Double Yolk Eggs

Somewhere in my memory is cartons of double yolk eggs being sold in Wisconsin many many years ago. It was a treat visually to serve 'sunny side up'!
My local farmer knows i like them and tries to include a few with every time he supplies us with his eggs. Right now he is transitioning between older hens and pullets, the pullets give small eggs at this time. The last 5 dozen included a dozen with a number of double yolks.
They don't taste any different but are a visual treat, shown in the frying pan along with two pullet eggs. Other photo is with Benton's bacon.
The farmer grinds his own grain from local Kenosha/Racine products and is having quite a time meeting increased local demand. Now the eggs are not organic as most of the farmers in Kenosha/Racine raise foodstuffs mostly the way they were taught by the father's and grandfathers and the technology seems to be mostly in the equipment and tracking areas such as using GPS for controlling the application of fertilizer.
I really doubt that 'Organic' or 'Free Range' eggs purchased in your local supermarket are any better than these. The hens are free to run outside the coop whenever they want.
More and more we are purchasing our food from local growers not because of concerns about 'Organic' or Pesticides but because the increased volume production of just about every food type is leading to contamination both as ingredients and as diseases.
We purchase sirloin rounds from Sam's Club to grind for our dog and ourselves. In the past few years we have returned three rounds for external contamination.
I have just ordered a locally grown Steer from a farmer about 5 miles down the road from me, who has supplied me with pigs in the past to minimize this type of food problem. This occurs when contamination is spread by grinding which increases the available surface area for the contamination.




-Dick

I remember in the past that both Jack's and Lou Mitchell's always served double yolk eggs, but I haven't seen them lately. I wonder if this is due to cost or decreased market availability.

Jack's Family Restaurant
5201 Touhy
Skokie, IL 60077
(847) 674-5532

Lou Mitchell's
565 West Jackson
Chicago, IL 60661
(312) 939-3111

Hi,

When I was growing up, there was a German family who only bought double-yoke eggs. I had the impression this was something they bought at a local grocery store.

About two weeks ago in a box of extra large eggs, I found several double yoke eggs. Unfortunately they went into a cake. I would have been delighted to have seen them as I prepared to make breakfast eggs.

Bud - these double yoke eggs, were they coming from the older hens? In the human population, older mothers are more likely to have twins than younger. As they age their fertility decreases, so the body in response sends out more eggs. I wonder if this is a parallel situation.

Regards,

Ok, one post, and I can let the wrong word stay.
Two, and I have to correct: The word is YOLK, not YOKE.

A yoke is a frame placed over beasts of burden to let them effectively pull something, or a y-shaped frame around a wheel (as in bicycles).

JoelF wrote:Ok, one post, and I can let the wrong word stay.
Two, and I have to correct: The word is YOLK, not YOKE.

A yoke is a frame placed over beasts of burden to let them effectively pull something, or a y-shaped frame around a wheel (as in bicycles).

I have sometimes left a wrong spelled word alone, because someone who spells wrong also will still find what they are looking for.

Anyway, I just corrected my post.

What I'm wondering is, are the doubles the same size? Because the Bible says, be ye not unequally yolked.

Katie wrote:What I'm wondering is, are the doubles equal in size? Because the Bible says, be ye not unevenly yolked.

Equivalent extra large eggs: single had a larger yolk than those twin yolks, at least that has been my experience.

I am one who just adores the yolk. I will trim away the whites to eat first to save the prize yolk for last. If I am in a diner, I almost always order rye toast. It's odd because I never do this at home. I butter the rye toast and slide the whole yolk onto it. If I am good, it does not break. This is a one bite treat for me.

Regards,

Thye are from older hens, one step removed from the stew pot after the pullets get going, so to speak.-Dick

My egg obsessed friend always orders a half-dozen eggs scrambled for breakfast at a place by our house. The waitresses always correct him and say, "Ours are double yolk eggs, so three eggs scrambled". They are always baffled when he insists on his six eggs.

In heavy breeds pullets are more likely to produce double yolk eggs as though they don't quite have their acts together yet. In light breeds old hens are more likely to produce double yolks. Note that heavy breeds tend to produce brown eggs while light breeds tend to produce white eggs. I use tend advisedly as there are exceptions including cases such as the Minorcas that are usually considered a light breed and lay white eggs even though they often weigh more than many heavy breeds.

So is there anywhere we can buy the prized double-yolk eggs?

i've gotten double yolk duck eggs up at one of the asian grocers(cant remember which one) up in Argyle/Broadway area in the past(the grocer just south of Tank with its own parking lot).

irisarbor wrote:So is there anywhere we can buy the prized double-yolk eggs?

I was thinking more about these Germans who only bought double-yolk eggs. I am 90% certain they bought them at Sunset Foods in cartons specifying they were double-yolk. I recall buying some to satisfy my curiosity. My family was not impressed enough to justify the premium price.

Next time I am there, I will look and inquire.

Regards,

jimswside wrote:i've gotten double yolk duck eggs up at one of the asian grocers(cant remember which one) up in Argyle/Broadway area in the past(the grocer just south of Tank with its own parking lot).

Tai Nam. The food market is at the far end of the parking lot.



Tai Nam (Đại Nam) Food Market
4925 N Broadway
Chicago
773-275-5666

We just got back from Shipshewana, Indiana-Amish country. On our way back we stop by a small farm that sells organic eggs for $3 a dozen . We were lucky as he had run out and we got to go into the coop and get the just laid eggs! He feeds the chickens table scraps, kale and kalrabi and other organic stuff. He showed us one with a double yolk-I asked how he could tell and he said the egg was just bigger(?). It did not make it to our dozen. We had some great eggs last night. He was selling free range organic turkeys for $4 a pound. Like Cathy, I love fried eggs(easy over) with buttered rye toast!

Elfin wrote: He showed us one with a double yolk-I asked how he could tell and he said the egg was just bigger(?).

I've always presumed that double-yolk eggs were detected by candling. I've no idea, really, how they're detected, but I would have thought that size alone wouldn't be a reliable indicator.

ekreider, you seem to know your stuff about eggs; tell me, is it true that older hens tend to lay larger eggs? And is it true that older hens are more likely to lay double-yolked eggs than younger hens? Or is that not an age-related thing at all?

Hi,

I have a friend who used to raise meat chickens for eating and laying hens for eggs. She said the eggs get bigger as the laying hens age.

Regards,

Katie wrote:

Elfin wrote: He showed us one with a double yolk-I asked how he could tell and he said the egg was just bigger(?).

I've always presumed that double-yolk eggs were detected by candling. I've no idea, really, how they're detected, but I would have thought that size alone wouldn't be a reliable indicator.

ekreider, you seem to know your stuff about eggs; tell me, is it true that older hens tend to lay larger eggs? And is it true that older hens are more likely to lay double-yolked eggs than younger hens? Or is that not an age-related thing at all?

Yes to both but if you want the sine qua non on eggs, read Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking." He has an extensive section on eggs that will cover every detail you can think of and many you can't.

ahiliya fernandes wrote:Double-yolk eggs occur when ovulation occurs too rapidly, or when one yolk becomes joined with another yolk. These eggs may be the result of a young hen's reproductive cycle not yet being synchronized. Some hybrid breeds of hens also produce double-yolk eggs by default. Such eggs are produced in India. Eastern states known for that are West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. Some hens will rarely lay double-yolked eggs as the result of unsynchronized production cycles. Although heredity causes some hens to have a higher propensity to lay double-yolked eggs, these occur more frequently as occasional abnormalities in young hens beginning to lay.[citation needed] Usually, a double-yolked egg will be longer and thinner than an ordinary single-yolk egg. Double-yolked eggs usually lead to observed successful hatchlings only under human intervention, as the chickens interfere with each other's hatching process and die. Rarely, higher-order yolks occur, although heavier poultry breeds such as the buff Orpington have been known to lay triple-yolk eggs in their lifetime.

Usually when quoting a reference source, mention is made of the source.
We all can use wikipedia.-Dick

...heavier poultry breeds such as the buff Orpington have been known to lay triple-yolk eggs in their lifetime.

That would seem to me to be the best time.

So if older hens lay larger eggs, does that account for the "Jumbo" vs. Grade A Extra Large eggs?

Elfin wrote:So if older hens lay larger eggs, does that account for the "Jumbo" vs. Grade A Extra Large eggs?

Yes.

Katie wrote:What I'm wondering is, are the doubles the same size? Because the Bible says, be ye not unequally yolked.

I was hoping to zing JoelF with this, but it didn't work.

TCK wrote:My egg obsessed friend always orders a half-dozen eggs scrambled for breakfast at a place by our house. The waitresses always correct him and say, "Ours are double yolk eggs, so three eggs scrambled". They are always baffled when he insists on his six eggs.

Six eggs for breakfast?