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What size eggs are the best value!?

Martin Fisher

By Martin Fisher
in Kitchen Consumer

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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

Posted
Posted (edited)

What size eggs are the best value!?

The following egg relative value "magic number" formula disappeared from the American Egg Board website several years ago.

Hopefully preserved here for posterity.

Egg Image Added—Image Source: https://freesvg.org/

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EggShocked.JPG

Edited by DiggingDogFarm (log)
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~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

lindag

lindag

Posted
Posted (edited)

I usually buy jumbo size eggs, however some weeks ago this size  (Cascade from Illinois) suddenly disappeared from the shelves.  

 

Edited by lindag (log)
rotuts

rotuts

Posted
Posted

this is very interesting

 

but

 

I don't understand 

 

 

the magic number

 

divide by  8

 

interesting 

 

but  Id like to hear more

 

8

 

magic 

 

etc.

Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

The modern American Egg Board price comparison chart...

fuyA5Na.jpg

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~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

heidih

heidih

Posted
Posted

We usually buy large or extra large depending on the store. We use one per person for breakfast and then maybe for other meals come into play. I would prefer the farmers market but can not often get there They have pics of the hens.  This 18 count is $4.49 

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gfweb

gfweb

Posted
Posted

% surface area decreases as volume increases. So big eggs have less shell percentage  than little ones.

 

And little dogs get cold quicker than big dogs.

 

And I don't understand the magic number either @rotuts

 

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Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted

Since in my experience and I stress that, most American and Canadian baking recipes are based on large eggs, they were always my best supermarket buy regardless of price. I haven’t bought eggs in sometime as I am lucky enough to be given farm eggs. These can vary in size because they’re not graded but I have never had any issues. Most of them appear to me to be large. 

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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

Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted (edited)

Using Wegmans current conventional egg price:

XL eggs $1.99 per dozen

  L  eggs $1.79 per dozen

The price difference, 20¢ [Price Difference]

Price of smaller eggs ÷ 8=.22 [Magic Number]

Magic Number is larger than Price Difference...larger eggs are a better buy.

 

Egg price per ounce and pound:

XL $1.99 ÷ 27=0.0737¢ per ounce...per pound $1.179

   L $1.79 ÷ 24=0.0745¢ per ounce...per pound $1.19

 

 

 

Edited by DiggingDogFarm (log)

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

Duvel

Duvel

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Everyone knows duck eggs are the best value. No?

 

Nope. Foraged ostrich eggs ...

  • Like 1
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liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
Posted (edited)

 

2 minutes ago, Duvel said:

 

Nope. Foraged ostrich eggs ...

 

Not a lot of ostriches in China

Edited by liuzhou (log)

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

Free eggs are the best value! xD

  • Like 3
  • Haha 2

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
Posted
Just now, DiggingDogFarm said:

Free eggs are the best value! xD

 

Damn! I was just about to say that!

When I'm at my country house, my neighbour gives me her duck eggs. Unfortunately I don't get there so much these days.

  • Like 1

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
Posted (edited)
16 minutes ago, Duvel said:


Au contraire ...

 

Ok I see it now.  20,000 ostriches in a population of 1.4 billion people, billions more chickens, ducks and geese is what I call rare.

Like I said. Not a lot of ostriches in China.

Edited by liuzhou (log)

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

rotuts

rotuts

Posted
Posted

@DiggingDogFarm 

 

" Price of smaller eggs ÷ 8=.22 [Magic Number] "

" Magic Number is larger than Price Difference "

 

thank you for the demonstration

 

Is there an App for That ?

  • Haha 1
Duvel

Duvel

Posted
Posted
16 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

Ok I see it now.  20,000 ostriches in a population of 1.4 billion people, billions more chickens, ducks and geese is what I call rare.

Like I said. Not a lot of ostriches in China.

 


Yes, maybe their English is misleading (as is mine, sometimes). China has 20.000 ostrich farms ...

liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
Posted
17 minutes ago, Duvel said:


Yes, maybe their English is misleading (as is mine, sometimes). China has 20.000 ostrich farms ...

 

 

The number of farms is meaningless. How many  birds do these farms raise?

I still maintain ostrich as meat or eggs is virtually unheard of here.

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

"No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot"
Mark Twain
 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

Duvel

Duvel

Posted
Posted (edited)

Yes, I got your view earlier. But then again - it’s a pretty big country. And from my limited experience I had ostrich meat at HaiDiLao a couple of times and bought dried ostrich meat at Urumuqi. So, at least in same areas (probably close to the farms, so up north) it seems not too rare ...

 

For the farm size I can’t help much: in 1997, average farm size seemed to be ~200 birds. I would assume, in the last 20 years there has been some intensifying in farming efforts, so it might be larger now ...


37B7F40D-1862-4F6A-8422-8F0148D04768.jpeg.e86cdd068e7a4310122da2268220d966.jpeg

 

And before I start to browse the trade statistics, better back to the egg topic 😉

Edited by Duvel
Math sucks ... (log)
kayb

kayb

Posted
Posted

The farm eggs I get are $3.50 a dozen and seem to be mostly large, with a few mediums in each carton. They're worth it for the taste. If I'm baking something that calls for a lot of eggs, or making eggnog or creme anglaise or some such, I'll generally buy large supermarket eggs, which are usually somewhere between 79 cents and $1.25 a dozen.

Don't ask. Eat it.

www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com

blue_dolphin

blue_dolphin

Posted
Posted

I buy eggs at the farmers market from a couple who pasture their hens in an organic orange orchard. They are $7.00/dozen for large eggs and that's rather a splurge for me but I'm lucky that I can afford to make that choice to support a local, small business whose practices I value. 

Blindfolded, I 'm not certain I could taste a difference, but the beautiful deep orange yolks certainly add visual value to my plate!

A couple of stands away at the market, I could buy eggs from Apricot Lane Farms, aka 'The Biggest Little Farm.'  They price their chicken eggs at $14/dozen.  I have not tried them so my personal "magic number" must lie somewhere between seven and fourteen 🙃

  • Haha 1
Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted
30 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

I 'm not certain I could taste a difference, but the beautiful deep orange yolks certainly add visual value to my plate!

Worth a little extra but $14 a dozen?  I thought it was a goose that laid the golden egg. 

  • Like 3
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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

Spork

Spork

Posted
Posted
On 2/1/2020 at 6:11 PM, gfweb said:

...........And I don't understand the magic number either @rotuts

 


It’s simply 24/3, cost per 3 ounces. 
 

Maff can be hard. 

Tri2Cook

Tri2Cook

Posted
Posted
On 2/1/2020 at 6:24 PM, Anna N said:

Since in my experience and I stress that, most American and Canadian baking recipes are based on large eggs, they were always my best supermarket buy regardless of price.


Yeah, what she said. I very rarely eat eggs just as eggs. I mainly buy them for use in recipes, which almost invariably call for large. Since there is zero chance that I'm going to weigh the equivalent of the large eggs called for from the larger eggs that have a better yield/cost ratio and save the remainder for another use when cooking/baking at home, I would either be adding extra egg to the recipes or discarding the remainder. So, for my specific purposes, there is no value gained by using larger eggs.

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It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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