Brown Eggs/White Eggs

[Andy M.]

For several months now, our go to super market has been pushing white-shelled eggs over brown-shelled eggs. For example, this week's flyer has white eggs at $0.69/Doz. while brown eggs are $1.39/Doz. That's double the price!

I know the difference is the type of chickens the eggs come from and that they are no different in flavor.

I assume it's because egg farmers have switched to white egg hens for some reason or other. Around eastern MA, brown eggs have always been prevalent with white eggs just showing up around Easter.

Has anyone in other parts of the country experienced this??

 

[CharlieD]

Interesting. Brown eggs here are of course available. But it is white eggs that are predominant.

 

[skilletlicker]

The average supermarket has 38,000 different products that all need to be differentiated in some way. The color of an eggshell may be meaningless but seems like a harmless advertising gimmick. Nefarious strategies abound on almost every shelf in the store.

I have no way of knowing what color eggs were most common in my area before the beginning of the agro-industrial era. I'm only 65 years old after all.

 

[Andy M.]

CharlieD and skilletlicker, do you see significant price differences between the two different egg colors?

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I don't see that big of a price difference, 5-10 cents at most. See bigger differences in free range and organic. I get my eggs from the farmer up the road $2 for a dozen and a half.

 

[CubsGal]

I've lived half my life in the Midwest and half in the south, and white eggs were definitely predominant in both places, at least at your average grocery store. That being said, I've been seeing a bit more brown in the last decade at regular grocery stores. I've only been shopping Whole Foods for about a decade, and they have always had about 50/50. I buy brown. My husband swears he can taste a difference and that brown are better. I can't see any taste difference, but the price difference isn't big enough for me to fuss over it, so I just go with it.

 

[skilletlicker]

I think brown eggs are about twice the price. White shell mass production eggs are usually "on sale" for about $.79 a dozen. I don't look closely at the Kroger alternatives because I don't trust the "organic" or "cage free" labels to represent better product quality or humane animal treatment.

I wish I had a farmer up the road. Or even decent access to a farmers market.

 

[GA Home Cook]

My bet is that chickens that lay white eggs are more productive, therefore cheaper per egg. Here is GA the browns are about 2X more expensive and I neither can tell the difference.

 

[Steve Kroll]

CharlieD and skilletlicker, do you see significant price differences between the two different egg colors?

I live in the same part of the country as Charlie and I don't see any price differences at all. Some stores carry mostly white eggs; others carry mostly brown. Around here color seems to be driven by the supplier more than any consumer demand for one over the other.

I usually buy whatever the store carries, and I couldn't even tell you which kind I have in the fridge at any given time.

 

[tenspeed]

There's no difference in the eggs. People in New England prefer brown eggs, so white eggs are less expensive (at least in New England).

 

[GotGarlic]

I've become addicted to eggs from friends with backyard chickens. They're all different colors. I think they're beautiful as well as delicious.

 

[Andy M.]

There's no difference in the eggs. People in New England prefer brown eggs, so white eggs are less expensive (at least in New England).

That's true. But giving them equal shelf space and pricing them so far apart is new.

 

[Cheryl J]

Those are pretty, GG. Every now and then I'm able to score a couple of cartons of those "Easter eggs", as my grandson calls them.

As far as my local supermarket eggs, they charge quite a bit more for brown eggs. I just go for the 18 packs of white, if I'm not able to get fresh eggs from the local farmers market or my car mechanic - I save egg cartons for both and get a good deal on fresh eggs in return. Reminds me, I have about 20 egg cartons I need to drop off to them pretty soon.

 

[Addie]

For those who would like to know:

Brown egg shell are thicker and stronger than white eggs. That makes a difference when you are cracking an egg and only want the yolk for the dish you are baking.

If you crack a white egg on the edge of the bowl, a piece of the shell is more likely to break off and end up in your egg. If you crack a brown egg on the edge of the bowl, this is not as likely to happen.

It is safer for you to crack the white eggs on a flat service. Also with white eggs, crack them into a small bowl. Should any shell fall into the egg, use the bigger piece of shell to get that small piece of shell out. The piece of shell will be drawn to the larger piece of shell.

In the Northeast, most farmers have Rhode Island Red hens. They lay the brown eggs.

If you don't believe me, just ask CWS. Her chickens lay all different colored eggs.

 

[dragnlaw]

Hate to burst a few bubbles here... in the chicken world there are only two colours of egg, white and blue. (I know nothing about ducks (usually green) or wild bird eggs, not to mention Emu eggs - WoW google them!)

Brown eggs are actually white eggs that have been coated with a varying layer of ...a brown dye! shortly before being laid! Crack open a brown egg and it is white inside. Rub a freshly laid brown egg and the colour will come off.

Crack open a blue egg and the inside of the shell is blue. If it is a green egg, or varying shades thereof: it is still blue inside and it is the same coating that has turned a white egg brown on the outside.

Flavour of an egg is strictly due to the diet of the chicken. "Free range chickens" with access to green grass and other herbage, bugs and other goodies, will have delicious, and rich looking, yolks. During winter months chickens fed a supply of heat producing corn (so to speak) will have yolks that are an incredible colour of almost orange/yellow.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Addie and dragn, I'm calling foul (fowl?) on both of your posts. Addie, the color of the shell does not determine the hardness of the shell. Per The Kitchn: If you've ever noticed that an eggshell seems tougher, it's because of the age of the chicken, and not the color of the egg. Younger chickens tend to lay eggs with harder shells, while older chicken lay eggs with thinner shells. In my time, I've run across some mighty tough white shells.

In that same article, dragn, the breed of the chicken (or the color of the hen's earlobes) is indicative whether they lay brown or white shelled eggs. Whether or not the last few layers of shell are "coated" by the hen's secretions just before laying, it comes out of the bird brown-shelled. And no one is out in the barnyard painting those things as they come out of the bird! There are also breeds that lay blue, green, and speckled eggs. When our kids were little, I would buy green-shelled eggs to serve up along with...ham.

If you want to read even more about brown hued egg shells, there is a lengthy article from a chicken momma: Which chickens lay brown eggs?

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Andy, I'm guessing that the store (Market Basket, perhaps?) is using the low price on white eggs as a loss-leader. Before we left for our trip, there was only a 20-cents difference between white and brown.

If you live near enough to an Aldi, I recommend you buy eggs there. The most recent price I paid was 53 cents (up from 47!) about a week before we took off. I've compared store-bought (MB), Aldi, and fresh farmers' market eggs side-by-side. Aldi eggs look way more like those fresh farmer's eggs than they do grocery store eggs...and taste really good, too.

 

[rodentraiser]

I don't know about color, but I do know that the Jumbo eggs (white) that I get at the supermarket have lots harder shells than the regular eggs.

 

[medtran49]

In the regular stores here, there are more white eggs than brown. We normally buy Eggland's best and I don't think they have anything other than white. On the rare occasions that we need eggs and 1 of the "premium" brands goes on sale that have white and brown, they are the same price. The place we buy fresh milk also has organic eggs. I don't remember how much they were, but they were a lot more than the grocery. And they were different colors like GG's pic.

 

[Rocklobster]

Try peeling a boiled brown egg..it is much harder to peel than a boiled white egg..that membrane under the shell is harder to get off...