***** CODE PUB = PUB_B *****
Français
 
How to choose eggs and other tips
Jacques Thorel, anc. chef-propriétaire de l'Auberge Bretonne
Jacques Thorel, anc. chef-propriétaire de l'Auberge Bretonne

All About Eggs > Chef's tips

In France in olden times it was believed that any egg laid on a Friday would cure stomach illnesses. In particular, an egg laid on Good Friday and eaten on an empty stomach on Easter Sunday was thought to ward off sickness for the entire year. Through the ages, man has always seen in the egg the image of a constantly reborn universe. Among the Celts, Greeks, Egyptians, Tibetans, Hindus, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and many other peoples you'll find the same legend - that of the egg that gave birth to the world.

Buying

You can tell how fresh an egg is by the roughness of its shell: the smoother the shell, the older the egg.

The egg is not very fresh if you hear a faint noise when you shake it or if the point of the egg feels warm when placed on your tongue.

On the other hand, if you perform the same tongue test and the point of the egg feels cold, the egg is fresh.

To determine an egg's age
Place it into a salt solution made up of 125 g salt per liter of water.

  • An egg laid that day will lie horizontally on the bottom of the container.
  • A week-old egg will sit at a steep angle.
  • A two-week to one-month old egg will be almost vertical.
  • An egg more than a month old will rise to, or above, the surface.
In the kitchen

In the kitchen, the egg in all its forms remains an essential part of our everyday diet - from breakfast, where it is served boiled, fried, poached or in omelets, through lunch, to dinner where it enters into all sorts of dishes, from first courses to desserts. 

In China, the most famous eggs are known as "hundred year old eggs" and are one of that country's gastronomical treasures. In the West, it is to two of the greatest Roman gastronomes that we owe numerous recipes and techniques surrounding the egg. Lucullus invented the omelet and the honey omelet. Apicius, in 25 BCE, created a kind of crème caramel by combining milk, honey and beaten eggs that he then cooked over very low heat. He discovered the egg's wondrous ability to thicken a sauce or stew.

Practical

Personally, though I don't often use eggs in my cooking, I like their texture and the combinations they allow, as in these simple tasty recipes: 

 
Search
Search within the site
Find
 
Advanced search >
Register free to receive our official newsletter
Sign up
 
Subscribe to our free RSS feeds:
Get the daily and monthly recipe posts automatically added to your newsreader.
 
Sign up
 
***** CODE PUB = PUB_D *****
***** CODE PUB = PUB_F *****