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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be mildly irritated at being told to use free range eggs

132 replies

Kungfutea · 16/06/2013 02:54

So many recipes sanctimoniously say to use free range eggs. Nothing else is free range and there seems to be no concern for the welfare of any other animals.

Obviously eggs from caged hens would work just as well, people don't buy free range for the flavour (at least I don't notice a difference).

I know, not a big deal (and as it happens I do always buy free range and we try to buy humanely farmed other animal products) but I do find it a little irritating and a bit hypocritical for a recipe to specifically state that free range eggs should be used. Leave the ethical decisions to me, thanks. Aibu?

OP posts:
soapnuts · 16/06/2013 03:13

yanbu - i hate it too - worse are the ones that stipulate Organic eggs... seriously? Is that actually a necessary part of the recipe?? Ok - can't make that then cos I refuse to spend half the monthly income on a couple of free-range, organic eggs laid by hens fed gran watered with the teardrops of angels

Original poster
Kungfutea · 16/06/2013 03:36

And why stop at eggs?

Glad it's not just me!

OP posts:
HoveringKestrel · 16/06/2013 03:40

I'm in two minds at this. I'm all for free range, lovely, they can run around, great.

But to put it in a book? Hmm. I personally have never read "make sure the chicken you're about to eat was killed humanely"

So I don't think a recipe should comment on egg laying when a few pages later they're roasting the creature without any comment on it's slaughter.

amazingmumof6 · 16/06/2013 03:56

a little chemistry lesson : organic means live, living

organic chemistry is based on the four elements found in all living things : Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen and Hydrogen

so with a little twisted science humour you can say that all chickens are organic as long as they are alive.
as soon as they are dead they are in-organicGrin

with the same " logic " eggs can never be organic as they are not alive.Grin
not sure if any of this is funny - and it's late/early.....

free range - different problem?

I hate sanctimonious crap and use cheap eggs. they taste fine to me!Wink

VixZenFenchell · 16/06/2013 04:02

YANBU to think that free range eggs will work in exactly the same way as barn eggs, caged eggs, battery farmed mass produced eggs - they're all eggs.

However YABVU if you can't taste the difference between an egg from any other source (caged or barn) and free range. There is a clear difference in both appearance and flavour!

(We eat barn eggs mostly. The only free range eggs we eat come from the back garden flock who are currently on a non-laying-work-to-rule type action in protest at the lack of sunlight and increase in rainfall. That and the sparrows are eating all their food in spite of my best efforts. What few eggs we get have definitely got different coloured yolks and taste slightly sweeter/cinnamony).

Original poster
Kungfutea · 16/06/2013 04:16

I can't taste any difference, certainly not once it's in a cake! Surely any difference would be due what the hens are fed?

OP posts:
IsThisAGoodIdea · 16/06/2013 04:18

Isn't it just a gentle reminder to only buy eggs that have been laid in humane conditions? I don't see the harm. Buying eggs from battery hens is supporting a cruel industry.

I'd rather give up eggs than eat ones from caged hens. Do you know how those poor animals live?

It's a few pence more, isn't a hen's welfare worth that to you?

vivizone · 16/06/2013 04:22

IsThisAGoodIdea - the op does not need a gentle reminder.

It's a few pence more, isn't a hen's welfare worth that to you? - did you read what the op wrote?

SucksToBeMe · 16/06/2013 04:37

Yabu. Anything other than free range makes me Hmm.

squoosh · 16/06/2013 04:39

YABU.

I love that you are irritated but still make sure to tell us that of course you only buy free range.

Good for you, you don't buy battery farmed eggs, but lots of other people do. Any nudge that makes people think twice about this farming practise is a-ok in my book.

Flossbert · 16/06/2013 04:43

I agree with vix. I guess it depends what you're making. If it's a cake or something where the egg is merely used to 'bind' then any egg will do. But if it's something like an omelette, or something else where the egg is the star I think you should use free range as the flavour is far better.

plinkyplonks · 16/06/2013 05:00

Flavour is much better on free range eggs, and it's also more ethical choice than caged hen's eggs. So I think you are being unreasonable.

Original poster
Kungfutea · 16/06/2013 05:13

Sorry, I still don't think a recipe is the place to nudge people about buying free range or not. People don't buy free range for a number of reasons - maybe cost is one of them. If its not relevant to the recipe, then no need to mention it IMO.

The reason I said I buy free range is to point out that I am sympathetic to the idea of free range but it annoys me that I'm being told to use free range in a recipe.

You may taste a difference, I don't. The most important factors in an eggs taste is how fresh it is and the hens diet, but they don't say 'very fresh egg' just free range - and no mention is made of any humane practice for any other animals.

As I said in op, leave ethical food decisions to me, ta very much.

OP posts:
KatyTheCleaningLady · 16/06/2013 06:17

YANBU. I can't taste a difference in a cake recipe, so it seems sanctimonious to me.

However, the tone of many cookery books can be annoyingly condescending and precious.

Tee2072 · 16/06/2013 06:38

I think it's Jamie Oliver whose recipes always suggest high welfare animal products, including the meat.

I don't have enough money to have ethics. It's not "a few pence". It's the difference between feeding my family a healthy diet and feeding them crap. My family's welfare will always come before the animals that we eat.

HollyBerryBush · 16/06/2013 06:57

Only because I watch some obscure programmes, two weeks ago there was a medieval kitchen re-enactment programme, two days for a lot of very random people to prepare and make a high feast for a manor house using only Tudor methods.

From that I learned that chickens were only affordable to the masses because of high density farming from the 1960's. Before that, every one had scrag end and entrails disguised as something or another.

If we were all ethical about meat, there wouldn't be the land to produce it. Sadly because the human race keeps over populating the planet - we have to eat intensively farmed foods.

sweetestcup · 16/06/2013 07:09

I once got absolutely demonised on here by one poster for buying value chicken breasts who just couldn't understand why I didn't care about the animals welfare, well the same applies here...I agree with tee, feeding my family comes first.

saintmerryweather · 16/06/2013 07:12

barn eggs are only marginally less cruel than battery eggs. luckily my riding instructor sells free range eggs at 1.50 a dozen

HollyBerryBush · 16/06/2013 07:13

I did read somewhere, many moons ago, that free range eggs have a far higher incidence of salmonella than battery eggs. Not that I really give a shit because I'm going to cook any egg properly!

Tee2072 · 16/06/2013 07:18

I saw that show Holly it was interesting.

StealthPolarBear · 16/06/2013 07:18

YANBU OP
If the recipe is written by someone who specifically speaks up on animal cruelty (as it sounds like JO does, then fine). But "free range egg" to coat your (battery farmed for all they mention) chicken breasts is just posturing on their part.

sparkle12mar08 · 16/06/2013 07:19

Iceland sell free range eggs for £1 for six for those worried about the cost.

SoupDragon · 16/06/2013 07:20

Really? This kind of thing irritates you? When you actually buy free range anyway? Confused

SoupDragon · 16/06/2013 07:21

My BeRo cookery book always tells me to use BeRo flour. I let it wash over me and ignore it without the slightest hint of irritation.

HollyBerryBush · 16/06/2013 07:27

Or you can get 15 eggs for £14.9 in Asda which aren't free range.

If you are on that tight a budget, it makes a lot of difference. A lot of people can't afford quality cuts of meat these days, or meat at all in some circumstances, eggs area good source of protein. They are full of folic acid and Vit B