Answers to
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Can you answer this age-old question –
which came first, the chicken or the
egg?
If you believe in the Bible, the chicken came first. "And the evening
and the morning were the fourth day. And God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth
abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the
earth in the open firmament of heaven’." Genesis 1:19-20. Chickens are a
type of fowl, so the Christian Bible says that chickens came first.
If you have a different religion, you might have a different belief about the
how the treasures of the earth came to be. In the science of evolution, both
chickens and eggs came before man. Since both the birds and the eggs were on
earth first, historians weren’t around to record which came first.
Whichever answer you gave, it’s okay. A chicken can’t be born without
a chicken egg and a chicken egg can’t be laid without a chicken. Both chickens
and eggs are important!
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Christopher Columbus was Italian. He came from the town of Genoa, Italy
which is also famous for salami. But, Columbus’ wife was Spanish and the
couple lived in Spain for some time. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of
Spain paid for his voyage. Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain on August 3,
1492. He brought the hens along on his second voyage the next year. The laying
hens first supplied eggs and then chicken meat for the hungry crew.
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To answer the question, you need to do these math problems:
365 (days in a year) times 24 (hours in a day) = X
(hours
in a year)
X (hours in a year) divided by 257 (eggs laid in a
year) = Y (hours to lay one egg)
The answers to the math problems are:
X = 8,760 hours in a year
Y = about 34 (34.085603) hours to lay one egg
The actual time it takes for a hen to make an egg and lay it is 24 to 26
hours. Then the hen rests about 30 minutes or so before starting to make another
one. In addition to resting about 1/2 hour each time an egg is laid, some hens
rest about every 3 to 5 days and others rest about every 10 days. Some hens
hardly rest at all. The resting times increase the total time to lay an egg. Altogether,
with all the resting times, the average hen lays about 5 eggs a week (52 weeks
in a year times 5 eggs a week = 260 eggs a year).
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If you said an egg is an oval, you’re right! The fancy math words to
describe an egg shape are oblate spheroid. The word spheroid means
that the egg is like a sphere, but isn’t exactly a sphere. That’s because an
egg isn’t perfectly round. The word oblate means that the poles of the
egg are flattened or depressed. So, an egg is a not-quite-round sphere with
flattened sides. You could say that it’s an oval with one end larger than the
other. Now that you know this, can you draw an egg?
To draw an egg, you can start with a circle. Then, pretend that it’s a
round water balloon. You can pull on the top and bottom of the balloon (use
your pencil to stretch out the ends, make them longer). Or, you can push in
on the sides (move the lines forming the sides closer toward the center).
Either way, you’ll get an oval that’s like an egg.
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Grade AA is best for frying and poaching, but A is okay,
too. Because the
whites are more firm, grade AA or A eggs will have better shapes when you break
them out. They won’t spread out as much in the pan when you fry them. There
won’t be as much white that breaks off from the egg and forms "angel
wings" in the water when you poach them. Grade B eggs would spread out a
lot if they were fried and a lot of the white would float off into the water if
they were poached.
Grade A is better for hard-cooking. Because the smallest air cells are in
grade AA eggs, the membranes just inside the shells are very tight up against
the shells. This makes it harder to peel off the shells without taking some of
the whites along with the shells. Because the thinnest whites are in grade B eggs, the yolks sometimes move around inside the eggs. This can cause the yolks
to be off center. Off-center yolks can make pretty funny looking hard-cooked egg
slices or deviled eggs. Grade A shells will usually be easier to peel than grade AA and
grade A yolks are more likely to be centered than grade B.
Any grade can be used for scrambled eggs, omelets, quiches and baked goods or
any other recipe in which the shape of the egg isn’t important. Once you
beat them up, all the different grades of eggs will work the same in a recipe.
It doesn’t matter if their whites are thick or thin or their yolks are tall or
flat. Grade B eggs don’t look as pretty as grade AA or A, but they have the
same good nutrition. You won’t usually find grade B eggs in the stores. Some
are used by bakeries or restaurants, but most are made into egg products.
No matter what grade, eggs need to be kept in the refrigerator whenever you’re
not cooking or eating them. Refrigerating eggs keeps their quality high for a
longer time. If you leave eggs out at room temperature, their quality will go
down faster. When the quality goes down, the eggs’ air cells grow, their
whites thin and their yolks flatten. Scientists say that a day a room
temperature will cause an egg’s quality to go down as much as a whole week in
the refrigerator.
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Many of the 100 ways to cook eggs are just different ways of using the basic
methods of cooking eggs. The basic methods are:
Fried (cooked in a pan on a burner)
Over-easy (turned over in the pan to cook both sides, with the second side
cooked lightly)
Over-hard (turned over in the pan to cook both sides, with the second side
cooked as much as the first)
Sunny-side up (cooked in a pan with a lid on one side only)
Basted (cooked with the cooking fat spooned over the top)
Steam-basted (cooked in a pan with a lid and a little water to make steam)
Scrambled (beaten with milk and cooked in a pan on a burner while the
cook stirs)
Omelet
French Omelet (beaten with water, cooked in a pan on a burner until it’s a
circle, then folded or rolled)
Puffy Omelet (made with separately beaten egg whites and yolks so it has lots of air, then cooked in a pan both on a burner and in the oven)
Frittata and Tortilla (Italian and Spanish omelets cooked with all the ingredients in the omelet, cooked in a pan on a burner and sometimes flipped
over in the pan to cook the second side, or covered with a lid to finish
cooking, or finished in the oven or under the broiler, or made like a French omelet)
Cooked-in-the-Shell
Hard-cooked (cooked in very hot water until the white and yolk are both
solid)
Soft-cooked and Coddled (cooked in very hot water until the white is set and
the yolk starts to thicken but isn’t hard)
Poached (cooked out of the shell in simmering water or another liquid)
Baked (eggs alone or eggs
broken into a sauce or a nest of other foods and baked)
Oven-baked (baked in a dish in the oven)
Range-top-baked ("baked" in a pan with a lid on a burner)
Custard
Baked (eggs beaten with milk and other ingredients and baked in the oven)
Sweet (eggs beaten with milk, sugar and flavorings)
Cup custard (baked in a small glass cup)
Pie (baked in a pie plate with a crust, crumbs or another food on the bottom)
Pudding (custard ingredients stirred together with bread, rice, tapioca or other foods and baked in small glass cups or a casserole dish)
Savory (eggs beaten with milk and other foods)
Quiche (a custard pie baked in a pie plate or quiche dish with a crust,
crumbs or another food on the bottom and unsweet ingredients, like vegetables or
cheese, instead of sugar in the custard)
Timbale (a little quiche baked in a small glass cup, usually without a crust)
Strata (an unsweet custard with layers of bread or another grain food plus flavoring foods, usually baked in a casserole)
Soft, stirred (eggs beaten with milk, sugar and flavorings and cooked in a
pan on a burner until it’s a thick, pourable sauce)
Meringue (beaten egg whites and sugar)
Hard or Swiss (dried in an oven until all the liquid is gone)
Soft or Pie (baked or dried in an oven until it’s
marshmallowy)
Italian or boiled frosting (cooked in a pan on a burner until it’s
marshmallowy and spreadable)
Souffle (a sauce plus separately beaten egg whites and yolks and
flavoring foods)
Hot (flavored with sweet or unsweet foods and baked in the oven until browned
and puffy)
Cold (usually flavored with sweet foods, mixed with gelatin and chilled until
set)
Sauce or Dressing
Mayonnaise dressing (oil, lemon juice or vinegar and seasonings thickened and held together by egg yolks)
Hollandaise sauce (butter, lemon juice and seasonings thickened and held together by egg yolks)
Caesar dressing (oil, vinegar, garlic and other seasonings thickened and held together by eggs)
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You can make many other egg dishes by changing the basic methods a little.
For example, you can make a Fried Egg Sandwich by putting a fried egg
between slices of bread and adding other sandwich ingredients. Or you can make Picture-Frame
Eggs, Toad-in-the-Hole or Bull’s-Eye by cutting a hole in a slice of bread
or a waffle and frying an egg in the hole.
To make French Toast, start out beating the eggs just like you would
for scrambled eggs. Then, dip bread slices in the beaten eggs and cook the bread
like you would cook fried eggs. If you put savory sandwich ingredients between
French toast slices before you cook them, you’ll have a Monte Cristo
Sandwich, a Croque Monsieur or a Croque Madame.
For an Italian-style treat, you can make Spaghetti Carbonara by
heating spaghetti and crumbled cooked bacon, then scrambling in some eggs.
Chinese-style Fried Rice is made the same way using cooked rice, bits of
cooked meat or vegetables, soy sauce and scrambled eggs. Add Oriental
ingredients to an omelet mixture and cook it in a small circle to make Egg
Foo Yung patties. Or swirl scrambled eggs into chicken broth to make Egg
Drop Soup.
Fancy Eggs Benedict is simply poached eggs with slices of Canadian
bacon sitting on English muffin halves and topped with a Hollandaise sauce.
Instead of poaching eggs in water, some cooks like to poach an egg in soup for a
hearty meal in a bowl. Shirred Eggs are very comforting and are easy to
make by cooking eggs with milk in a pan, then sprinkling them with bread crumbs.
Eggs Florentine can be fried, poached or sliced or wedged hard-cooked
eggs sitting on plain cooked spinach or creamed spinach. Huevos Rancheros
are fried or poached eggs sitting on a tortilla spread with salsa and topped
with shredded cheese. You can even make an Egg Pizza by topping a pizza
crust or an English muffin half with pizza ingredients and scrambled eggs or
hard-cooked egg slices.
There are all kinds of other things you can do with hard-cooked eggs. Some
people like Egg Salad made by stirring together chopped hard-cooked eggs,
a dressing and flavoring ingredients. Other people like to put chopped, sliced
or wedged hard-cooked eggs into green salads or potato or macaroni salads. Deviled
Eggs are easy-to-make favorites, too. Just mash hard-cooked egg yolks with a
fork and stir them together with a dressing and flavoring ingredients. Then,
spoon the yolk mixture into hard-cooked egg white halves.
You can also stir chopped hard-cooked eggs into a white sauce (a milk sauce
thickened with flour) to make Creamed Eggs. If you mash the yolks
separately and sprinkle them on top of Creamed Eggs, you’ll have Eggs
Goldenrod. Or, with sunny hard-cooked eggs, you can make a hard-cooked Egg
Curry, Egg Submarine Sandwich, Egg Casserole or Egg Dip. Pickled Eggs are hard-cooked eggs soaked in a mixture of vinegar and
seasonings. Scotch Eggs are hard-cooked eggs coated with sausage and
crumbs and then baked or fried.
Some famous desserts are just fancy custards. Creme Brulee is a cup of
custard with sugar broiled on top until it’s crisp and brown. Creme Caramel
is custard with melted sugar on the bottom of the cup. When the custard is
turned upside down to get it out of the cup, the melted sugar flows over the
top. Flan is a very rich Creme Caramel baked in pie plate or a cake pan.
Stirred custard can be made with vanilla or other flavorings and served as a
thick, pourable Custard Sauce on fruit or cake. When stirred custard is
layered with pound cake, sponge cake or ladyfingers (finger-shaped pieces of
sponge cake) plus fruit and jam, it’s called English Trifle. If you use
just the yolks to make a soft custard, you can beat the whites and some sugar
into puffy meringue clouds. Then, if you poach the meringue puffs and float them
in the custard, you’ll have a Floating Island dessert. Or you can turn
a stirred custard into Eggnog by thinning it with milk or cream and
adding flavorings, if you like. You can also make a stirred custard into Custard
Ice Cream by adding cream and flavoring ingredients and freezing it.
Forgotten Cookies and Macaroons, Chocolate Mousse, Ice-Box
Cake, Marshmallows, frostings like Seven-Minute Frosting
and Royal Icing, a white fudge called Divinity and even the Nougat
center that’s in some candies are all recipes that start with a meringue.
Other sweets made with eggs are Cream Puffs and Eclairs and
most cakes like Angel Food Cake, Cheesecake, Chiffon Cake, Fruitcake, Jelly Roll,
Pound Cake, Sponge Cake and Torte. Eggs
are important in some pies, too. You need eggs for any kind of Chiffon Pie
or Cream Pie plus French Silk, Key Lime, Lemon Meringue, Pecan,
Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Pies.
Green Goddess Dressing, Thousand Island Dressing and Tartar
Sauce are all simply Mayonnaise with different seasonings and Béarnaise
Sauce is a seasoned Hollandaise Sauce.
Some recipes don’t have very many eggs in them and don’t look very eggy
when they’re done. But, without eggs, they wouldn’t work very well! Pancakes,
Crepes and Waffles are like this. Eggs also bind together the
small pieces of foods that are in Meatloaf, Croquettes and Fish
and Seafood Cakes. Eggs keep these foods from crumbling and falling apart
into pieces.
Wow! What a list! Since eggs can be used in so many different ways to make so
many different things, they’re called a versatile food. Because eggs are so
versatile, some chefs call eggs "the cement that holds together the castle
of cuisine" (a fancy word that means cooking).
With so many ways to eat eggs, your favorite way could be a recipe for
breakfast, lunch, dinner or a snack. It could also be a main dish, side dish or
dessert. Eggs can be used for any meal of the day and for any part of a meal.
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Lots of people like to color hard-cooked eggs for Easter. They’re also good
to eat any time of the year. You can eat them right after they’re cooked with
just a little salt or an herb or spice. Or, you can make them into an egg salad
sandwich or deviled eggs. This recipe will help you make hard-cooked eggs that
are tender (instead of rubbery) without a green ring around the yolk. Make
hard-cooked eggs with an adult. |
Hard-Cooked Eggs as many as you want or can fit in the bottom of a pan or
pot
| Foods you need: |
Kitchen things you need: |
| Eggs |
Saucepan OR pot and a lid
Kitchen timer |
How to cook
- Put the eggs in one layer on the bottom of the pan. Put the pan in the
sink. Run water into the pan until the water is 1 inch over the eggs. Put the
pan on a burner. Turn it to medium-high heat.
- Let the water come to a boil. Put the lid on the pan when the water is
boiling. Move the pan onto a cold burner. Set the timer for 15 minutes for
Large-sized eggs (or for 12 minutes for Medium-sized eggs or for 18 minutes
for Extra Large-sized eggs).
- Put the pan in the sink when the time is over. Run cold water into the pan
until the eggs are cool. Put the eggs into the refrigerator if you’re going
to use them later or peel them if you’re going to use them right away. Be
sure to use all the cooked eggs up before a week is over.
How to peel
- Gently tap a cooled egg on the countertop or table until it has cracks in
it. Roll the egg between your hands until the cracks turn into small crackles all
over the egg.
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Use your fingers to start peeling off the shell at the large end of the
egg. If you need to, you can hold the egg under running cold water or dip it
in a bowl of water to make peeling easier. Throw out the pieces of eggshell
when the egg is all peeled. You can eat the egg or use it in a recipe when it’s
peeled.
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People who say "it’s hot enough to fry an an egg on the sidewalk"
are usually ‘eggs’aggerating or overstating the facts. They want you to
understand that it’s very, very hot. The truth is that most foods need to
reach a pretty high temperature before they’re cooked. Eggs need to reach
144 to 158 degrees Fahrenheit before they’ll turn from a liquid to a solid. A
sidewalk would have to be awfully hot to fry an egg.
Sidewalks are not very clean. So, if you see someone try to fry an egg on the
sidewalk, don’t eat the egg! When they’re cooked in a pan on a burner, fried
eggs are good to eat and very popular. But, the top egg favorite of both kids
and adults is scrambled eggs. They’re easy to make, too.
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Just about everybody likes scrambled eggs. Some kids like them plain or with
shredded cheese sprinkled on top. Other kids like to eat them with a little
catsup or salsa. You can eat them with anything you like as long as your parents
say it’s okay. If you don’t want to use a plate, spoon the cooked eggs into
a pita bread pocket or onto a tortilla and roll it up. Scrambled eggs puff up
and get spongy in a microwave.
Scrambled Eggs for 1 or 2 kids
| Foods you need: |
Kitchen things you need: |
| 2 eggs |
Small bowl |
| 2 tablespoons milk |
Fork |
1 teaspoon butter or cooking oil
OR cooking spray |
7- to 8-inch omelet
pan
OR skillet |
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Pancake turner |
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Plate |
- Break the eggs into the bowl. Add the milk. Beat with the fork until the eggs
and milk are blended and you can’t see any streaks of egg white any more.
- Put the butter or oil in the pan. OR coat the pan evenly with the spray. Put
the pan on a burner. Turn the heat to medium. Let the butter melt and cook a
little bit. Sprinkle a few drops of water into the pan. The pan is hot enough
when the water sizzles and dances in the pan.
- Pour the beaten eggs into the pan. The eggs will start to set. Turn the
pancake turner upside down and gently pull it across the bottom and sides of the
pan. Keep pulling the pancake turner through the eggs until they’re thick and
you can’t see any more liquid in the pan. Don’t stir all the time or the
eggs will break into tiny pieces.
- Lift the eggs out of the pan onto the plate with the pancake turner when they’re
done.
Microwave Scrambled Eggs for 1 or 2 kids
| Foods you need: |
Kitchen things you need: |
| 2 eggs |
10-ounce custard cup
OR small bowl |
| 2 tablespoons milk |
2 forks |
| 1 teaspoon butter, if you want it |
Plastic wrap |
- Break the eggs into the cup. Add the milk. Beat with one of the forks until
the eggs and milk are blended and you can’t see any streaks of egg white any
more. Add the butter, if you want it.
- Put the cup in the microwave oven. Close the oven door. Set the microwave
to cook on full power for 1 minute. Open the oven door when the microwave
timer says 30 seconds are left. Stir the eggs with the second fork. Close the
oven door and start the oven again. Open the oven door and stir again when the
30 seconds are over.
- If the eggs are thick and you can’t see any more liquid in the cup, take
the cup out of the oven. If the eggs are runny, close the oven door. Set the
microwave to cook on full power for 30 seconds. Open the door when the 30
seconds are over. If the eggs are still runny, cover the cup with plastic
wrap. Let the eggs sit in the covered cup for about 1 minute until they’re
done.
- Set the oven timer for 2 minutes to let the cup cool a little. You can peel
off the plastic wrap and eat the eggs right out of the cup when the cup is
cool enough to touch.
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To answer the questions, you need to do these math problems:
38 (total pounds of eggs per person per year) divided by 1 1/2
(number of pounds for a dozen Large-sized eggs) = X (number of dozens of
Large-sized eggs for one person for one year)
X times 12 (number of eggs in a dozen) = Y
(number of Large-sized
eggs for one person for one year)
The answers to the math problems are:
X = 25 1/3 (25.333) dozens of Large-sized eggs per person per year
Y = 304 (303.999) Large-sized eggs per person per year
Egg consumption is increasing in America, too. In 1991, the average American
ate 233.5 eggs during the year. Last year, each American ate 245 eggs.
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The answers to the math problems are:
X = 1,800 eggs broken in one minute
Y = 30 eggs broken in one second
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1. Lent
2. Spring and Easter
3. Egg Salad Week
4. National Egg Month
5. World Egg Day
6. Thanksgiving, Hannukah, Christmas and New Year’s Eve
| Question |
| A. Time to celebrate the nutrition, versatility, convenience and economy of
eggs |
| B. The second best time of the year for egg sales |
| C. A time when eggs represent life and rebirth |
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D. A good time to try an egg recipe from another country
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E. Time to enjoy all the tasty things you can do with hard-cooked eggs
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| F. A time when many Christians eat eggs, fish and vegetables |
1-F — Lent
Each year, Lent is the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter,
except for Sundays. Christians believe that Christ fasted for 40 days before he
was crucified. To honor Christ’s sacrifice, early Christians ate no meat,
eggs, milk, cheese or cooking fats for 40 days during Lent. Today some
Christians now fast only on Fridays and give up only meat. Instead of meat, Lent
meals are often based on eggs, fish and vegetables. There are so many different
ways to make eggs that Lenten meals can be different every day.
2-C — Spring and Easter
March, April and May are spring months. Easter Sunday is sometimes
in March, but is in April most years. During springtime and at Easter, it’s a
tradition for people of many different lands to decorate eggs. Many centuries
ago, the decorated eggs stood for the return of new life to the earth when
winter turned into spring. To Christians, the eggs later came to represent
Christ’s Resurrection from the tomb at Easter. Eggs are still used as a symbol
of rebirth today. Both children and adults have fun decorating eggs and eggs are
used in games, like egg hunts and egg rolls, too.
3-E — Egg Salad Week
Egg Salad Week is the full week right after Easter Sunday every
year. In many, many U.S. homes, families decorate hard-cooked eggs for Easter.
After they’re cooked, hard-cooked eggs should be kept in the refrigerator and
used before a week is over. The week after Easter, many people turn their
decorated hard-cooked eggs into egg salad sandwiches. If egg salad isn’t your
favorite, you can celebrate Egg Salad Week by making deviled eggs or another
hard-cooked egg recipe that you like.
4-A — National Egg Month
May is National Egg Month. More eggs are sold in America during the
Easter season – usually in April – than at any other time of the year. Then,
sales go down, but the hens keep on laying eggs. After Easter, because the
supply of eggs is normal but the demand for eggs is less, their price ordinarily
goes down. Starting in May and running through the summer, eggs are usually an
even better bargain than they are the rest of the year. Through the American Egg
Board and other groups, the American egg industry celebrates National Egg Month
in May to remind home cooks how good eggs are. Egg farmers want cooks to
remember that eggs are nutritious to eat and simple to make in many different
ways. . . plus eggs are especially easy to afford from May until the end of
summer.
5-D. World Egg Day
The second Friday of October is World Egg Day each year. Eggs are
popular all over the earth. People of many different cultures eat and enjoy
eggs. There’s even an International Egg Commission (IEC) that holds meetings
for egg industry people from around the world. The IEC members declared World
Egg Day so all the egg farmers on the globe could tell cooks about eggs at the
same time.
Although most people enjoy eggs, they’re sometimes served a little
differently from country to country. For example, an omelet might be filled with
ham and cheese in America. In France, though, an omelet might be filled with
white asparagus and topped with Hollandaise sauce. A Spanish omelet is called a tortilla
and often has potatoes inside. An Italian omelet is a frittata and all
its filling ingredients are cooked right along with the eggs. Chinese egg foo
yung patties are small, thick omelets filled with bean sprouts and other
vegetables. In Japan, very thin omelets are cut into strips and tossed into soup
– just like noodles. If you’ve never had any kind of omelet except an
American one, World Egg Day might be a good time to try an omelet or a different
egg dish from another land. Check a cookbook for ideas or see the recipe
section here.
6-B — Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s Eve
The American celebration of Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of
November each year. Christmas is December 25 and New Year’s Eve is December
31. The date of Hanukkah changes each year but is usually around Thanksgiving
and Christmastime. All these times are happy occasions when families and friends
celebrate together. And, when families celebrate, eggs are often part of the
fun. In fact, the two-month period of November and December is the second best
time of the year for egg sales. Why do you think this is true?
Egg sales are high at the end of the year for two reasons. First, lots of
people visit their families and friends this time of year and they eat
breakfasts and brunches together. Eggs are often a big part of breakfast and
brunch menus. Eggs are also used in many side dishes – even the
stuffing in the Thanksgiving turkey. Eggs are a major ingredient in the
eggnog you might drink for a New Year’s toast or during the rest of the
holiday season, too.
Second, holiday time is baking time. Many traditional recipes made for
celebrations have eggs in them. Although it doesn’t look eggy, a Thanksgiving
pumpkin pie is really a baked custard pie flavored with pumpkin. Eggs also play
an important role in many cookies, cakes and other Christmas and Hannukah
treats.
You can find out how many eggs are in your holiday celebrations by asking
family cooks if you can see their traditional recipes. Then, just add the eggs
up. Happy counting!
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