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

[Kungfutea]

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?

Ethics are all very own when the morals you are upholding are your own and you can afford them.

sweetestcup why don't you care how chickens are treated? is it only chickens or does that extend to all animals?

I'd like to see much better welfare for dairy animals too, but ideally we wouldn't eat anything from cows unless it was 'spare' - the dairy industry is dependant on the veal industry rather more than is comfortable.

I was a vegan for a long time, vegetarian for even longer.
I was extreme...then I realised we can't control our society, sometimes certain things are difficult to fight against and we just have to roll with them.
Being vegan, esp with children can make you very unpopular and hard to cater for, travelling and going out become a massive planning issue and shops aren't geared up to say what you can and cannot eat, not very clearly anyway.

Being veggie is much less scary. What we can do however is TRY. We can try and get organic milk. We can try and cut down on the animal based stuff we use. We can buy free range eggs where possible (they don't cost that much more - I give ours away)

and we can try and buy outdoor reared, free range meat too. That's what we do when we buy meat to cook - which we rarely do. Much of the time we eat veggie as it's just easier in many ways, and cheaper.

It's not perfect but it's a start and it's a compromise, for the time being. Trying to be veggie in the 80s was a nightmare. It's much easier now - and I hope that trend continues.

crashdollSun

I do care about animal welfare btw but I'd always prioritise a human over a chicken.

"There is no virtue in feeding a live fish to a starving dog."

You would always prioritise a human over a chicken? So if you had to choose to save Ian Huntley or a chicken from pain and death, you would choose Huntley? There are plenty of humans that I would leave in a burning building in favour of animals.

RevoltingPeasant

You know, historically, in parts of Europe, wolves predated upon humans

Urgh. It's "preyed", damn it.

sweetestcup why don't you care how chickens are treated? is it only chickens or does that extend to all animals?

Only the ones me and my family eat!

How unfeeling of you

YANBU - any inanimate object telling me what to do tends to evoke a 'fuck off' from me.

Only yesterday I read a recipe that said 'try to use organic or responsibly sourced salmon'. I would always use the latter, but I did begrudge being told I should.

Surely a recipe in itself is 'telling you what to do'

If you say so.

Chickens arent pets to me, they are food.

They aren't pets to me either, but I still think it's sad how they are treated.

Recipes should tell you what to do, yes, as in mix this with that and chuck it in the oven for 35 minutes.

Recipes aren't there to reconfigure your moral compass.

Some people are just disgraceful.I started a debate about this a few years back,and it is very sad to see some folk have not changed one bit.... Putting a few pence before the quality of a life towards a living creature.Makes my blood boil,especially when they could easily substitute another item and pay the extra but no....which says quite clearly to me it is nothing to do with being hard up,just that they simply do not give a shit.
Completely agree with Rooney.....

I'm sure it is, but budget trumps that I'm afraid. Generally I buy large packs of chicken breasts out of the cash and carry monthly and if I run out then I would buy the value ones form Asda etc. Taste fine to me.

Disgraceful? I would suggest keeping the insults for those who deserve them, like proper nasty people, not this choosing different eggs than you.

Oh here we go.

When I was at my local supermarket on Friday, a woman had a trolley overflowing with branded goods....radox , cathedral city cheese, etc and then chose the cheapest eggs.... I honestly thought why could she not swop just one item out of that mountain of a basket and pay a little extra towards eggs that the bird has had a little better life? Some people.

Yes Paradise. Disgraceful.....being that we are discussing this issue

Chunderella, reading this back I have to agree with you I sound like a twit. Sorry

I should never post when sleep deprived. It all made so much sense when I had just woken up

Perspective. Get some.

Uh, I could weigh in with my own perspective but methinks its a moot point, I'm irish and around my area at least I can see the animals I'm getting my milk, cheese and eggs from by looking out my bedroom window. They look happy enough as long as I'm not taking shortcuts through their fields.

Free range and organic eggs do make a palpable difference to the quality of your cakes. The few times I had to use cheap eggs in a pinch, my cakes came out paler, tougher and went stale faster.

Plus if you go to America where so much produce is factory farmed, you can see it before you taste it. The shells on the eggs are white, the butter is beige and runny and tastes of nothing, the cheese is like plastic. They put cilantro on everything to cover up the taste of banality.