Egg Sizes

phormium

I have googled and am still unsure who if any official source governs the size of eggs, I have found many charts showing what the XL, L, M, S designations relate to but is this official/enforceable.

I was making a sponge cake yesterday, needed to separate 6 eggs, I had 3 from an existing carton of Class A Large eggs from well known supermarket and opened a new pack of Large eggs from same source for the second 3 eggs, the size difference was immediately apparent even before I cracked them, teeny tiny yolks in them! Would make a big difference to a recipe!

Now online it says Large should be between 63-73g, I have weighed several of the eggs left this morning and barely one made it over the 63g, some only 59/60g, this is falling into the medium class, if I wanted medium I'd have bought them! I have a very accurate scales that can weigh small amounts.

Is there any point complaining to the supermarket? Ideally I'd prefer to go straight to whatever authority if any controls this.

geographica

https://www.bordbia.ie/farmers-growers/member-status/scheme-members/egg-member-list/

the beer revolu

Professional bakers always weigh eggs/egg whites/yolks rather than relying on a number of eggs for a recipe. So, a recipe might contain 400g of whole eggs, for example.

phormium

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121448156#Comment_121448156

I used to do that when I got loads of eggs from a friend's chickens as they were all different sizes but when I pay for a certain size egg I would like to get that size and not a size that would have been cheaper!

It's fine to be weighing eggs if you are baking professionally but the average person buying eggs in the supermarket for making a cake at home is following standard recipes which say number of eggs and size, if I was baking professionally I'd be buying bulk cartons of already cracked whole egg/egg white wholesale. I doubt there is any homebaker weighing out the beaten egg other than in the case of having your own chickens.

I have hundreds of cookbooks and I'd say I would be looking a long time to find one with a weight for the eggs! I actually do weigh egg whites for example for buttercream/meringue where it is important to be very accurate but I'm still being shortchanged, the egg white that used to weigh approx 40g from these eggs is nowhere near that now.

It's not even to do with baking, I'm making scrambled egg this morning for breakfast and I think I'll need 3 eggs worth rather than 2! Actually just thinking I should probably have posted this in Consumer Issues rather than Food.

airy fairy

Egg sizes in a decent coop would vary from day to day.

Buying and expecting the 'perfect' sized egg from supermarkets contribute towards indoor, caged hens, full of sores, no feathers, broken legs, who are culled after a year.

Take the time to weigh your free range eggs if size and quantity is important to you, rather than taking the longer length of time to complain to a supermarket or supplier.

the beer revolu

Yeah, op, I was just making a point of interest rather than offering a solution!

phormium

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121448378#Comment_121448378

Again, I take your point, but it's not the answer to my question. Regardless of my or any feelings towards the industry if there is an enforceable standard of weights for various classes of eggs then the supermarket should be adhering to it and not passing off medium eggs at large prices. If your litre of milk was short 100ml would that be okay to pay for a litre anyway!

Anyway I will call Bord Bia tomorrow and see what the story is, thanks for replies.

The Continental Op

Don't eggs dry out so a 60g egg could have been 64g when packed?

airy fairy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121449017#Comment_121449017

Eggs dry out unless refrigerated after point of lay, which they are not in most commercial settings. I'm sure you'll have a tough time trying to argue 4g between lay and 1 to 2 weeks later at point of sale, not to mention a discrepancy between different calibrated machines that weigh and size.

Dan Steely

I don't buy the eggs in our house but did I notice there is no longer a Small sizing for eggs? They bumped up the size label one size, what were small are now medium, medium now large etc. Could be wrong, just noticed no small on sale and the medium were very small.

the beer revolu

We need Rubadub to weigh hundreds of eggs across multiple producers and come back with results! I'm surprised they don't have that information already 😊

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121448156#Comment_121448156

Do we? I think you might be thinking of very specific recipes (like merginue) but for cakes etc you wouldn’t have the time to be weighing eggs out if whole

different matter when using a scale of whites & yokes!

the beer revolu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121451711#Comment_121451711

Well, that was my experience of professional bakers. Perhaps I shouldn't have used the word "always".

Stone Deaf 4evr

Its not an eggs-act science.