AIBU...Burford Brown Eggs...what else compares?

[TwinsandTrifle]

Please help. We get through so many eggs and the only ones we've found and loved are the Burford Browns which are £4.50 for ten. We use at least a box a day (5 of us.) We've tried all local recommendations of "oh the most wonderful eggs from the farm shop/at the side of the road" and honestly, they've all been crap in comparison.

On the basis that (unless you live next door to us and don't want to give location away in case outing) local recommendations aren't really of any help, has anyone found nationally available eggs that are as good or surpass Burfords? Must be some way to get our eggs for less than £35 a week!

Ok now I've completely gone off buying eggs from the side of the road. Some people seem to have no regard for food safety.

Haven't read all 7 pages but try black farmer eggs, v good with big orange yolks

The age old trick to great tasting "home" eggs is feeding high sugar feed to the chicks. Eggs are effectively created from the hen's blood plasma, so higher blood glucose -> tastier eggs. Probably not the healthiest for the birds though.
Rich yellow yolks are achieved with mixing in paprika or marigold petals - shown to be as good as synthetic dyes. Failing that, any dark greens.
Burford Browns are not Marans, but a Marans cross.

Not wishing to sound rude here ,but even one or two eggs seems to cause a "backlog" in the digestive system for me!

I’ve been watching this thread to see if an answer to an equivalent or better egg would be revealed but sadly not.
Another huge Burford Brown Egg fan here, and nothing I’ve tried compares to its taste. I buy a minimum of 2 boxes a week and live alone. The one and only time I’ve had some as nice was on holiday in Greece at breakfast!

Thanks for starting this thread as it confirmed my addiction for these eggs is based on a true superior taste and that I’m not alone. Maybe we should start BB appreciation club 😁

unless she is a vegan, she can't feed them anything from her kitchen. It's illegal.
The UK is probably the only country in the world that makes it illegal to feed carrot peels from your own kitchen to your own home flock. I am sorry, but this is an absolutely idiotic piece of legislation.

@forinborin

The age old trick to great tasting "home" eggs is feeding high sugar feed to the chicks. Eggs are effectively created from the hen's blood plasma, so higher blood glucose -> tastier eggs. Probably not the healthiest for the birds though. Rich yellow yolks are achieved with mixing in paprika or marigold petals - shown to be as good as synthetic dyes. Failing that, any dark greens. Burford Browns are not Marans, but a Marans cross.

Aha. The Clarence Court website does indeed mention marigolds in the feed mix.

Actiongirl1978 Bloody hell ,that sounds better than some hotels! I want to have a party in there!

@DepressedDD

I wonder if Buford add something to their eggs to make them taste nicer…..like McDonald’s adding msg or whatever they add to their food. I’m going to have to try some.

I’m happy with feeding scraps to my chickens. Like I said we have no meat in our kitchen. Ok, so I slipped up with the pad Thai…..I wouldn’t purposefully feed them egg. Saying that chickens will happily peck their own eggs and eat them so I can’t get too excited about that. If I drop one on the floor they’re all over it.

I think the main risk is with big professional units and feeding them animal derived food which rightly is banned. As a kid on a farm I remember the cow feeders getting chocked up with feathers……that was from the animal feed/cow feed that was bought. Back in the 80s I guess cattle feed was a high content of mashed up chicken.

I thought that eggs were literally what nourishes the baby chick? Can’t see how it would be weird for a chicken to eat one, it’s not cannibalism. Suppose closest analogy is an adult drinking breast milk?

Personally I love the duck eggs they sell in waitrose but maybe that's just me. They are large compared to hens eggs too.

Yes those Burford brown eggs are lovely they seem to last better as well although they don't get a chance. The duck eggs by the same company are sublime too.

PS there is no mSG in Mac's food. www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/help/faq/19087-do-any-of-your-products-contain-msg.html

@HaveringWavering
Or placenta?

@JorisBohnson2

Personally I love the duck eggs they sell in waitrose but maybe that's just me. They are large compared to hens eggs too.

I love hens’ eggs. My poached eggs are famous throughout the land and I have perfected the art of the dippy boiled egg. I eat eggs at home, eggs out for brunch; a soft boiled egg in ramen in heavenly, my favourite pizza is the Fiorentina with a soft egg.

However for some reason the thought of duck eggs makes me queasy. I get creeped out by the strange white that stays a bit translucent when cooked, and the OTT richness of the yolk by comparison.

Have no problem going the other way- happy to polish off a quail’s egg or three dipped in celery salt.

[quote AllTheUsernamesAreAlreadyTaken]@HaveringWavering
Or placenta?[/quote]
I think placenta is different because it’s actually joined to the human body by blood vessels and things so it’s more of an organ.

It's long way to go but I have fond memories of the excellent eggs in Lanzarorote in the early 2000s. Never tasted better.

I love duck eggs! But for some reason they make me violently vomit for about 6 hours after.

I have always avoided BBs due to thinking them overpriced and a a triumph of style over substance. However I will give them a go based on the recommendations here.
I tend to get supermarket own brand free range - the other week I got some XXLs, in Tesco I think, but was disappointed to see that the extra volume was all white not yolk

@SheABitSpicyToday

I love duck eggs! But for some reason they make me violently vomit for about 6 hours after.

See! I knew they were evi!

I find it a bit sad that some posters seem to believe that the only possible explanation for the OP’s preference for Burford Brown eggs is that she’s fallen victim to an elaborate marketing scheme, rather than that the eggs that they buy are better quality, and therefore more expensive.

We don’t seem to value quality ingredients in our culture, or believe that they are worth paying more for. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with supermarket barn eggs. They function perfectly well as eggs. But they aren’t the same thing as high welfare eggs from hens on a high quality diet. You can 100% tell the difference, as you can with high quality meat and produce. If you can afford them OP, then why not buy the best quality.

It’s not the breed, I don’t think. I have ex battery hens, who cost a grand total of £1.50 each to buy. They lay 9 months a year and in the summer when the can properly forage their eggs are delicious. In the winter when they’re inside and eating mostly processed pellets, the eggs are fine but not special. If you have room and a bit of time to deal with them, half a dozen hens would be a good investment.

We don’t seem to value quality ingredients in our culture, or believe that they are worth paying more for.

I think its a bit of both. In the UK we spend a relatively small amount of income on food compared to some other European countries and generally care less about provenance and quality which is a shame as quality doesn't automatically mean more overall spending.

However food companies are very happy to dress up middling products as premium to make a bigger margin and it can be hard for the end consumer to know which is which.

Yes. Perhaps it’s a bit naive of me to think that Burford Brown Inc haven’t carefully positioned their brand so they can charge 50p a throw for their eggs. But it is depressing that people can’t countenance the idea that the eggs from well fed, well cared for hens are worth paying more for if you really enjoy eggs. Plenty of people buy a crap bacon sandwich or a panini for breakfast on their way to work but for some reason they aren’t considered to be overspending in quite the same way.

However food companies are very happy to dress up middling products as premium to make a bigger margin and it can be hard for the end consumer to know which is which.

This is a very important point. I was mulling over the other day which supermarket first came up with “Taste the Difference” “The Best” “Finest” as a high end own brand concept. It’s hilarious how they all have variations on the same thing- black labels, “script” style writing. I can’t remember which of them started it now.

I recently had some Cornish eggs in as I got in a breakfast box from a celebrity chef as a treat. The eggs were delicious, really rich yolk. I thought I would try to find something similar and so tried Burford Browns this weekend. Very disappointing, not rich at all, I honestly cannot tell the difference between these and my regular Tesco own brand, I won’t be buying again.

What was the brand of the Cornish eggs @Aprilx?

Agree, Although none of it can come from your kitchen (unless you are vegan) as it is illegal in the UK to feed food from anywhere that uses meat.

Illegal for domestic hen keepers to feed their own hens veg scraps when they don't sell the eggs? In that case every domestic hen keeper I've ever met breaks the law by enriching the hen's diet with peelings, cabbage leaves/stalks, leafy trimmings etc.