Free Range Eggs
by Roedy Green ©1999-2008 Canadian Mind Products
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Introduction
I presented this mini essay on The New VI TV station Speakers’ Corner
where you can create a 2 minute video for a dollar.
The Case for Free Range Eggs.
I know some people who hire sadists to torture chickens.
The sadists break off their beaks. They pack them in tiny cages so tightly they
cannot even turn around. They wire their feet to the floor.
Do you know who these people are? — people like you, too cheap to buy free
range eggs. They buy “factory” eggs to save a buck. In the process
they torture the chickens who provide the eggs.
The motive is not sadistic pleasure, but merely to compete with the cheapest
possible eggs.
If that dollar extra is too much, try shopping in Cook Street village where free
range eggs cost only
a dozen, the same as “factory” eggs.
Chickens are not the brightest animals, but if you get to know them, they have
personalities. They are affectionate. They have emotions. They don’t
deserve this disgraceful treatment from you.
Finally, free range eggs are better for you. Chickens grubbing in a field are
far healthier than ones trapped in filthy disease-ridden cages. It will be
blindly obvious if you buy half a dozen each of free range egg and factory eggs.
The free range eggs have stronger shells, are less runny, with firmer yolks,
brighter colour and test much better. You won’t want to go back even if
you relish the thought of making chickens suffer.
The Meatrix: a takeoff
on the movie the Matrix about the propaganda that holds factory farms in place.
In the USA the term free range has no official meaning,
so farmers can sell you anything they want and still label it free range. Buyer
beware. Ditto for the terms cage-free, free-roaming
and yard eggs. In Canada free range
means able to run around freely outside. free run in
contrast just means uncaged in a barn. organic just
means raised without pesticides in their food, not that the chickens were
treated humanely. veggie fed means chickens were
deprived of eating their natural diet of insects pecking in the grass.
Roedy’s Politically Correct Free Range Scrambled Eggs
 |
| Rhode Island Red free range brown eggs |
Here is my time-tested scrambled egg recipe. I have
been making it since I was about 9. (I’m now 60 years old.) I have gradually embellished it over the
years from a simple recipe that came with the family’s indestructible
Sunbeam electric frying pan.
Mandatory Ingredients
- 6 large free range eggs. I prefer rich brown ones even though scientists say
there is no difference.
- 6 tablespoons organic milk or cream.
- 1 to 2 tablespoons butter, depending on how decadent you are feeling.
- fresh ground black pepper to taste.
- half-salt (half potassium, half sodium) or sea salt to taste.
Optional Ingredients
 |
| Canadian porcelain garlic |
- 2 fat garlic cloves. Regular consumers of the recipe get addicted and ask me to
keep upping the garlic content. Locally grown, organic have the best flavour.
- a copious quantity of grated cheese, any kind, even Parmesan. Please no process cheese or that
plasticised stuff that looks and tastes like Silly Putty.
- canned asparagus
- chopped cooked bacon
- chopped mushrooms
- chopped peppers (red, green, yellow, orange)
- chopped pepperoni or similar ready to eat sausage.
- chopped tomatoes
- chopped olives
- smoked wild salmon slices
- finely chopped onions
- chopped avocado
- just a pinch of turmeric or saffron, to enhance the yellow colour
Method
 |
| Trudeau garlic press |
- Put the butter in a frying pan and heat to medium. For an electric frying pan,
set it to
160°C (320°F).
I use a large, conventional, non-stick TeFal
pan.
- Either peel and finely chop the garlic cloves or squeeze them through a garlic
press (I recommend the Trudeau soft handled, heavy duty garlic press. It is
reasonably sturdy and easy to clean.). Brown the garlic and fill the house with
anticipation of glories to come.
- Brown your optional ingredients with the garlic, except the cheese!
- Get some multigrain toast going and some fresh ground coffee.
- Mix the eggs, milk, salt and pepper in a bowl. To catch the splashing, put the
bowl in the sink and whip with a Braun
multimix until bubbly. For extra fluffy eggs, whip the whites and yolks
separately then fold together.
- Pour the egg mixture into the butter and garlic. Keep scraping the mixture off
the bottom of the pan and turning it over using a teflon egg flipper. Don’t
be too compulsive about this. The more relaxed you are, the more generous the
chunks of egg will be and the more likely they will be lightly browned. You
mainly want to avoid burning.
- Alternatively, if you are in a hurry, you can cook the mixture in a microwave in
two batches for about 2 minutes. This creates a fluffy but leathery result.
- Just before the eggs are ready, toss in the grated cheese. If you put it in too
soon, it will make the eggs lumpy. If you wait too long it won’t have time
to melt. You will just have to learn by experience to get the timing just right.
Err on the side of too late to start.
- Don’t wait until every last drop of the liquid has congealed before taking
the pan off the heat. It will continue to cook of its own accord even on the
plate. It is best to serve the eggs slightly too sloppy than slightly too
leathery.
- Turn out onto buttered multi-grain, oat or flax toast. You can cut the toast up
into 1 inch squares for children or to pamper adults. Serve with a mug of
freshly ground fair trade coffee,
and some exotic juice.
This makes enough to serve three adults if no one has seconds. Don’t be
afraid to vary the proportions, particularly the egg-milk ratio. Try this recipe
just once and compare it with restaurant scrambled eggs made with anemic caged
eggs. I think the taste difference will convince you to switch to free range,
even if you don’t care about the animal cruelty issue.
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