Does the size of the egg really matter?

November 15, 12:23 PMFood ExaminerEric Burkett

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Those of us who grew up on farms will probably prefer their eggs
brown, but there's absolutely no difference in the tastes of white
and brown eggs.

Does it matter which size egg you use in cooking? If you're following a recipe, yes, but if you're ad-libbing you're way through, probably not.

As a rule, most cookbooks and professional recipe web sites - whether they state it or not - will base their recipes on the use of large eggs. Some cookbooks do, helpfully, note their choice. Caprial Pence's "Caprial's Desserts," for example, states "We used grade A large eggs to test the recipes for this book". When a cookbook doesn't state a size preference, it's probably safe to assume they're using large eggs, as well.

For those of us condemned to buying our eggs at the store rather than getting them fresh from the hen, that's really not much of a challenge. Large is the most common of a wide variety of sizes. The American Egg Board points out that eggs come in several sizes: jumbo, extra large, large, medium, small and peewee. I have no idea how much a peewee egg weighs, but a large egg comes in at 2 ounces. Good to know.

So what happens if you're in the middle of baking and you realize - horrors! - your eggs are a different size? First, don't panic. Take several deep breaths and then remember the handy little factoid about the weight of large eggs I gave you in the previous paragraph. Knowing that a large egg weighs 2 ounces, measure out your eggs - you'll need to crack them open beforehand - until you have the equivalent number of eggs specified in the recipe (this is where a good kitchen scale comes in handy). You can also check out the equivalents chart posted on the AEB's website.

And if you're cooking eggs right now, I like mine scrambled, with whole wheat toast. Thanks.