-By Bobby (Pictures by Meg)
Organic. Local. Seasonal. Environmentally Sustainable. These words are ubiquitous, admirable, cliché, self-congratulatory and almost guaranteed to be recited to you by the waiter at whatever “Contemporary American” restaurant you have visited recently. While I think that some restaurants are a little too self-righteous about the fact that my $32 entrée is not an out of season, overly processed food-like-substance that killed several species of fish on its journey to my table from North Korea…I am, for the most part, on board with the movement.
I like knowing that my roast beef comes from a bone-in- rib roast and was not formed from a meat slurry mold. I like knowing the origin of the food and that real care and thought were put into procurement and preparation of said food. However, the reason we like it is not because we are all consumed with being good stewards of the earth, its because we hear “Seasonal” “Local” “Organic” and we believe it is “Fresh” and “Better.”
This assumption that “Fresh,” “Local,” and "Organic” is better than “Hormone Induced” and “Factory Farmed” was put to the test in a Washington Post article by Tamar Haspel, where she used eggs as the subject of the experiment. I learned of this experiment while listening to NPR on my drive through the uninhabited stretch of highway between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh known as central Pennsylvania. The show was quite good, even though the women had an uncanny resemblance to the cast of Saturday Night Live’s Delicious Dish. You can listen here: Eggs on the radio (Splendid Table).
Both of the above links will tell you a simple story. There is no difference. Factory farmed, eggs that come from hormone induced super chickens TASTE the same as the eggs that come from the organically fed hen that lives in your backyard. Poultry scientists confirm that any differentiation is psychological, as chemically and structurally they are the same. After I told Meg (my girlfriend) about this experiment, she ran out to our local farmers market and bought some organic, sustainable, locally farmed eggs so we could recreate and independently verify the results. Here are our findings for your consumption:
I like knowing that my roast beef comes from a bone-in- rib roast and was not formed from a meat slurry mold. I like knowing the origin of the food and that real care and thought were put into procurement and preparation of said food. However, the reason we like it is not because we are all consumed with being good stewards of the earth, its because we hear “Seasonal” “Local” “Organic” and we believe it is “Fresh” and “Better.”
This assumption that “Fresh,” “Local,” and "Organic” is better than “Hormone Induced” and “Factory Farmed” was put to the test in a Washington Post article by Tamar Haspel, where she used eggs as the subject of the experiment. I learned of this experiment while listening to NPR on my drive through the uninhabited stretch of highway between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh known as central Pennsylvania. The show was quite good, even though the women had an uncanny resemblance to the cast of Saturday Night Live’s Delicious Dish. You can listen here: Eggs on the radio (Splendid Table).
Both of the above links will tell you a simple story. There is no difference. Factory farmed, eggs that come from hormone induced super chickens TASTE the same as the eggs that come from the organically fed hen that lives in your backyard. Poultry scientists confirm that any differentiation is psychological, as chemically and structurally they are the same. After I told Meg (my girlfriend) about this experiment, she ran out to our local farmers market and bought some organic, sustainable, locally farmed eggs so we could recreate and independently verify the results. Here are our findings for your consumption:
 |
| Visual Inspection - Factory Farmed Egg vs. Organic Egg |
The main way that our experiment differentiates itself from the others listed above is that we prepared our eggs over easy and not soft boiled. Oh… and we only had a very small sample size of four eggs, two participants, and did not control for a number of other variables that would likely be controlled for in a real experiment. Anecdotal as it may be, our results more or less confirmed the research listed above, with two large caveats: 1) Although we both took the taste test blindfolded, we could distinguish which was the farmers market egg and which was the factory farmed egg. 2) We both enjoyed the texture of the farmers market egg over the factory-farmed egg. In eating the farmer’s market egg, the word that came to both or minds was creamy.
.JPG) |
| Cooking - Organic Egg (Top) vs Factory Egg (Bottom) |
Both eggs were cracked, flipped and served at the same time. In both cases we determined that the farmer’s market egg had a more substantial texture, comprised of a creamy yolk and airy white that made the factory-farmed counterpart feel rubbery in comparison. For us the experiment begged the question; If you are deciding which one tastes better can you separate taste and texture?
.JPG) |
| Eating - Organic Egg (Top) vs Factory Egg (Bottom) |
In my opinion you cannot. Ultimately, the one that tasted better was the one we preferred to eat and that was a function of flavor and texture. And the winner was clearly the farmer’s market egg. Whether it was good enough to spend an extra $5.00 per week is a question for another time. Until then, (it pains me to say this) poultry scientist be damned, the local, organic, family farmed, environmentally sustainable egg was better, even if they tasted the same.
-Bobby
We've found the same thing in the way of hormone free, free range meats. the taste may be similar, but the texture always wins, hands down!
ReplyDeleteI've found that the freshness of an egg can make a big difference in texture as well. For the sake of experiment, I wonder if there's any way to control how long it takes to get the egg from the chicken to your table.
ReplyDelete