EGGS

In ordinary parlance, hen’s eggs are alwavs understood when ‘‘eg¢s’’ are mentioned, but the omnivorous human diet in eludes also those of various other creatures. There is, for example, a considerable consumption of the eggs of ducks, geese, and guinea-fowls, and in some sections of gulls and other wild birds, those of the lapwing, or ‘‘plover,’’ being considered a great delicacy. The eggs of turkeys and, in California, of ostriches are also occasionally eaten, but they are ordinarily too valuable for hatching to use them for the table. Again, terrapin eggs are served with the meat, the eggs of the sturgeon as caviar, those of the shad as ‘‘shad roe,’’ ete. These, however, are topics foreign to the article following, which refers to the eggs of domestic hens. - ‘ Kges constitute one of the most valuable of food products, both because of their a nutritive value and because of the many ways in which they may be utilized. They are suited ahke to the hale and the delicate, to both adults and children. They are, as a rule, easily digested if lightly boiled, poached, shirred, or fried (with only a moderate amount of fat), and particularly so if cooked in the shells to the ‘‘coddling’? point in water held at about 160° Fahr.—i.e., for five to ten minutes in very hot but not boiling water—or if made into lightly baked eustard. Scrambled ege's and omelettes, even when properly soft and tender, require a little more time to pa through the stomach, and hard-boiled eggs still longer unle mastication of the white is exceptionally thorough. Over-fried eggs, and those scrambled to the leathery point, and those either scrambled or fried in a considerable exce of fat, should be avoided by people with sensitive stomachs. Raw eggs are sometimes prescribed for specific reasons, but their a imilation is not as complete as when properly cooked. Eges should always be kept in a refrigerator or other dry, cool place free from any strong or objectionable odor. If packed in salt or sawdust they will remain fresh longer than if exposed to the air. There is a great similarity in the product of nearly all breeds in the proportion of shell, white, and yolk. Roughly speaking, the shell makes up one-tenth, the yolk three-tenths, and the white six-tenths. The white is nearly seven-eighths water. The solids of the white are practically all nitrogenous matters, principally albwmin. The yolk is about one-half water, one-third fat, and the remainder principally nitrogenous matter.. The mineral content includes especially calcium, iron, and phosphorus. The yolk is of all common foods the richest in iron. The color of the shells varies with the breed and is of no consequence except as a matter of local preference. Some localities consider white eggs the choicer, others think the brown are superior. Variations in the meats are attributable to both seasons and other conditions. Eggs obtained in the spring are generally firmer and fuller than those gathered in the summer. Flavor and color are further affected by the food of the hens. Exce ive consumption of onion bulbs or tops, for example, will spoil the flavor, and lack of green food will result in pale yolks. The thickne of the shell also may vary with breed and diet and in different sections. Deficiency of lime will result in soft or thin shells—a serious defect, as in commercial handling it increases the percentage of cracked eggs. The most paportant difference is in weight—in fresh eges chiefly attributable to difference in size. The range is from seven to ten to a pound, vet all cooking receipts say, ‘‘take two eggs,’’ or whatever number is considered nece ary, without any allowance for variation in size! If equal in other respects —in freshne , appearance, etce.—‘‘seven to a pound”’ eggs are (if judged for their food value) worth half as much again per dozen as ‘‘ten to a pound.’’ ‘Fertile’? eges are those from flocks with which the rooster has been permitted torun. ‘‘Infertile,’’ or ‘‘sterile,’’? are those of flocks from which the roosters have been barred. In eggs gathered promptly, and thereafter held at a temperature below that nece ary for the ineubation of the embryo, there is no difference either in flavor or food value. Under other conditions, the fertile will spoil much more quickly than the sterile. Tt is of course understood that though mating is nece ary to the production of a chick-embryo, it has no hearing on, or effect on, the formation of the egg itself. The roosters permitted to survive may be segregated after the breeding season—this being followed by segregating the cockerels of the new hate hings—-or all hens except those selected for breeding purposes may be entirely and at all times segregated. To enjoy the full delicacy of a fresh-laid egg—whether fertile or sterile—it must travel to the table as speedily as po ible and must be most carefully protected in transit from heat, moisture, and strong odors. Heat will not so quickly affect the sterile as the fertile ege beeause it contains no embryo to be incubated, but its freshne will neverthele be impaired by the stimulated development of any contained bacteria. Moisture and strong odors are prejudicial to sterile and fertile alike— moisture opens the pores of the shell, admitting bacteria and molds and greatly facilitating the absorption of foreign odors; and foreign odors will find their way through the pores (though le rapidly) even if there is no moisture to affect the shell. A two-months-old cold-storage egg—if it be a fortunate specimen laid in a cool month and speedily placed in a well equipped, well managed storage house— may be fresher than a fertile egg only a few hours old that has deteriorated in a damp, warm nest, or in the midsummer sun’s rays on a hot freight platform, or in a warm, ill-ventilated retail store odorous with cheese, onions, and other commodities. There are many grades of eggs to the men who handle them between the farm and the breakfast table—faney fresh, fresh gathered, checks, storage packed, storage, limed, known marks, extras, firsts, seconds, dirties, ete. They are a orted both by their exterior appearance —size, cleanline or the opposite—and by ‘‘eandling.”* Candling, in a cold Pe / | storage house, is performed in a dark room where electric lights glow: — -_ inside dark-green meta] I » * shades, with open spaces Sa y ). or holes of the diameter of: egg is twisted and turned, “ ye if — | in front of one of these 7 >, ——— p= holes, and the electric ray; —— w*| forces its disclosure of i nearly every guilty secret. |: a For months during the gathering season, a force = - Saal of men stand at their examining eggs with; > ‘| ee ‘| grading them in boxes Me) Which an elevator is car- ™~=. & rying ceasele ly to cold. < storage rooms. A new-laid egg appears semi-transparent, ranging Candling eggs—the room was flash lighted for the photograph ‘pot oon erie in tint (if ae yolk be of wise dark except for the lights in the candling-lamtps a moderately hight vellow) from pinkish-yellow, if a white egg, to pink if a light brown ege, and to deep pink if; a very brown ege—the color lighter on the edge than at and around the yolk, with the yolk itself shadowily indistinct; and with only a very small air-chamber—a separation of skin from the shell, filled with air. (There is no air-chamber at all in a full ege literally just laid.) Orange-colored yolks reflect a red light (varied in depth by the color of the shells). As the egg ages, the yolk becomes more opaque and shows a definite outline; the air-chamber becomes larger; and the white weakens and permits the yolk to sink toward the shell, presently to rest on it, and at last to adhere to it. The yolk sack weakens also, and is likely to break when the egg is opened, or it may break within the shell, resulting in an ‘‘addled’’ egg (known as a ‘‘mixed rot’’ in the first stage, and a ‘‘white rot’’ if well advanced). Eggs with adhering yolks, or in which the yolks have discolored the whites while in the shell, are not fit for consumption. A fresh ‘‘weak’’ egg presents much the same appearance as a moderately stale egg. There are also fresh eggs which are not ‘full’? — which are abnormally shrunken and therefore show a large air-chamber. These may be perfectly wholesome, but they are given a lower rating for the defect. The foregoing remarks apply equally to sterile and fertile eggs. In addition, fertile eggs are subject to changes brought about by incubation. If incubation has not been checked by sufficiently low temperature, a dark reddish spot—the “‘hatch spot’’—soon becomes visible. The egg is still edible, but has become a ‘‘second.’’ The next phase, if incubation continues unchecked, is the appearance of blood veins, or the ‘‘blood ring’’—the appearance of blood around, or partly around, the hatch spot. The egg should then be cla ed as inedible. After this, deterioration is rapid—the entire contents soon become cloudy, and finally almost black. Among other defects noted by candling (in both sterile eggs and those originally fertile) are mold spots—showing grey or black, and in time making the entire meat appear black—and dark mottled areas coating the yolk caused by bacterial deterioration. These also are inedible. Candling is, however, not infallible. It will not disclose a musty-odor egg, or a sour-odor egg, or an egg with a green white (the result of bacterial growth) —yet none of these should be eaten. The bacterial egg with the green white must not be confused with the ‘‘gra ege,’’ the perfectly wholesome ege distinguished by an olive-green yolk. ‘‘Gra eggs’’ are rated as ‘‘seconds,’’ but this is due to their abnormality of color, not to any defect in their food quality. A ‘‘check”’ is an egg which has met with an accident that has cracked the shell— but has not damaged it sufficiently to cause it to lose any of its contents. The crack may be so shght as to be ordinarily invisible, but the egg must not be sold at the same price as a perfect one, for its potential life has been greatly shortened by the ready aece thus accorded to bacteria and molds. Hges with edible meats, but cracked or with dirty shells as also those greatly undersized or shrunken, and those not fully fresh but still edible—are best shelled and frozen, or dried and marketed in (generally) powdered form, as (excepting of course the undersized) they are liable to deteriorate in storage. Frozen eggs held at a temperature of about 10° Fahr. will retain their initial condition for a year or longer. They are placed on the market as whites, volks, and wholes, or whites and yolks mixed, and are largely sold to bakers, noodle manufacturers, and makers of salad dre ings and other food articles. The dried yolks and whites, separately or together, are employed in baking, etc., both in private households and commercially. The domestic product is supplemented by Jarge imports from China—ducks’ eggs forming a large proportion of Chinese offerings. The increase in this industry should eliminate any temptation to the household use of ‘‘egg substitutes,’? a majority of which consist largely of cornstarch and none of which justify such a title. Eggs that are unfit for eating in the shell should never be offered or used for human consumption either frozen or dried—as neither proce —though it may give opportunity to eliminate telltale signs and odors—ean set the clock back and convert a bad egg into a wholesome food product. Inedible eggs are used chiefly for tanning leather. - Eggs that have pa ed the candling test—that have proved fresh laid, whole in shell, clean, full, and sterile (or, if fertile, if incubation has been checked by a low temperature) —may be held for a number of months in cold storage at a temperature ranging between a little above and a little below the freezing point without seriously impairing their food value for ordinary purposes. Under good conditions they will retain a fairly fresh flavor for nine months to a year, losing however in weight from the steady evaporation of the whites. The ‘‘storage’’ taint sometimes noticeable (chiefly in the yolks) is mainly attributable to absorption from their surroundings, especially from the cases and straw-board fillers, moistened by this evaporation. A home. candling device may be fashioned from a section of stovepipe or by shaping any piece of metal into a shield to go around an electric bulb or an oil lamp (in the latter case, making smal! base perforations to avoid over-heating) and cutting a hole about 114 inches in diameter. It must, of course, be operated in a dark room. Both experience and judgment are e ential to uniformly accurate grading, but a little practice will render any intelligent person capable of generally distinguishing a high grade, fresh egg from one of doubtful or undesirable characteristics. For beginners, white eggs are the easiest to read because of the greater transparency of their shells—especially those with moderately light yellow yolks because their first red incubation signals are seen in greater contrast than in an orange-colored yolk. Another simple test which applies chiefly to the age of an egg is to place it in salt, water—one-tenth salt and nine-tenths water. A full, new laid egg will sink in the solution; an old one will float because of its larger air-chamber. A floating egg may not have reached the unwholesome stage—and it may perchance be a perfectly fresh ‘‘light’’ specimen—but it is to a certainty not of the first quality, for it is either not full or not fresh laid! For home use, eggs may be preserved by immersing in a 10% solution of waterela (sodium and pota ium silicate). If all precautions are observed they should appear comparatively fresh even after the expiration of three or four months. One gallon of the solution is sufficient for five dozen if they are properly packed. Only those tested, clean, whole (not eracked), and unwashed should be used. Sterile are better than fertile. Stone jars are the best receptacles and it is important that the solution be kept a full two inches higher than the top of the eggs. When taken out of the solution for use, the shells should be pricked through at the large end before being placed in water, in order to avoid bursting by the expansion of the enclosed air (as the solution seals the shell pores). Another method is by immersion in lime-water. Occasionally the result is a; slightly limy flavor, but as a rule it is Just about as satisfactory as by the watergla formula. The lime proportion is from two to three pounds of unslaked lime thoroughly di olved in five gallons of cold (but previously boiled) water. The eggs should be covered to the depth of at least two inches. The number of eggs that a hen will lay in the course of a year depends upon both breeding and feeding. The total has been greatly increased within the last few years, and is capable of further improvement, for even the maximum now obtained is considerably le than the number of oécytes, the initial undeveloped eggs, which form—in cluster style—in the ovary of the hen at the breeding season. It seems probable that many of the unutilized odcytes re-absorbed into the system of the fowl could be developed into eggs. The breeds that lay the largest eggs, averaging seven to a pound, are the Black Spanish, Light Brahma, Houdan, La Fléche, and Créve Coeur. Eggs of medium size and weight, averaging eight or nine to a pound, are laid by the Leghorn, Cochin, Minorca, Red Cap, Poland, Dorking, and Games. Hamburgs average about ten to the pound.. The average weight of twelve laid by different breeds is a little more than 114 pounds. The most popular types of fowls for specialized egg-producing are the Leghorn, Minorca, Black Spanish, Hamburg, Campine, Ancona, Blue And alus i an, and Red Cap, their average total output being larger than that of other varieties. The size of the egg is affected also by the care accorded the fowls. Those from the Soutn formerly averaged small for all breeds, but a marked improvement has been. noticeable during recent years. With the exception of those which, because of their proximity to a large city, can profitably be shipped by expre , eggs always travel in refrigerator cars—winter as well as summer, for the heavy construction of the perambulating ice-chests is equally serviceable for protection against cold and heat. One carload contains four hundred cases, or one hundred and forty-four you sand eggs. On large poultry farms, eggs are produced and handled very much as the product of any other factory—the poultry man knows his cost of production by dozen or case, just as does his contemporary in any other line of busine —but the greater part of the supply is still represented by accumulations from you sands of general farmers scattered all over the country. The history of one of these farm eggs reads like ‘‘a gathering of the clans.”’ The hen that laid it may be the property of a small farmer in a western state, located fifty or a lundred miles from the nearest good-sized town. The egg is one of a dozen that the farmer takes to the nearest village store and either sells for a sinall sum of money or barters for sugar, calico, tobacco, or some other commodity that he needs more than he needs eggs. Other farmers in the neighborhood are doing the same and the store is thus the recruiting station for a goodly company of eggs that must nece arily find a market somewhere else. These eggs are sent to a larger center, where they pa into the control of a large, or small, shipper who mobilizes them, to continue the figure, no longer by companies but by battalions, regiments, and armies —i.e., carloads, When the shipper has a carload of eggs ready for the eastern market, he teleeraphs the fact to an eastern dealer. <A certain amount of dickering goes on over the wire, and the eggs are finally sent East. They are not though, as a rule, for immediate consumption, hence the nece ity for the refrigerator car and the storage warehouse to retain the condition in which they were purchased. Boiling Eggs. There are other ways of boiling eggs than by their immersion for a certain number of minutes in boiling water. A more pleasing result can be obtained (1) by placing them in cold water and gradually bringing it to a boil, removing them when the boiling point has been reached, or (2) by a form of coddling— placing them in boiling water and then turning the gas flame out, or setting the pot well back on the range, removing the eggs in from seven to ten minutes. By either procedure, the white will be tender and jelly-like instead of the somewhat tough and leathery consistence it has in the ordinary boiled egg. The exact time required for either boiling or coddling depends upon several cireumstances—the number of eggs placed in the saucepan, the size of the saucepan and the quantity of water in it, the size of the eggs, and their temperature when placed in the water. Chinese Preserved Eggs. In China, enormous quantities of eggs—both ducks’ and chickens’—are preserved in their shells by pickling. There are two chief styles— one which keeps them edible without cold storage for two or three months; the other by which they will keep indefinitely, improving (according to Chinese ideas) with the pa age of years. Tn the first form (that for temporary preservation) the fresh eggs are placed in strong brine for several days and then coated with a mixture of earth, salt, and chaff. On opening, the yolk and white have the general appearance of fresh eges, but the yolks are almost solid and have a ‘‘stale’’ odor. They are used either raw or for cooking in the same ways as fresh eggs. In the second, and more important, method of permanent preservation, the fresh eggs are pickled by immersion for three months or longer in a thick infusion of lime, salt, lve, and tea-leaves (or the first three ingredients added dry to a strong infusion of tea-leaves), then drained and coated with a mixture of clay and rice husks, ete. The color and ae: general condition of the th,; meat of these pickled eggs lua i =.: vary with their age. When ie nat stiff jelly of very deep,,~: translucent amber; and Gel gd both have a fishy, am-: \ f moniacal odor. The yolk has enlarged itself by ian absorption of water from the white and tastes some- Chinese preserved eggs, two years old—part of the clay coat removed what like beef extract with 7G ERDAS a suspicion of fish-paste addition. The white is almost neutral in flavor. The odor decreases with exposure: to the air. The eggs are eaten raw—each mouthful accompanied, perhaps, by a piece of vinegar-cured ginger—and also variously cooked. In general commerce the life of these eggs is from one to two years, but Chinese merchants enjoy a ‘‘luxury’’ trade in those of greater age, the price ascending with the lapse of time. At ten years or more—the entire shell content then a deep brown —they are a famous delicacy, reserved for ceremonial occasions. The idea of these eggs—and probably also the above description of them—is offensive to Ameriean tastes, yet (except for the psychology of tradition) there is really no more reason why objections should be raised to the bacterial-enzymic-alkaline change of the egg meat than to the transformation of milk into cheese. In truth, the Chinese preserved egg is a very mild, delicate product compared with many cheeses popular among us. The advantages of this method of preservation are the elimination of much food waste and a great reduction in handling-costs. If generally adopted it would save millions of eggs which now become inedible because they do not reach cold storage with sufficient promptne —and one can readily picture the great economy both in transportation and in storage, when—instead of careful guarding of the eggs in specially equipped cars and warehouses—they could be shipped all around the world with no other protection than a filling of sawdust in the barrels containing them. EGGPLANT (see color-page opposite), a fruit-vegetable which is steadily gaining popularity in this country. In many parts of the tropics it is a staple and important article of diet. It is cultivated as far north as New York, but the choicest types are, as a rule, those grown in the | southern states. There are several va- |. rieties, yielding fruits of differing qual- N A. ities, colors, shapes, and sizes. The best |S#¥tzezx4— = ‘ known and most popular variety is some- Be ce cf 4 oy A what egg-shaped, three to five inches in st = ~~ diameter, and from light purple The ‘‘white’’ styles are prege ferred in Europe. The fruit is generally. fried in slices, but is even more palatable when cut in one-inch cubes. It is also Witte. 5: “Sal excellent baked (plain or stuffed), boiled, [f See i.e a or the fruits of several Z species of the elder, especially the deep, purple berries of the American, or ‘ sweet, elder, a shrub widely distributed —: — throughout central and eastern North Gathering eggplants America, and the blue-black or bluish white fruits of similar, but frequently larger, shrubs or small trees native to the West. They are generally cooked or made into elder herry wine, Many superstitions attach to the tree—one of medieval England that it was upon an elder that Judas Iscariot hanged himself, and a crown of elder thus became a token of shame and disgrace.