Egg calculator

[Franci]

I often have jumbo eggs in the house and most recipes call for large eggs. I often bake European recipes. And what is a Large egg in American if more like a Medium egg in Italy.

Many  professional recipes break down the egg weight in yolks and whites.

I am thinking of doing an excel sheet to calculate my eggs. Unless such a thing already exist. Do you know any?

 

This is a link to Wikipedia egg weight in different parts of the world.

 

This is a break down for Italy, I guess the rest of Europe should be more or less the same. Could anybody confirm?

 

 XL (>73 g) white 40 g and yolk 22-25 g (although in the wikipedia link it says the shell is about 13% of the total weight including the shell and this is a little different)

 

 L (between 63 to 73 g)
white 30-35 g and yolk 20
 

 M (53-63 g)
white 33 g, yolk 17  g

 

S less than 53 g

 

I do actually miss my small french eggs, very convenient for egg wash!

 

Do you have a similar break down for eggs in the US?

Edited February 6, 2015 by Franci (log)

[AlaMoi]

this may or may not work...

[code]            USDA                                     EU Sizes     grams per egg           oz/doz   oz per egg	 grams per eggpeewee       15     1.25         35.4small        18     1.50         42.5                small        <53med          21     1.75         49.6                medium       53-63large        24     2.00         56.7extra large  27     2.25         63.8                large        >63-73jumbo        30     2.50         70.9                very large   >73 [/code]

ah.  it does work....  getting stuff to line up can be problematic.

[Franci]

That's great! Thanks, AlaMoi

[Franci]

Just to be precise. I'll add that the white is about 64-66% of the total weight, yolk 24-25%, shell 9-12%

 

Edit: trying to calculate with these percentages they come all very wrong. White usually much heavier...

Edited February 6, 2015 by Franci (log)

[andiesenji]

This link is to a page with a little more detailed information about converting from one size egg to another and some advice about the use of eggs.

 

When I was catering I used to buy pasteurized whole eggs and/or egg whites in 1-gallon carton - also available in half-gallon or in larger containers. 

Every carton had a conversion table on the side for VOLUME (per egg) but most of my recipes for food service were by weight, which made it so simple to use them.

If my memory serves me right, the conversion for one large egg was 50 ml and 100 ml of egg whites (for meringues) equaled the whites from 3 eggs. 

 

Now I mostly get my eggs from a friend who raises "fancy" chickens and the sizes vary considerably - he just brings a basket of the eggs all mixed together so when I am baking and need more precise measurements for a tricky recipe, I simply break the approximate number of eggs I will need and the measure out till the weight is correct.  Any "leftover" egg is used for egg wash or ??

Edited February 6, 2015 by andiesenji (log)

[Franci]

Thanks, Andie, that's helpful.

 

Today I tried to weight a couple eggs and I came with the following %: white 64% of total egg, yolk 24-25% and shell 12%, so it's accurate enough what I found in before. With that in mind it should be pretty easy to convert eggs.

[andiesenji]

Many of my old "receipts" are from the 19th century (some even earlier) and the eggs back then were much smaller than those produced by hens today.  I have one recipe that calls for 15 eggs but I use 10.

 

When I was a child in the '40s, we had some chickens that laid large eggs (Barred Plymouth Rock) but many others such as the Rhode Island Reds, that laid smaller eggs - probably the equivalent of today's medium eggs.

We did have a flock of Jersey Giants - black or dark gray - that had to be kept separate from the others because the rooster was really a tough bird and he wanted ALL the hens for himself. 

They were raised mainly for meat but of course they laid eggs and their eggs were very large - brown and sometimes speckled with red.  We loved them for hard-boiled because they were so big. 

There was an egg rack in the pantry and the eggs that were too small to stay in the rack (bantams and new-laying hens) were just placed in a wire basket and used for things like custards and such where the cooks were used to eyeballing the amount of egg and with a huge family, many were used daily. 

One of my "chores" was to help gather the eggs and some of the chickens were quite easy - such as the Jerseys but some of the others did not like me reaching under them to "steal" their eggs.  After I got pecked to the point it drew blood, my grandpa made a leather "sleeve" for me to wear to protect my arm.  I'm sure it frustrated some of the hens to have me ignore their pecking but I got the eggs.

 

I loved to crack the eggs into a bowl and count them - I learned practical arithmetic this way.  Grandpa's cook did not trust me to separate eggs until I was a little older and then she got an egg separator from the Jewel-Tea man and taught me how to use it.  I still have one just like it - a ceramic saucer with two slits formed around the center depression. 

Edited February 7, 2015 by andiesenji (log)