewing that decapitated rooster at the moment:
hippywife (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-03-09 07:22 PM
Response to Original message
4. Warpy is correct.
If you wash the eggs it washes off what's called the bloom which is a protective coating on the outer shell. I don't wash mine until I use them. And I'm careful when cracking them to make sure no shell gets into whatever I'm using them in. It's easier to do with frash aigs because the shells tend to be denser and harder to crack.
I also don't care if it has a little blood spot in it. Unless it's a good sized one and is kinda thick, I mix it right in. If it is, I fish it out. It helps to crack them into a smaller bowl rather than right into whatever you're making.
Enjoy them frash aigs.
after which Grandma uses a smiley to wave at franksolich
The wired gassy primitive, from that farmette up over there in Wisconsin:
grasswire (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-03-09 07:33 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. is there a name for that little clot...
....of stuff attached to the yolk?
hippywife (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-03-09 07:57 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. Yeah, it's called chalaza. I just mix that in there, too. Doesn't hurt anything. It's meant to hold the yolk in place within the egg.
Warpy (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-03-09 09:24 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. When it's big enough, you can call it a balut.
I watched Zimmerman choke one of those down last night. He pronounced it a combination of hard boiled egg and boiled chicken until he got to the liquid. Apparently that was pretty nasty.
Grandma corrects the bitter old sour angry defrocked warped primitive:
hippywife (1000+ posts) Wed Nov-04-09 06:16 AM
Response to Reply #7
8. A balut is a fertilized egg with an embryo.
The chalaza doesn't become the embryo.
The bitter old sour angry unfrocked warped primitive tries to weasel out:
Warpy (1000+ posts) Wed Nov-04-09 08:58 AM
Response to Reply #8
9. The chalazae are the white stringy things in the white
The blood spot is exactly that, a blood spot caused by the chicken having a small blood vessel rupture during egg formation. This isn't uncommon and most eggs with large blood spots are eliminated during processing.
Small blood spots can be picked out with a piece of shell or, as noted above, simply mixed in if the eggs are scrambled or used in baked goods.
Less commonly, those bloody spots indicate a developing embryo in a fertilized egg that wasn't snatched out of the nest soon enough. That's what I was referring to when I joked about having it turn into a balut.
Yeah, yeah, sure.
