Super Eggy Egg

[rotuts]

sorry for the lame title.  this is very hard to describe :

 

from time to time i get an egg that has a pronounced extra eggy flavor.  I can't tie that flavor to something familiar  

 

but im sure from time to time everyone has had an egg that is stunning in its extra flavor.   this has to come from the yolk.

 

you can easily say , get free-range eggs  etc.  they may taste better but this is not that taste

 

why ?   I get it from time to time in plain-vanilla supermarket eggs.  I just had one.  its rare.

 

other info :   for a while I lived back in CA and got supermarket eggs from Safeway.  Jumbo.

 

as I understand it , Jumbo eggs comes from older hens.  

 

many of these eggs had double yolks.  and that super-eggy flavor was much more common in these eggs.

 

i don't think it free range , or the feed :

 

all these supermarket eggs come from hens bred for that purpose, must be fairly uniform  and eat the same diet 

 

Ive asked people who keep chickens and they say its the feed.   I don't think so.

 

anyone tasted this difference in run of the mill eggs and know anything about it ?

 

Im guessing there was to be an occasional minor hereditary difference in these supermarket chicken

 

hope someone vaguely understands the taste Im talking about.

 

wish i could get eggs like this more often.

 

and yes  there are free range chickens at a local farm and I get the eggs from time to time.

 

very nice eggs  but not the answer to the sort of eggy-ness Ive had.

[GlorifiedRice]

I love JUMBO EGGS

[shain]

From On Food and Cooking, by Harold McGee:

Quote

The white contributes the main sulfury note, the yolk a sweet, buttery quality.

The aroma produced by a given egg is slightest immediately after laying, and gets stronger the longer it’s stored before cooking. In general, egg age and storage conditions have a greater influence on flavor than the hen’s diet and freedom to range. [...] The unpredictable diet of truly free-range hens will produce unpredictable eggs.
[...] The most characteristic [compound] is hydrogen sulfide, H2S. [...] In a cooked egg it contributes the distinctively eggy note.

It’s formed predominantly in the white, [...] at temperatures above 140ºF/60ºC. The longer the albumen spends at these temperatures, the stronger the sulfury aroma.

Greater quantities of H2S are produced when the egg is older and the pH higher (the highly alkaline conditions in Chinese preserving methods, p. 116, also liberate copious amounts of H2S). Added lemon juice or vinegar reduces H2S production and its aroma.

 

The eggs I buy locally usually have an OK flavor, but on the few times I bought supermarket eggs, I had a few batches with no flavor at all. Can't remember having an extra strong egg.

[rotuts]

they are rare .  no H₂S  involved.

 

since I really can't describe the flavor , it hard to chase it down.

 

but you will know it when you taste it.

Edited December 4, 2016 by rotuts (log)

[chromedome]

Since it seems to be random, and to come in both mainstream/supermarket and small-producer eggs, individual variation between hens seems the likeliest answer. Presumably, if one had a small flock, over a period of years it should be possible to select for this. 

[rotuts]

i can only see this as a genetic variant that is rare.   commercial flocks would seem to be fairly uniform for economic reasons

 

the diet is carefully selected for yield ,  etc.

 

the Safeway Hens of the Jumbo fame have to be very different indeed from the NE Layers.

 

however , the taste that I can't quantify is identical and even the same ( ! ) every time Ive tasted it.