I stopped in at Vitamin Cottage (they sell organic produce and bulk foods in addition to vitamins) to see if they had rennet (they didn't) and picked up some eggs while I was there. Not these eggs. These eggs I just picked up a picture of.I checked around online, and found that fertile eggs don't have any added nutritional benefits. So why buy them?
There should not be any developed embryos in them if they were collected promptly and stored cold. If you were to find one that had reached the balut stage, you would be right to complain (unless you like balut).On a backyard chicken forum, I found that you can incubate these eggs if you get a batch that is not too far out from being laid and has not been kept below 50 degrees. But you'd get a much better success rate with eggs from a local farmer.
"The hens are ISA Browns or Bovans, and the roosters are 95 percent Hyline w-36 Whites." Whatever that means. ( I should clarify: that info came from the chicken forum, not the carton. These eggs are meant to be eaten, not incubated.)
These are Southern California chicken eggs, from Chino Valley Ranchers in Arcadia.
Again, why would one buy fertile eggs?
Probably an ancient Chinese secret, to...you know...give you power...make you strong. But only if you're a guy. :-)
ReplyDeleteThere are people, and I'm not one of them, who believe fertile eggs are healthier and have added benefits. And all the evidence that they are just the same won't convince them!
ReplyDeleteMy soon-to-be fresh eggs will be fertile, not because I planned it that way, but because 3 of my day-old "female" chicks turned out to be roosters.
I's say to have the info re breeds on the carton - that would be the main purpose for buying and after we got rid of the roosters here (for hassling the poor hens non-stop), I'd get a doz fertile eggs at a time from a friend and stick them under a broody hen..we even got some from the fridge and they were successfully hatched which I still cannot fathom! :)
ReplyDeleteVicki and Kathi, I believe that must be it.
ReplyDeleteSorry about your roosters, Kathi. I'm glad you commented; I thought you'd stopped blogging! You apparently fell of my reader when you migrated your blog.
Gina, I should clarify (and aded this to my post): The info about the chickens was not on the carton. One of the chicken forum members contacted the company to ask. These eggs are meant to be eaten, not incubated.
I don't know about fertile eggs, but I always make sure I buy eggs laid from uncaged chickens. Those chicken farms are absolutely brutal!
ReplyDeleteAbout rennet, Mike and I went on a rather arduous search for it one day in Denver. No health food stores had it, Marcyszk didn't have it (but they do have curds if you are wanting to make mozzarella). I finally bought it off of Amazon. It was really cheap (like 2 dollars or something) and it showed up right away.
One would want to eat fertile eggs if one were a weirdo who likes to think that one is actually eating a chicken embryo.
ReplyDeleteGross!