What Size Eggs Do You Use for Which Tasks?

[Chris Amirault]

When I made pancakes this weekend, I was struck by the fact that one item wasn't carefully measured by weight or volume: the eggs. Production-scale recipes require that you weigh the eggs in toto, but every consumer recipe I've ever seen just list number of (large) eggs.

I grabbed a pack of eggs and took a more careful look. As far as I could tell, the sizes ranged widely (though I didn't grab the scale -- tonight's project). The more I thought, the more I realized that I actually know very little about egg sizes, variability, and when I do and don't use which size.

Here's the relevant chart from the US Dept of Agriculture's handbook on egg sizes and grades:

See the repeated use of "per dozen"? That significant variability in individual eggs is typical, because the eggs aren't weighed one at a time. (From talking to a couple of egg farmers here, I learned that most small-scale producers have greater size control than the bigger ones, a rare case in which consistency of product increases as scale decreases.)

So this all got me thinking about which egg sizes get used for what. When I'm teaching a cocktail class that includes eggs, I head out to a local farm and get a few smalls, but otherwise we only have large eggs in the house. It also got me thinking about what a large deviation of weights "three eggs" must have if you're not careful.

Given all the eggheads around here, I'll bet we can figure out a lot more about the weight and size of these little buggers.

[lancastermike]

I only ever buy and use large eggs. If a reciepe gives weight or volume I may weigh them out. But if it says eggs by number I use large. I have found that most US cookbooks I have always call for large eggs.

[mkayahara]

I almost always use size large eggs, even with cocktails, mostly because I don't drink that many flips, and it seems a shame to buy a dozen size small eggs and only use two for drinks. For pancakes, I always weigh out the eggs first, then scale all the other ingredients accordingly, using modified ratios from Ruhlman's Ratio. Same for angel food cake. Otherwise, I don't usually bother weighing the eggs; I just assume that they'll average out in the end. Then again, I've never been much of a baker.

[Anna N]

Always used to buy extra large eggs and never noticed any issues but then I almost never bake. When our supermarkets were competing on the essentials then large size eggs became a far better buy and I made the switch. They no longer compete but I have stuck with the large size.

[Mjx]

Unless I can't find them, I only get extra-large ones. Often, however, I'm stuck buying 'large' or 'large/extra large' eggs, which means two or three different size eggs in the carton (occasionally, I have no choice but the boxes marked 'M-L-XL'). I don't even know whether Danish size standards are vague, recommended guidelines, or what; I sometimes think that they just get a batch of eggs and call the largest 'extra large', regardless of size (I'm not kidding; I've used 'extra large's here that are about the size of a medium egg), and take it from there.

This used to bother me incredibly, but eventually, after a few despairing bouts over probable outcomes, I forced myself to stop worrying about this, because oddly enough, it didn't seem to make much difference in the results, and the differences have not been consistently tied to whether or not I used the correct size (as per the box, that is).

For egg-size-weights to be useful, they would have to be the shell-less weights, and when whole eggs are involved (rather than separate whites/yolks), the eggs would have to be throughly beaten before weighing for use, in order to preserve the original white:yolk ratio.

The lack of an international standard, and the fact that I've got cookbooks from several different countries has contributed to my continuing, when confronted with an ingredient list that includes 'two and a half extra-large eggs' to essentially go 'la la la...', and just reach for the largest in the fridge.

Edit: I see that what are called XL eggs in the EU are supposedly equivalent to jumbo eggs in the US. I had no idea, and this means that I've been using jumbo eggs in recipes that call for XLs, without any consistent difference in results.

This article--www.pjbs.org/ijps/fin1033.pdf--describes a way of predicting shell weight from that of the entire egg (p. 2, column 2); if one were to subtract the shell weight from the total weight, that would give the yolk+albumen weight without having to crack open a bunch of eggs, then figure out what on earth to do with them. Caveats: It appears that quail eggs were involved (may have significantly different shell:contents ratio than chicken eggs), and the authors may have been careless in their research, as they didn't care enough about the MS to have it copyedited... but I couldn't access any other relevant articles online.

Edited February 7, 2011 by Mjx (log)

[andiesenji]

I get most of my eggs from a local person who raises "fancy" chickens and the sizes vary somewhat so I weigh them before I select the ones for use in particular recipes.

I use eggs weighing 2 ounces each (the large size noted in your chart) for MODERN recipes.

If you have a recipe that was developed prior to about 1910, you have to take into account that the eggs were probably smaller before the development of "egg mash" commercial feeds that gave hens more nutrition in a food that was easier to digest.

When I began collecting old "receipts" I noticed that some of the old ones called for eggs by volume, i.e., a "gill" of eggs, a "pint" of eggs or even in one case a "quart" of eggs.

Measuring eggs this way allowed cooks to use eggs of all sizes as long as the volume was correct.

Some recipes specified 3 to 4 eggs, however the directions in many cases are minimal. I think they expected most cooks to know enough to add the three eggs and look at the result and add another if needed.

The eggs I get vary from what I would consider medium, all the way to jumbo but most fall between the large and extra-large size.

I use the bigger ones for eggy dishes that don't require precise measuring, omelets & etc., and those that fall around the "large" weight for baking but I break them into a cup and actually measure by weight - assuming 2 ounces per egg in the recipe.

I use the small and medium eggs when I have a recipe that specifies weight or total volume.

Sometimes he will bring me a basket of nothing but bantam eggs and I generally poach or hard boil them.

Edited February 7, 2011 by andiesenji (log)

[kayb]

I generally buy double-yolked eggs, as I'm fortunate enough not to have any cholesterol problems and I love the taste of egg yolk. Those babies are BIG -- bigger than a jumbo from the store, though they're sold at the farm-supply place as extra large. (They can't sell them as double-yolked, because sometimes there'll be a single-yolker that gets through.) In any event, I generally use them just like they were large, and enjoy the extra egginess they impart.

When I can find them, I love bantam eggs to hard-boil and use in Scotch eggs.

[Dave the Cook]

To me, freshness is more important than size. That means that if I'm buying at a supermarket (which is what I do most of the time) I want whichever size has the most turnover. In the US that's going to be large (stocks on hand 31 January 2001).

[runwestierun]

I use large chicken eggs if I am buying them from the store. In the spring, though, when I can get duck eggs, I use them solely for baking. I substitute them one for one in baking recipes, even though they are much larger. They also have more fat per gram of yolks, and more albumin per gram of white. They make cakey or bready things so much fluffier. They are a real treat. It's funny that it works to substitute them one for one, when I normally have to be a little careful about being consistant in recipes with chicken egg sizes.

[Katie Meadow]

When it comes to pancakes it's hard to imagine the size of the egg makes a huge difference. After all, when you look at a variety of pancake recipes the number of eggs to the amount of flour and milk doesn't appear to be very scientific, but varies a fair amount, no?

Recipes written within the last 20 years seem to call for large eggs if they specify the size. Can you even buy commercially sold small eggs any more? I'm not the most exacting baker, that's for sure, so I just buy whatever is sold as "large" and it works okay...that's the least of my problems when I bake. Even the eggs sold at the farmers' markets around here are large and conform to most commercial sizes.

I remember buying farm eggs when I lived in New Mexico in the late 60's and 70's. The dreamy pastel araucanas those days were more like Robin's eggs! At least that's how it seems through the looking glass.

[Chris Amirault]

When it comes to pancakes it's hard to imagine the size of the egg makes a huge difference. After all, when you look at a variety of pancake recipes the number of eggs to the amount of flour and milk doesn't appear to be very scientific, but varies a fair amount, no?

Like anything, precision is a goal for some people with some dishes and not a goal for others with those same dishes. My family likes the pancakes Just. So.

[DanM]

A local grocer occasionally has medium eggs on sale, so I pick those up for breakfast. For all other purposes, especially for recipes and formulas, I use large eggs. The oddball is carton pasteurized eggs which I measure at 1/4 cup per egg.

[qrn]

Co. around here started packing "Jumbo" size They seem much,much bigger than large, we buy em all the time, especially when on Macroon duty...

Bud

[Dianabanana]

My chickens lay eggs that vary in size, and, if buying from the store, I buy whatever's freshest, regardless of size. If I'm making a cake or something where volume is really crucial, I assume that the recipe author intends a large egg to have the standard volume of 2 ounces, and simply measure my eggs accordingly.

[Pierogi]

Rose Levy Beranbaum just did a blog post on her site about egg yolk sizes yesterday. Here would be the link: Real Baking with Rose

It would be the 2nd post that's up right now, so scroll down just a bit.

[Chris Amirault]

Here's the permalink to the specific blog entry on yolks. An excerpt:

More and more often, the proportion of yolk to white is less than it has been over the past decades. This means that a recipe dependent on many yolks in order to set or have the proper consistency may be significantly short on yolks if you go by just the specified number. I've found, occasionally, that when I measure or weigh 6 yolks I need to add as many as 3 more to have the needed amount. So be sure either to measure or weigh the yolks.

[OliverB]

I don't bake much (once a year maybe) where it would make a difference, but even then I just use what's in the fridge. I try to buy pasture raised at the farmers market, where the size can vary quite a bit in a box, in that case I'd see that I pick a couple that seem "about right". Interesting with the yolks too, as I've noticed that large eggs sometimes have a pretty small yolk, so for a recipe that requires accuracy, I'd get the scale out, but for most I use eggs it makes little difference. And I get the largest one

edit to add: I haven't had or seen a double yolk egg since I was a kid, are those available in the US? That would be fun to get at times.

Edited February 8, 2011 by OliverB (log)