Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Double-yolk eggs


chappie

Recommended Posts

Last night we spent the first stage of our New Year's Eve at a friend's house for dinner. One of the hosts had boiled some very large-looking eggs and asked me if I could transform them into devilled eggs, as she did not know how.

I peeled them and began slicing, and to my increasing surprise, every single one of the 10 or so had a double yolk. I've seen these before but rather infrequently. How is it that an entire batch of eggs had double yolks?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A carton of 100% double-yolk eggs would be pretty unusual as a random occurrence. The most likely explanation would be a carton of the largest eggs from a young flock. More likely, though, is that this person bought a carton of eggs that were selected for double yolks. A small percentage of eggs have double yolks, and they're easily identified during the candling process. Some stores specifically stock them, and there's even a restaurant in Chicago -- Lou Mitchell's -- that sources all double-yolk eggs for its omelets, etc.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't have quite that many, but I did get about 4 in a dozen "cage-free" eggs about a month ago.

Actually, my boyfriend was kind of weirded out by it, and was afraid there might be something freaky about those chickens. :shock:

"I know it's the bugs, that's what cheese is. Gone off milk with bugs and mould - that's why it tastes so good. Cows and bugs together have a good deal going down."

- Gareth Blackstock (Lenny Henry), Chef!

eG Ethics Signatory

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When we raised chickens that ran around in a chicken yard all day and just got locked up at night to avoid the evil foxes we had a fairly high percentage. Agree that it was probably a pre-selected double yolk dozen, but I think they are more common in "naturalized" chickens.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I ended up with a dozen of them recently when I was in a hurry and didn't read the egg case. It was clearly labelled as being double-yolk eggs. This was from a very ordinary supermarket.

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My banties double yolk fairly often. My Rhode Island Reds do not. Same conditions, feed, etc.

Go figure.

“Don't kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about!”
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So what I'm getting from this is that if I find a few double yolk eggs in a carton, it's more likely that the chickens are actually free range... and not the kind of "cage free" that has them standing shoulder-to-shoulder like they're at a [insert name of band the children think is hip these days] concert. Not an absolute rule, but a better sign. Yes?

"I know it's the bugs, that's what cheese is. Gone off milk with bugs and mould - that's why it tastes so good. Cows and bugs together have a good deal going down."

- Gareth Blackstock (Lenny Henry), Chef!

eG Ethics Signatory

Link to comment
Share on other sites

According to the Alberta Egg Producers http://www.eggs.ab.ca/about/faq.html

A hen will sometimes produce double-yolk eggs at the very beginning or near the end of her reproductive life due to hormonal changes. When this happens, the shell forms around two yolks instead of one, creating a double-yolk egg....

Another site mentions it may also be hereditary which would make sense if you had most or all in a carton as double yolks.

Edited by pounce (log)

My soup looked like an above ground pool in a bad neighborhood.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's my non-scientific purely anecdotal contribution:

I have never seen double yolks from the grocery store. This summer we had 2 dozen egg-laying chickens at the family farm and they yielded plenty of doubles. At first I was a bit freaked out because I have twin toddlers myself - was it something in the water?!?

All the birds were in their first and only year. We think there was a single hen that laid most of the doubles. They were often elongated, and the total amount of yolk seemed to be no different from the singles.

So yes, I think deviled eggs would look cool with the shape of an eight (bilobate?) but I don't think the omelets would be any different.

Peter Gamble aka "Peter the eater"

I just made a cornish game hen with chestnut stuffing. . .

Would you believe a pigeon stuffed with spam? . . .

Would you believe a rat filled with cough drops?

Moe Sizlack

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I buy Jumbo eggs and often get them with dougle yolks.

I just used up a flat of jumbos from Smart & Final and most of them had double yolks.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can double-yolk eggs be fertilized?

Can two chicks develop in one shell?

BB

1. I think so. I've had double yolked eggs with the tell tale "mark" in them. If it's true that that red smear really is indicative of fertilization, than yes.

2. I've never seen twin chickens, and I've never had more chicks than I had eggs in the light box. I don't think so.

Edited by pax (log)
“Don't kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about!”
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a similar experience here in the UK, where cartons of double-yolked eggs are not available. I had not seen a double-yolk egg and then got 3 or 4 in a box of 10. As Fat Guy says, checking is part of the QC process, so it had to be someone’s idea of a joke. And the eggs were clearly heavier than standard UK large size.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From what I have read it makes sense that if you are buying the largest eggs produced from an entirely young flock that there is a very good chance of double yolks. Young chickens have a good chance of producing doubles and doubles will be the largest eggs.

My soup looked like an above ground pool in a bad neighborhood.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A blood spot in an egg does not mean that is is fertilized. A fertilized egg will develop, in about 24 hours, a white donut shape spot on the yolk. If you are buying commercial eggs, those girls never see a boy, so fertilization is impossible.

I have never seen "twin" chicks from one egg, but ocasionally a chick will hatch with 4 legs--kind of a conjoined twin thing.

Commercial eggs are candled, and generally double yolked eggs are removed, because they look "suspicious" to the candler.

sparrowgrass
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can double-yolk eggs be fertilized?

Can two chicks develop in one shell?

BB

I was wondering that myself before you asked the question. I know it's been answered, but I wanted to look it up anyway.

A search around the internets for "double yolk egg fertilized" got me a PDF and powerpoint presentation from what seems to be a past group project in an animal sciences class at the University of Alberta (a whole bunch of other projects/answers to random animal questions are also on the site).

I also found a question (with an answer) about double yolks on the NY Times website from the Science section a few years back.

So what I've gathered from it are:

1. A double-yolk egg can be fertilized, and

2. Two chicks can develop if both are fertilized, but rarely, if ever will they both hatch. Either one out-competes the other, or, much more likely, they both die from lack of resources/space.

(edited to add a link)

Edited by feedmec00kies (log)

"I know it's the bugs, that's what cheese is. Gone off milk with bugs and mould - that's why it tastes so good. Cows and bugs together have a good deal going down."

- Gareth Blackstock (Lenny Henry), Chef!

eG Ethics Signatory

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

New guy showed up at my farmer's market this week with a table full of eggs from pastured hens, so I bought some. So far I've eaten two, and both had double yolks. Which got me thinking . . .

1. Where do you buy them?

2. How are they produced? By identifying hens that only lay double eggs (which the EG Egg FAQ says some hens do) and packaging their eggs separately, or by candling bazillions of eggs and sorting out the doubles? or . . .

3. Is there some way to induce a hen to lay double-yolked eggs?

4. Is there any folklore surrounding double-yolk eggs? You know, like you crack open your egg for breakfast, find a double yolk, and say to yourself "Company's coming!" or some such. (Which actually would be the perfect thing, wouldn't it!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My grandmother would say "Give that girl a worm!" to my grandfather when she got a double yolker. :biggrin:

Yolkless eggs were referred to as "Cock Eggs" and my grandfather actually convinced a young, impressionable me that the rooster laid it. Dad laughed at me, and gently corrected my knowledge base. H bought Grandaddy a cigar, though, and I think they had a laugh over a glass of Old Grandad. They had an unusual sense of humor.

I don't think there is any inducement to encourage the hen to lay double yolks (except perhaps my Grandfather digging up an earthworm for the good girl :biggrin: ) but any young, healthy hen with a preponderance will do so. I think they are more prevalent in the "heavy" hens, but I could be wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry my post is a little confusing--I originally had it in the wrong place and it lost some context in the move. I had found a bunch of old EG posts indicating that people were buying cartons of just double-yolk eggs that are purposely sold as such. I've never seen that and was wondering if it's something you see more in Asian markets or what. That's what I meant by "where do you buy them?" (Because obviously, duh, I buy them at my farmer's market!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...