Chicken eggs

Description

People can eat the eggs of absolutely every bird, but chicken eggs remain the most popular. Among the reasons is the availability of the product, usefulness, high nutritional value. They are good in various forms, are widely popular in cooking, and have a rich history. But, as they say, first things first.

Eggs are common and traditional food; chicken eggs are the most common. Laying hens lay one (less often two) eggs once a day, the most useful are eggs from young domestic hens. They are small in size but have a pronounced “egg” taste.

Calorie content of a chicken egg

The calorie content of a chicken egg is 157 kcal per 100 grams of the product. You should bear in mind that the average weight of one egg varies from 35 to 75 g, so the calculation of calories will be appropriate.

Egg and cholesterol

A healthy person can eat up to 3 eggs per day. If a person has an elevated blood cholesterol level, nutritionists recommend eating 2-3 eggs per week.

How to determine the freshness of eggs

There are several ways to know about the freshness of eggs. But knowing such a thing that the longer the egg is stored, the easier it becomes, we chose the simplest option – to lower the egg into a glass of water.

If the egg drowned, then it is the freshest, 1-3 days since the chicken laid it; if the egg floats, but does not rise high, then the chicken laid the egg about 7-10 days ago. And if the egg is left to float on the surface of the water, the chicken laid such an egg more than 20 days ago.

Each egg is covered with a film from nature, which allows the eggs to be stored for a long time. Therefore it is not the best idea to wash it off before storing the eggs. Before preparing the eggs, it is better to wash off the film with water.

Chicken egg and weight loss

Many have heard about the benefits of chicken eggs and their beneficial effect on losing extra pounds. “Two boiled eggs for breakfast – excess weight is gone” is a familiar slogan, right? If you think about it, then not everything is so simple.

Recall that bodybuilding athletes who are critical of any food, during the period of “drying” of the body, consume only proteins, ignoring the yolks, in order to get pure protein and get rid of cholesterol.

Therefore, before unconditionally believing in quick weight loss on some chicken eggs, you need to understand whether this is useful. However, there are nutritional systems based on chicken eggs’ consumption and lead to real weight loss.

For how long to cook chicken eggs

Chicken eggs you should boil for different times depending on which egg you want to get in the end: hard-boiled or soft-boiled. When cooking, you can add salt to the water so that the egg does not leak if it cracks. The time required for boiling eggs is indicated below:

• soft-boiled egg – 2-3 minutes;
• egg “in a bag” – 5-6 minutes;
• hard boiled egg – 8-9 minutes.

Chicken egg weight

The reference chicken egg weighs approximately 70 grams – this is a selected egg. But there are other categories of chicken eggs, classified by weight:

• an egg weighing 35 – 44.9 grams – category 3;
• egg weighing 45 – 54.9 grams – category 2;
• an egg weighing 55 – 64.9 grams – category 1;
• egg weighing 65 – 74.9 grams – selected egg;
• an egg weighing 75 grams and above is the highest category;
• How much a chicken egg costs depends on the category.

Shelf life of chicken eggs

The shelf life of chicken eggs is no more than 25 days at temperatures from 0 to 25 degrees Celsius, at negative temperatures from -2 to 0 degrees Celsius, chicken eggs you may store for no more than 90 days. If eggs are stored in a refrigerator, which is often opened or thawed, their shelf life reduces due to the various bacteriological processes. It is not good to eat eggs stored in a regular refrigerator for more than 25 days.

The benefits of chicken eggs

The use of chicken eggs contains many vitamins and macro and microelements necessary for the body. The chicken egg contains the following useful vitamins: A, B1, B2, B5, B9, B12, D. Besides, the chicken egg contains iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, potassium.

Chicken eggs help improve the heart and human vision’s functioning, strengthen bones, and protect against cancer. Eating moderate amounts of chicken eggs (no more than 2 per day) contributes to the overall strengthening of the human body, increasing its immunity and normalizing all processes.

Besides, the use of eggs lies in the fact that they are a source of energy for the human body – the nutritional value of chicken eggs is about 157 kcal per 100 grams of the product. And the calorie content of 1 chicken egg weighing 70 grams is about 110 kcal. And given that the cost of a chicken egg is pretty low, it is also an affordable energy source for the human body.

Harm

The harm of chicken eggs is that they are still high in calories and contain cholesterol, which, if consumed excessively daily, can lead to obesity. Eating more than 2 eggs per day is not recommended. Also, chicken eggs can be harmful when eaten raw, as they can cause salmonellosis.

Therefore, we highly recommend subjecting chicken eggs to heat treatment. Also, chicken eggs are harmful to people with liver stones, as they can cause colic.

Product history and geography

Indians were the first to domesticate chicken, so they, for the first time, tried the eggs in India. This happened about two and a half millennia ago. But the capabilities of the hens were very different. A domesticated hen could lay about 30 eggs per year, and 200 eggs are not the limit for a modern laying hen. This is a direct indicator of the work of breeders.

In Europe, the Romans became the pioneers. They began each meal with chicken eggs and ended with fruit. Such breakfast had a more symbolic meaning; they associated an egg with a successful start of a new business. Although not only the Romans gave them a special meaning.

Many peoples considered the amazing shape to be the Universe prototype, believed that the egg had a beneficial effect on the fertility of the land, and brought it as a gift to the gods and each other. They began to paint eggs back in pagan times; later, it became the prerogative of Easter’s religious holiday and a symbol of the resurrection of Christ.

Among the Eastern Slavs, eggs participated in every ritual. On the day of the first grazing of cows after winter, each shepherd always took an egg with him, believing that his cow would become the same round-faced and bring an excellent offspring.

Today people eat them all over the world. For a long time, Japan was considered the leader, here people consumed 1 egg per one inhabitant per day, then Mexico took the lead with 1.5 pcs.

Chicken egg taste qualities

The taste of a product depends entirely on the taste of the yolk, which, in turn, is a reflection of the quality of the feed. That is why homemade eggs are much tastier than store eggs. Many manufacturers are tricky and especially add spices to chicken feed.

In order for eggs to retain their taste and useful qualities, they must be properly stored. They must be in a cool, dark place. The shelf life corresponds to the labeling. Boiled in shells eggs you can store stored no more than 4 days, proteins in sealed packaging – no more than two.

It is best to wash the product immediately before cooking or heat treatment, so as not to wash off the protective film from the shell.

Cooking applications

Eggs are widely popular in cooking. They can be good as a standalone product or become part of a culinary masterpiece. They can perfect fried, boiled, baked, salted, and pickled. Not a single baked goods you can do without them. Besides they may become a part of salads, omelets, meringues, soufflés, casseroles, etc.

Even the well-known and favorite cocktail “Gogol-mogul” cannot be prepared without eggs. And the dish, prepared in an original way, when an egg is broken into boiling water, has received its own name “poached eggs”.

The largest scrambled eggs were cooked in Hungary. Its weight was 300 kg., And they used 5000 eggs to create it.