What’s the difference between brown eggs and white?

By Lori Bongiorno
From: http://green.yahoo.com/

(Photo: Getty Images)

The only difference between a brown and white egg is the color of the shell. Despite what you may have heard, one isn't healthier, more "natural," or more eco-friendly than the other. And there aren't any differences in nutritional quality, flavor, or cooking characteristics.

The color of the shell is merely a reflection of the breed of the hen. In general, but not always, hens with white feathers and earlobes lay white eggs and those with dark feathers and red earlobes lay brown eggs.

It may be surprising to learn that not all eggs are brown or white. For example, some rare chicken breeds, such as the Araucana and Ameraucana, lay blue and blue-green eggs.

There's one difference between brown and white eggs that you may notice at the grocery store. Chicken breeds that produce brown eggs, such as the Rhode Island Red, are larger and cost more to feed than hens that produce white eggs. So brown eggs may be a little more expensive than white, according to the Egg Nutrition Center.

You can get a better idea of how nutritious and fresh an egg is after you crack it open. You'll see more white ropey strands (called chalazae) in fresher eggs, which will also have well-formed round yolks surrounded by thick whites. The color of the yolk depends on the hen's diet, according to the Egg Nutrition Center. If feed contains wheat or barley, yolks will be lighter colored. Yellow corn or alfalfa produces medium yellow yolks.

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips and product reviews with Yahoo! Green's users. Send Lori a question or suggestion for potential use in a future column. Her book, Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo! Shopping and Amazon.com.

Crack an Egg with One Hand

By Jason Fitzpatrick (Edit, to draft, Slurp)

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Have a lot going on in your kitchen? Master the art of the one-handed egg crack to save time, avoid messes, and increase your culinary cred.

Most of us have the two-handed egg crack down pat. Tap the egg gently on the egg of the bowl, use the tips of the thumbs as slight leverage to widen the gap, and dump the contents of the egg into the bowl.

The one-handed egg crack, however, is not usually seen outside the realm of professional kitchens and cooking shows. Check out the video below to learn how to practice the one handed crack without wasting a bunch of eggs in the process:

For some extra pointers, check out the full post at FoodWishes. Have a kitchen time saver? Master of the food hacks? Let's hear about your favorite tricks in the comments.

Cracking Eggs…with one hand tied behind our backs! [FoodWishes]

Egg collected by Charles Darwin found at Cambridge University after 200 years

An egg collected by Charles Darwin on his HMS Beagle voyage and lost for nearly 200 years has been discovered by a volunteer at the University of Cambridge.

By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent

An egg collected by naturalist Charles Darwin on his HMS Beagle voyage which has been rediscovered at a museum. Photo: PA

Researchers have known that the naturalist collected 16 bird eggs during his trip between 1831 and 1836 but all were thought to be lost.

But one sample – that of the Tinamou bird of Uruguay - has been discovered by a volunteer as she catalogued a collection at the Zoology Museum.

The records seem to indicate that Darwin himself was responsible for damage caused to the heavily cracked egg after packing it in too small a box during or following his famous voyage.

The chocolate brown egg – slightly smaller than a hen's egg – was among the museum's 10,000 strong collection from Darwin being partly catalogued by volunteer Liz Wetton.

She has spent half a day at the Museum each week for the past ten years where she faithfully sorts and reboxes the Museum's bird egg collection.

She merely commented that the specimen had C. Darwin written on it before moving to the next drawer.

It was only when Mathew Lowe, Collections Manager, was reviewing her work that he discovered no one knew about the existence of this specimen.

He said: "There are so many historical treasures in the collection, Liz did not realise this was a new discovery. To have rediscovered a Beagle specimen in the 200th year of Darwin's birth is special enough, but to have evidence that Darwin himself broke it is a wonderful twist."

After reading Liz's notes, Lowe and Curator of Ornithology Dr Mike Brooke, traced the specimen's origin in the notebook of Professor Alfred Newton, a friend of Darwin's and Professor of Zoology in the latter 19th Century.

Prof Newton had written: "One egg, received through Frank Darwin, having been sent to me by his father who said he got it at Maldonado (Uruguay) and that it belonged to the Common Tinamou of those parts.

"The great man put it into too small a box and hence its unhappy state."

Museum Director Professor Michael Akam said: "This find shows just how valuable the work of our loyal volunteers is to the Museum. Only Liz has examined each of the many thousands of eggs in our collection. Without her we would not have found this unique specimen."

Ms Wetton said: "It was an exhilarating experience. After working on the egg collections for ten years this was a tremendous thing to happen."