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DISH: A weekly serving of food news and views

By JANET K. KEELER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 27, 2002


deconstructing
explanations from the inside out

brown vs. white eggs

photoIf you are one of those people who think that brown eggs, like brown rice, is healthier for you than the white version, you'd be wrong. The color of eggs simply reflects the kind of hen they come from.

Brown eggs come from chickens with reddish brown feathers, such as Rhode Island Reds, New Hampshires and Plymouth Rocks. These chickens are popular in New England.

Most of the eggs produced in the United States are white and come from hens with white feathers, such as the White Leghorn.

A fairly rare breed, the Araucana, lays eggs in varying pastel shades of blue and green, according to Marie Simmons, author of The Good Egg (2000, Houghton Mifflin). Araucanas are mostly raised for personal, rather than commercial, use. The color of the shell has no bearing on the egg's taste or its nutritional content.

constant comment

"An egg is always an adventure; the next one may be different."
-- British playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

cooking class

How to keep your deviled eggs from wobbling if you don't have a dimpled deviled egg plate? After boiling and peeling them, slice off a nickel-size piece of the white from each half to create a flat side that makes them stable when sitting.

this web site cooks

www.aeb.org

The incredible edible egg site, brought to us by the American Egg Board, could be called Egg University. At EU, you'll learn industry facts (California is the nation's No. 1 egg-producing state), safety guidelines (buy eggs uncracked and keep refrigerated) and nutritional content (in a large egg the yolk has 59 calories, the white a mere 17). There are lots of recipes and perhaps more biology than you want to know. Study this site and you'll be ready to open your own chicken ranch.

egg sizes

photo

Eggs come in six sizes but only four -- medium, large, extra large and jumbo -- are common commercially. The sizes that are hardly ever seen are small and peewee, which is exactly half the size of a jumbo. The size of eggs depends on the age of the hen. The older the hen, the larger the egg. Most recipes are based on the use of large eggs. Some cookbooks state that in a how-to-use-this-book section, and sometimes a recipe will specify the egg size. (If not, use large.)

easy peeling

Peeling a hard-boiled egg can be exasperating. The bad news is that fresh eggs often are hardest to peel. Here's a tip: Crack hard-cooked eggs and place in pan of cold water for about five minutes. Ideally, the water will seep under the membrane that separates the shell from the egg. If you can take off the membrane with the shell, you'll have a perfectly peeled egg.

trivia time

photoA hen requires 24 to 26 hours to produce an egg. Thirty minutes later, she starts all over again.

To tell if an egg is raw or hard-cooked, spin it! If the egg spins easily, it is hard-cooked, but if it wobbles, it is raw.

If an egg is accidentally dropped on the floor, sprinkle it heavily with salt for easy clean up.

Source: American Egg Board

Easter icon

Decorated eggs have long been a symbol of Easter. Today, children dye eggs using kits that contain decorating such tools as wax crayons, glitter and stickers. Crimson eggs, representing the blood of Jesus, are exchanged in Greece. In parts of Germany and Austria, green eggs are made on Maundy Thursday. In Eastern Europe, Easter eggs are decorated with gold and silver patterns, and the Poles and Ukranians paint their eggs with elaborate patterns, a technique called pysanky.

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