A Note on Eggs

The days when the only eggs to be found on pub menus were of the questionable scotch variety (complete with day-glo breadcrumbs), are thankfully behind us. Not that there is anything wrong with a well-made scotch egg.

We take eggs for granted, but we shouldn’t. A good egg is as richly flavoured as it is nourishing, with a creamy, amber yolk and a firm but not rubbery white. Some of this is down to careful cooking but the shopping is important, too. Happy hens lay better eggs. It’s as simple as that. Try and buy your eggs from someone who can tell you where they came from and when they were laid. Small delis and farmers’ markets are a better bet than a big store where the egg aisle stretches for half a mile. Try not to buy more eggs than you need: they shouldn’t hang around for more than a week, ideally, and the best place for them is the larder, not the fridge.