I've had a few eggs with blood spots but never ever anything like partially formed chickens - omg
I always crack my eggs in a dark bowl but only because I'm an idiot (easier to count how many eggs I've cracked and if I accidentally got a piece of shell into there) Now there's yet another thing to watch for - thanks for the warning
I grew up a country girl, even though I am somewhat of a city girl now. When we stayed at my Mamaw and Papaw's house, we jumped up in the mornings and ran out to the hen house to grab eggs for our breakfast. A few times one or the other of us would find a chick embryo when cracking an egg. I guess we were typical country kids, because we would all crowd around and examine the "innards" of that particular egg. Papaw would grin and say that he needed to pen the old rooster up. He kept various breeds of chickens and we would fight over who got the lavender egg or the pale green egg. 
We also drank milk straight from the cow- Papaw squirted us with it! He only kept a couple of cows at a time so they could have "fresh" milk. Then, when I got older and watched him seive it, I vowed to never drink raw milk again! The strainer and cheesecloth caught all manners of hairs and such, ewwwwwww.
Eggs and milk were kept in the Springhouse even though they did have a refrigerator in their house (in the laundry room because they had a big old farmhouse that was built before such appliances were common and the large kitchen wasn't designed to hold refrig, dishwasher, etc). Pots of beans, stew and stuff was left on the stove all day (eye not on warm or anything) so that visitors and the kids could grab a bite whenever. To my knowledge, nobody ever got food poisoning or such from any of these practices.
They aren't umbilical cords, chalaza center the yolk in the shell.
How to store fresh eggs.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/1977-11-01/Fresh-Eggs.aspx
I get my eggs from a number of different places. Mostly try to get them free before I pay for them. I even use Duck eggs, works great in recipes makes the cakes super moist.
I always use the water test on the eggs that I collect from a friends farm. Put them in a bowl of water if they float they are bad, if they sink they are good.
You have to remember when using eggs they come from a animal, it is possible there might be another animal in them. I am a farm girl born and raised one dead chick in an egg is something I have seen a lot of.
Have yet to see a dead duck tho in an egg. But if a farmer ever offers you duck eggs to bake with, don't turn them down they work great. Just use the water test.
Floating an egg isn't necessarily a test of freshness.
We did an experiment in Girl Scouts, and some eggs straight from the hen will float, it's just a matter of the air bubble size.
As eggs age, the air bubble gets larger; but some hens have large air bubbles from the get-go.
I also get fresh eggs, but have never baked with them. Not sure why, other than the fact that I dont want a fresh egg to be bad and make someone sick. But now, reading this, it can happen with store bought eggs. Amazing!! I havent seen any type of embryo, but have witnessed the blood spot. I always toss them down the drain. I have also witnessed store bought eggs that there is a particular odor when the yolk is separated from the white. Any idea what this could be?
But which came first..................?
seriously good point!
This all reminds me of my Dad's former co-worker, who was from the Phillipines(sp?) He used to bring in all these amazing native dishes into work for my dad to try....the only one my dad couldn't bring himself to eat was some dish that contained duck embryos...bleh
barf!Well, I live in the United States and a certain nationality eat chicken embryos all the time. Common practice! YUk. Someone even got their black dog stolen from the driving range(golf) which proved later to have been someone's dinner. Same nationality! Ahhhh, living in paradise..........
Yes its called "balut".(yes, Phillipino)...sorry if I spelled it wrong....somthing I could never bring myself to eat.....and dogs are a primary protein source for many poor countries....so are cats. Its a cultural difference...Americans/Euros eat cows/swine, etc....Asian ppl eat dogs/cats, etc. Its all a matter of culture....one is no better than another.
By your lecture and astute observation that "one is no better than another" it appears you are stating that the 40 or so people who are discussing the unappealing nature of this topic believe themselves to be better than others. You probably should have left out that last part of your comment. Sorry if we all have offended your delicate sensiblities especially if you reside in a third world country. Oh, wait... you are from Chicago!!!
7yyrt- I always get a kick out of reading your posts. You are a very informative individual!
Yucko!! For the first time this week I saw a blood spot in an egg and thought I was going to pass out, so I can kinda relate. Very gross!
[quote="Evoir"]LOL, I am loving this thread...
I am in Australia too and in my region one major supermarket sells eggs refrigerated (Woolworths) and another just off the shelf (Coles). Go figure.
Woolworths where I am just have them on the grocery shelf @ room temp... different rules for different Woolworths! 
Some people will be horrified by this no doubt...but I have used eggs that are over a month out of date many times - no ill effects whatsoever (they have been refrigerated after purchase.) It's no big deal, they keep for AGES past their best before. My eggs never get that old these days - I do a lot more baking now than I used to. Goes without saying though that IF I were SELLING cakes I would make sure they were in date!
We're so spoiled here; so used to our own hens' eggs,
I forgot, and ordered some eggs when we took our company out to eat breakfast. I could hardly recognize those flavorless, flat-white-yellow-yolked 'things' as eggs!
I just felt so sorry for the little things... I felt like taking them home and giving them cod liver oil or something to make them grow healthy! LOL
We have our own hens too (and one rooster who snuck into the mix lol). I haven't had this happen, but I saw it a few times when I was young, at my grandparents. Yeah, it's gross, but it's also really cool when you're a kid, haha!
I also crack into a separate bowl, mostly because I'm a dork who usually manages to crush the shell and I don't want to have to pick it out of my batter.
It's really funny how we've become so sanitized...I grew up eating fresh eggs, drinking fresh milk (I've been squirted with an udder too!!!), watching my g'mother wring a chicken's neck, dunk it in boiling water (a smell that will traumatize you for sure), pluck it, clean it and fry it up!
We didn't think anything of it when we were young, but sometimes now it's like we can't eat it if it didn't come from a big store wrapped in cellophane haha!
But which came first..................?
seriously good point!
This all reminds me of my Dad's former co-worker, who was from the Phillipines(sp?) He used to bring in all these amazing native dishes into work for my dad to try....the only one my dad couldn't bring himself to eat was some dish that contained duck embryos...bleh
barf!Well, I live in the United States and a certain nationality eat chicken embryos all the time. Common practice! YUk. Someone even got their black dog stolen from the driving range(golf) which proved later to have been someone's dinner. Same nationality! Ahhhh, living in paradise..........
Yes its called "balut".(yes, Phillipino)...sorry if I spelled it wrong....somthing I could never bring myself to eat.....and dogs are a primary protein source for many poor countries....so are cats. Its a cultural difference...Americans/Euros eat cows/swine, etc....Asian ppl eat dogs/cats, etc. Its all a matter of culture....one is no better than another.
By your lecture and astute observation that "one is no better than another" it appears you are stating that the 40 or so people who are discussing the unappealing nature of this topic believe themselves to be better than others. You probably should have left out that last part of your comment. Sorry if we all have offended your delicate sensiblities especially if you reside in a third world country. Oh, wait... you are from Chicago!!!
7yyrt- I always get a kick out of reading your posts. You are a very informative individual!
808hedda, nowhere did I read that Diamonds said people who react with disgust to this topic believe themselves to be better than others. I didn't see it as a lecture either. It's what you chose to infer from her post. I noticed that you and MadameRaz reacted with "yuk", "bleh" and "barf" to other people's food choices. That was a value judgement, which you are entitled to make. Perhaps that why you read what did in Diamond's comment?
On another note, Diamonds, please don't generalize Asians as cat or dog eaters. These animals are not the primary protein source in Asia. In cultures that don't have much livestock, fish, fowl and legumes primary protein sources. Admittedly some Asians do eat cats and dogs. But they are the minority and do not represent the gastronomic habits of Asians in general.
To keep to the topic, yes cracking a fertilized egg is gross. In the parts of the world that I've lived/visited/grocery shopped in (US, Asia, Europe, Australia), only the US consistently refrigerate eggs, with the exception of chain stores in the UK and Australia.
Ok, I'm afraid to crack open the eggs on my counter now.
Wow, after reading all these posts I really wish that I had had the guts to take some pictures! It seems as though my experience was a rarity! My husband was making fried eggs this morning and yes, I did visualize what I saw when he was cracking them open! I think it will stick me with for quite some time!!
But which came first..................?
LOL...that's funny, but it is disgusting to find an egg like that, it has happened to me, it turned out that the whole carton was like that, never went back to that store.....Yuck 
MAJOR EWWWwwww!!!! I always crack in another bowl.... you NEVER know.
Jennifer
I saw "Dirty Jobs" with Mike Rowe last night and they were chicken sexing....
....but I want them to be treated humanely until butchered.
They don't all use the vent method, some use the feather method for some breeds/hybrids. The Discovery Channel's "How It's Made" shows the feather method... maybe this is more humane!
See for yourself... it's interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zbkkkn_PxE&NR=1
They can only sex certain breeds that way. They are called "Sex-Linked" because boys are one color, girls another. So they are easy to tell.
A great majority of chicken breeds need to be sexed by checking their vents. It is quite a skill I guess, and has to be done the first day.
If you want chicken trivia, did you know they mail them Priority Mail, in little square boxes, 25 day old chicks in each box. Ever hear cheeping at your post office, you'll know someone got some chickens (they mail boxes of bees to!)
I have absolutely nothing to do with baking. I came across this thread by accident while searching for some chicken information, because I raise my own "backyard" chickens. I read all the posts of this old thread and I am so bothered by the ignorance of people today. Please don't take that as an insult, it's just that, that's what it is, ignorance. People are just so out of touch with their food sources these days. If you are so interested in food, you should really know more about where your ingredients come from.
I notice several posts that mention how the presentation of your baked goods is photo perfect. I simply recommend that you take a photo of your beautiful cheesecake, then put up a photo right next to it of the chicken that your eggs came from and the cows that your cream cheese came from. You might just find that those pretty white eggs and the cream cheese came from the most horrible conditions you could imagine. The big farm chickens are in tiny cages without enough room to be, well, a chicken! They are fed some of the nastiest food you could imagine, and pumped with enough drugs for a small African country. You get nice, pretty eggs, but I am more disgusted by that pretty egg than an entire carton of dead chicken embryos.
My chickens free range on an acre of land and are fed organic feed of the highest quality. We eat the eggs and we sell a small amount to a few neighbors and friends. We are proud of our chickens and the healthy environment they live in. We regularly have people come over and we always show off the chickens to anyone who is interested. We have nothing to hide. We are proud of our healthy, happy flock. I challenge you to take a tour of a factory chicken farming facility and see how you feel about those perfect white eggs you get. First of all, you probably can't get on the property of a big farm. And if you do, youu'll be scouring craigslist for someone like me to buy your eggs from and never go back to the store for them. We raise our own livestock for meat too, because we prefer to know where our meat comes from. This is a cake forum, though, so I won't get into meat.
To get dizzy, lightheaded and upset over finding a little blood in an egg is just ridiculous. Come on ladies, do you think your great-grandmothers would be proud of you if they could see you squirming around about a little blood spot in an egg? Blood spots are perfectly normal in an egg. They shouldn't be present, but a small bit of blood can get into an egg during formation and it's nothing to worry about. I scramble them up and eat them, I'm perfectly healthy. When you cook steak, do you squirm about the blood? Steak with bones can have a lot of blood, and you're feeling sick over a little spot of blood in an egg? Get over it and move on. Pick it out if it will affect presentation, but please, just get over it.
I was pleased to see the poster who now regrets throwing out grannies eggs. I was particularly saddened when I read that she was throwing out all those eggs. Backyard eggs are no "dirtier" than store bought eggs. They all come from chickens and backyard chickens are usually much cleaner than factory produced chickens. If I found out people were throwing out my eggs, I would likely give them quite a lesson about food safety and store bought food. Then, I would invite them over to my house on a slaughter day to get them a little closer to their food source.
The closer you are to the source of your food, the healthier and happy you will be, I guarantee it. Find a local rancher or farmer to buy food from, if you can. Even in the city, you likely have a local farm, ranch or farmer's market nearby. Go there and ask them the questions you won't find answers to at a grocery stores. You will learn a lot about what you eat and why so much knowledge about food safety today is just a myth with no science to back it up.
Finally, regarding the original poster's story about the embryo in the egg. I would like to say it's some sort of unfortunate event; but it's not, it's just life. The fact that you got apologies for your traumatic experience only strengthen my argument that people today are so out of touch with life.
Oh, and store bought eggs are washed thoroughly. When you wash an egg, you wash off what is called the bloom. The bloom is a protective coating on the egg. It's the last step in egg production of a hen. This coating protects the chick inside from contaminants going through the porous shell. Once you remove the bloom, eggs become "unfresh" very quickly. Also, the shell is now more porous and will more easily allow any contaminant on the outside of the egg to penetrate the shell. We do not wash our eggs at all, unless they are dirty. And the dirty ones don't get washed until you are ready to cook them. Our eggs will stay fresher for far longer than a store bought egg for this reason. Every once in awhile, there is a little poop or a feather stuck to an egg. So, if you start buying fresh eggs, don't get all squeamish if you find a little poop on an egg. Just stick it in your fridge and wash it when you use it.
I recommend you support small, responsible, local farms. Also, become more educated about what you and your family are eating, you won't regret it. -Happy baking!
I have absolutely nothing to do with baking. I came across this thread by accident while searching for some chicken information, because I raise my own "backyard" chickens. I read all the posts of this old thread and I am so bothered by the ignorance of people today. Please don't take that as an insult, it's just that, that's what it is, ignorance. People are just so out of touch with their food sources these days. If you are so interested in food, you should really know more about where your ingredients come from.
I notice several posts that mention how the presentation of your baked goods is photo perfect. I simply recommend that you take a photo of your beautiful cheesecake, then put up a photo right next to it of the chicken that your eggs came from and the cows that your cream cheese came from. You might just find that those pretty white eggs and the cream cheese came from the most horrible conditions you could imagine. The big farm chickens are in tiny cages without enough room to be, well, a chicken! They are fed some of the nastiest food you could imagine, and pumped with enough drugs for a small African country. You get nice, pretty eggs, but I am more disgusted by that pretty egg than an entire carton of dead chicken embryos.
My chickens free range on an acre of land and are fed organic feed of the highest quality. We eat the eggs and we sell a small amount to a few neighbors and friends. We are proud of our chickens and the healthy environment they live in. We regularly have people come over and we always show off the chickens to anyone who is interested. We have nothing to hide. We are proud of our healthy, happy flock. I challenge you to take a tour of a factory chicken farming facility and see how you feel about those perfect white eggs you get. First of all, you probably can't get on the property of a big farm. And if you do, youu'll be scouring craigslist for someone like me to buy your eggs from and never go back to the store for them. We raise our own livestock for meat too, because we prefer to know where our meat comes from. This is a cake forum, though, so I won't get into meat.
To get dizzy, lightheaded and upset over finding a little blood in an egg is just ridiculous. Come on ladies, do you think your great-grandmothers would be proud of you if they could see you squirming around about a little blood spot in an egg? Blood spots are perfectly normal in an egg. They shouldn't be present, but a small bit of blood can get into an egg during formation and it's nothing to worry about. I scramble them up and eat them, I'm perfectly healthy. When you cook steak, do you squirm about the blood? Steak with bones can have a lot of blood, and you're feeling sick over a little spot of blood in an egg? Get over it and move on. Pick it out if it will affect presentation, but please, just get over it.
I was pleased to see the poster who now regrets throwing out grannies eggs. I was particularly saddened when I read that she was throwing out all those eggs. Backyard eggs are no "dirtier" than store bought eggs. They all come from chickens and backyard chickens are usually much cleaner than factory produced chickens. If I found out people were throwing out my eggs, I would likely give them quite a lesson about food safety and store bought food. Then, I would invite them over to my house on a slaughter day to get them a little closer to their food source.
The closer you are to the source of your food, the healthier and happy you will be, I guarantee it. Find a local rancher or farmer to buy food from, if you can. Even in the city, you likely have a local farm, ranch or farmer's market nearby. Go there and ask them the questions you won't find answers to at a grocery stores. You will learn a lot about what you eat and why so much knowledge about food safety today is just a myth with no science to back it up.
Finally, regarding the original poster's story about the embryo in the egg. I would like to say it's some sort of unfortunate event; but it's not, it's just life. The fact that you got apologies for your traumatic experience only strengthen my argument that people today are so out of touch with life.
Oh, and store bought eggs are washed thoroughly. When you wash an egg, you wash off what is called the bloom. The bloom is a protective coating on the egg. It's the last step in egg production of a hen. This coating protects the chick inside from contaminants going through the porous shell. Once you remove the bloom, eggs become "unfresh" very quickly. Also, the shell is now more porous and will more easily allow any contaminant on the outside of the egg to penetrate the shell. We do not wash our eggs at all, unless they are dirty. And the dirty ones don't get washed until you are ready to cook them. Our eggs will stay fresher for far longer than a store bought egg for this reason. Every once in awhile, there is a little poop or a feather stuck to an egg. So, if you start buying fresh eggs, don't get all squeamish if you find a little poop on an egg. Just stick it in your fridge and wash it when you use it.
I recommend you support small, responsible, local farms. Also, become more educated about what you and your family are eating, you won't regret it. -Happy baking!
THANK YOU SO MUCH! Now if someone would start a thread on bleached flour in their scratch cakes and how many chemicals it takes to make cake flour white.
AFarmer John. Exactly! I couldn't help but laugh at all the sissies out there. If stuff ever hits the fan and people need to figure out how to grow their own food and provide for their families, they'd be in for a rude awakening. We own a restaurant and always get a good laugh when a customer complaint comes in about finding a bone in their burger. Nothing is perfect. Heck, USDA has an allowance for how many insect parts are allowed in every possible thing that is sold in the country.
Example:
CINNAMON, GROUND Insect filth (AOAC 968.38b) Average of 400 or more insect fragments per 50 gram Rodent filth (AOAC 968.38b) Average of 11 or more rodent hairs per 50 grams DEFECT SOURCE: Insect fragments - post harvest and/or processing insect infestation. Rodent hair - post harvest and/or processing contamination with animal hair or excreta SIGNIFICANCE: Aesthetic
You're welcome.
I been lucky enough to live close to farms that offer fresh eggs and chickens. Yes they are dirty but the flavor of them is so rich and amazing. These store bought eggs cant hold a candle to them. All you have to do crack one open, the shells are thick and healthy, the yolks are a deep golden color, while the store bought ones crack so easily and have a very pale color.
Kudos to you Farmer John for posting this information.
Quote:
Farmer John. Exactly! I couldn't help but laugh at all the sissies out there. If stuff ever hits the fan and people need to figure out how to grow their own food and provide for their families, they'd be in for a rude awakening. We own a restaurant and always get a good laugh when a customer complaint comes in about finding a bone in their burger. Nothing is perfect. Heck, USDA has an allowance for how many insect parts are allowed in every possible thing that is sold in the country.
Example:
CINNAMON, GROUND Insect filth
(AOAC 968.38b) Average of 400 or more insect fragments per 50 gram
Rodent filth
(AOAC 968.38b) Average of 11 or more rodent hairs per 50 grams
DEFECT SOURCE: Insect fragments - post harvest and/or processing insect infestation. Rodent hair - post harvest and/or processing contamination with animal hair or excreta
SIGNIFICANCE: Aesthetic
You're welcome.
Wait till they find out about chocolate and coffee beans,lolz.
Thanks for the replies. Never being to this forum before, and not knowing anything about the dynamics here, I was worried what kind or responses I would get! I just felt I had to tell it like it is. I was just really surprised to see a forum about cooking with so much misinformation about food. I don't know anything about confectioners, but the really good chefs I have met have made it clear that they have to really KNOW FOOD to be able to prepare and serve a masterful dish.
Quote:
THANK YOU SO MUCH! Now if someone would start a thread on bleached flour in their scratch cakes and how many chemicals it takes to make cake flour white.
I was born and raised as city folk, I still am, really. We moved just far enough out of Las Vegas that we could still see the city lights, but still have our own little urban farm. Since becoming more aware about food, white flour is something we no longer have in our house. If you really want white, we use organic coconut flour in our house. Yes, it has some coconut flavor, but it is quite healthy and it is white!
Quote:
Farmer John. Exactly! I couldn't help but laugh at all the sissies out there. If stuff ever hits the fan and people need to figure out how to grow their own food and provide for their families, they'd be in for a rude awakening. We own a restaurant and always get a good laugh when a customer complaint comes in about finding a bone in their burger. Nothing is perfect. Heck, USDA has an allowance for how many insect parts are allowed in every possible thing that is sold in the country.
Example:
CINNAMON, GROUND Insect filth
(AOAC 968.38b) Average of 400 or more insect fragments per 50 gram
Rodent filth
(AOAC 968.38b) Average of 11 or more rodent hairs per 50 grams
DEFECT SOURCE: Insect fragments - post harvest and/or processing insect infestation. Rodent hair - post harvest and/or processing contamination with animal hair or excreta
SIGNIFICANCE: Aesthetic
You're welcome.
It wasn't that long ago that families all across the country had victory gardens and chickens in their backyard. Check out these posters put out by the USDA. Quite a difference from the USDA and people of today! Yup, if the you know what ever did hit the fan, a lot of folks would starve, even if there was good food around. I mean, would you rather starve or get salmonella from an egg that wasn't inspected in a USDA facility!
I have a feeling I'll be back here to post a new thread with some interesting facts one day!
"I have a feeling I'll be back here to post a new thread with some interesting facts one day!"
I really look forward to that day Farmer John and I would like to personally welcome you to CC. Even though you don't know to much about confectioners I feel that you would offer a lot of knowledge about natural ingredients and real food to this site.
FarmerJohn... a round of applause please!! People are *so* far removed from their food. We live surrounded by farms and I get eggs and meat from them. My friends and I raised 100 chickens for meat and processed them ourselves with guidance from my friend's father who used to have a chicken farm. (not the Cornish crosses either... real chickens that can survive past 9 weeks old).
We are building a coop in the spring so we can have eggs too. Nice to meet you!
Original message sent by MBalaska
about cakes?
I don't think I could compare anything I cook to what y'all are probably baking up, but I'd be happy to talk about ingredients and share some sources for them if anyone is interested. My wife and I have spent years finding sources for high quality foods that meet our requirements and I'm sure we use some common ingridients you'd use in cakes.
We are also really into pet nutrition for our dogs. I see people making cakes out of boxes for their dog's birthdays and I cringe when I see these folks giving their dogs sugar like that! So we have recipes I could share for dog-safe cakes. Some are our own recipes, and some are ones we have learned from others. Although, I don't think we know exactly where some of the recipes came from, so I won't know who to credit. :-( My wife makes one cake that is based with coconut flour, sweetened with raw honey and iced with a cream cheese frosting that also has raw honey in it. This cake is safe for dogs to eat in moderation and it is so moist and delicious that we eat it with them. So, yes, I can share some info about cakes too! I'd love to see what some of you could do with the recipes!
Quote:
"I have a feeling I'll be back here to post a new thread with some interesting facts one day!"
I really look forward to that day Farmer John and I would like to personally welcome you to CC. Even though you don't know to much about confectioners I feel that you would offer a lot of knowledge about natural ingredients and real food to this site.
Thank for the warm welcome, I appreciate it.
Quote:
FarmerJohn... a round of applause please!! People are *so* far removed from their food. We live surrounded by farms and I get eggs and meat from them. My friends and I raised 100 chickens for meat and processed them ourselves with guidance from my friend's father who used to have a chicken farm. (not the Cornish crosses either... real chickens that can survive past 9 weeks old).
We are building a coop in the spring so we can have eggs too. Nice to meet you!
Wow, 100 chickens, that's awesome! We will have about 50 chicks that we will raise this year for meat. We also only raise heritage breeds, it's a shame what people have done to these poor hybrid animals. We prefer animals that can actually walk to their own food and water, and have some sort of a good life here, however long it may be. Heck, we've got a couple turkeys here named Christmas and Thanksgiving.....of 2013! They started laying eggs so we kept them around to earn their keep! Someone asked us how are turkeys laid eggs, because their turkeys never did. They got some domesticated hybrid turkeys that can't lay or fly, we raise heritage American Bronze. Speaking of eggs, their eggs are very interesting. They lay a large speckled egg that is about twice the size of a chicken egg. If you scramble them, they come out extremely light and fluffy, almost like you whipped a chicken egg with milk. I'll bet they'd make an interesting cake!
When you build your coop, there is a really good chicken forum called backyard chickens with lots of good info and brains to pick.
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