I forgot that Easter was coming till I saw the food section of the SF Chronicle on Sunday. It didn’t mention Easter but it spoke of eggs, that’s what clued me in. For me Easter is about eating chocolate, decorating and then eating hardboiled eggs. Who has time for church with all the eating that needs to be done on Easter (blame it on my upbringing if that offends you)?

Anyway… I’ve always had a hard time with eggs. My grandmother once asked me if I liked eggs and I replied, “yea, when they’re in a cake.” More recently I’ve managed to grow a marginal fondness for eggs although I can never seem to figure out how to cook them correctly.  With that I decided to look into the matter.

Stuff I learned about eggs and chickens today.

Who knew? — Each breed of chicken has a specific earlobe color, which predicts the color of the eggshell.  Really? That’s just weird!

Dark is better — The color of the yoke is determined by what the chicken eats. Yoke color can range from light yellow to dark yellow/orange. The darker the yoke, the more nutrients in the chickens diet.

Green? — Ever notice a green or ashy ring around the yoke of a hardboiled egg? The ring forms when you overheat the egg.

Yuck, blood in the yoke — Many people believe that a blood speck in an egg means that it’s fertile. This however is not the case. A deficiency in the chickens diet can cause small blood spots in the yoke, which are unsightly but safe to eat. You can remove the speck using the tip of a knife.

Rotten egg  — Rotten eggs smell like sulfur. If it smells rotten it is rotten.  Also, rotten eggs will float when placed in pot of water, fresh eggs will sink and stay on the bottom.

How to boil an egg — This is where things get confusing, and frankly incredibly annoying. Apparently everybody has a different idea of how to boil an egg.  The Chronicle listed 4 different methods, all just slightly different.  Honestly!

The tips that seem to be somewhat consistent are, place the eggs (room temp eggs best) in a pot of enough cold water to cover them 1-2 inches. Bring to a vigorous bubble, but not rolling boil. Remove from heat, cover and let sit. The “sit” time is confusing, I’ve read, 8 – 15 minutes (maybe it depends on how “hard” you want your egg to be boiled?).  Then place eggs in an ice bath for easy pealing.

The count — One large chicken egg contains about 70 calories and 6 grams of protein. One large Reese’s peanut butter egg contains 180 calories, 4 grams of protein and is 53% fat. Yikes! Better stick with the chicken eggs.

I hope you learned something. I did but I’m still a little confused.