A freshly layed egg (left) and a supermarket egg, being fried side-by-side. Note the deep golden yolk and firmness of the farm-fresh egg.

If you keep laying hens, then you know that eggs from your own small flock aren't like the ones bought at the supermarket. The first hint is on the outside —if you have a variety of breeds, then you'll have a rainbow of egg shell colors that can range from blue, to chocolate brown, to pure white. Although pretty, eggshell color doesn't affect flavor.

Supermarket eggs are uniform in more than just color; anything that is outside of the norm is sold to a processor and doesn't show up in an egg carton. Sometimes hens lay eggs that have calcifications on the shell, or are a funny shape. My hen, Ginger, lays eggs that are pointy on both ends. These variations are edible and a part of the charm of having your own flock.

Of course, it's what's inside the shell that really matters. Scramble an egg collected that morning, and it'll taste better than anything sold in the supermarket. There's a number of reasons why this is so. Your backyard flock probably has access to the outdoors. Hens are omnivorous—they'll eat just about anything—including bugs, table scraps, and weeds. This diet imparts that bright yellow-orange color to the yolk that is so indicative of the pastured bird. It also lends flavor. I know goat farmers who can tell which pasture their goats grazed on by the milk's flavor. Eggs are like that, too, but it's subtler. Sometimes people simply note, "This egg tastes eggy."

The most obvious difference between supermarket eggs and your own is freshness. Eggshells are porous. As an egg ages, carbon dioxide contained inside of the egg is released, and odors outside of the egg are absorbed. This is why you should always store eggs in clean, covered containers. (And why you don't put them in a bowl next to your garlicky pesto sauce in the fridge.) Other changes happen as well. As an egg ages the whites and yolks become thinner. You'll notice a big difference when you fry a fresh egg—the whites will barely spread and you won't have to worry about the yolk breaking.

The only time you don't want to use the absolute freshest eggs is for hard-cooking, because eggs that are less than a week old are impossible to peel. It takes a few days after laying for the membrane that separates the shell from the white to detach, and you need that membrane to peel the egg. (See the recipe at the end of this article for perfect hard-cooked eggs.)

The best temperature to store eggs is between 40 and 45° F. An egg left at room temperature for one day will age the equivalent of an egg kept for one week in the fridge. In the heat of the summer, try to collect eggs twice a day. In the winter, get the eggs before they freeze and crack. Eggs are best consumed within two weeks of laying, but remain edible weeks longer (the USDA allows eggs to be sold 60 days after packing.)

The shells' porosity is also why you should keep your nesting boxes clean—so that you don't have to wash the eggs. Vigorous washing can push water and dirt into the egg. Large-scale egg producers "sanitize" their product in machines that spray the eggs with a warm chemical bath. I'm sure that the slightly metallic flavor of store-bought eggs comes from this processing. If the eggs from my hens are dirty (sometimes their feet get muddy and it can't be helped), I wipe off the eggs with a damp paper towel.

Author Terry Golson and Snowball. Photos by Spencer Webb.

Crack open a fresh egg and you'll see a distinctive stringy bit. This is the chalaza, and it functions to keep the yolk centered. It disappears as an egg ages, and for that reason some chefs advise using old eggs for omelets. I once worked for a chef who had me put beaten eggs through a strainer to remove the chalazae. In my opinion, this was a waste of perfectly good food. However, if I'm making a recipe that requires a smooth texture, like custard, then I do put the eggs through a sieve.

I keep both bantams and standard hens, so I have eggs that range from peewee to jumbo. Large eggs (including the shell) weigh two ounces. An egg from a bantam can be as light as one ounce, whereas a jumbo can top three ounces. The smaller the egg, the higher percentage of yolk. Thirty-three percent of a large egg is made up of the yolk, but 44% of the bantam's egg is yolk. For frittatas, French toast, and the like, the percentage of yolk doesn't matter, but it does when baking. I once ruined a pound cake by using all bantam eggs—the batter was too yolky! So, for baking I use large eggs.

I once ruined a cake prepared from a mix (almost impossible to do) because I didn't realize that my hens were laying super jumbo eggs. I must have used the equivalent of two extra eggs. I learned my lesson, and now when a recipe calls for several eggs I weigh them and use however many add up to the correct number of ounces. For example, a recipe that calls for five eggs would be 10 ounces.

Regardless of the size of the egg, there is one rule for cooking eggs—go slow. As the raw egg is heated, the proteins in the whites tangle and toughen, squeezing out liquid. If you've ever made scrambled eggs and had rubbery eggs in a pool of water, then you've experienced what happens when you hurry the cooking. An extra minute or two at a slightly lower temperature will keep the eggs soft and moist and bring out the best in the eggs from your home flock.

Hard-Cooked Eggs

Is a recipe for boiled eggs necessary? Yes! If you've ever had a tough egg that you were tempted to bounce instead of eat, or an egg with a green yolk, or an egg that you couldn't peel, these directions are for you.

That unsavory-looking green tinge to a hard-cooked egg yolk is due to a reaction of the iron and sulfur in the egg yolks that occurs at high heat. Prevent that by using this method, which cooks but doesn't boil the eggs. That same lower temperature will yield a firm, but not rubbery, texture.

Fresh hard-cooked eggs are notoriously hard to peel. Try removing the shell from an egg laid the previous day, and you'll end up tossing out half of the white along with the shell. As an egg ages, the membrane around the white begins to separate from the shell. This allows for easier peeling. However, as an egg ages the flavor deteriorates, so the best eggs to hard-cook are between one to two weeks old.

To hard-cook eggs:

Place the eggs in a pot and cover with 2 inches of water. Bring the water to a simmer. Don't let the water come to a rolling boil. As soon as the water is simmering, cover the pot and remove from the heat. Set a timer for 12 minutes for small, 16 minutes for large, and 18 minutes for jumbo eggs.

Meanwhile, fill a bowl with ice water. When the timer goes off, drain the water out of the pot. Then shake the pot back and forth so that the eggshells crackle all over. Immediately immerse the eggs in the ice water. The water will seep under the shells and loosen them from the whites.

When the eggs are cold to the touch, remove them from the water and peel. Any tiny pieces of shell stuck to the eggs can be rinsed off under the tap. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to four days for optimum quality.

Terry Golson lives in a small town outside of Boston with her husband, two sons, two dogs, 15 hens and one rabbit. Terry maintains a website, chickenkeeping.com to help out backyard poultry keepers, and another site, Hencam.com, where you can watch her hens and read her blog. Terry is the author of the wonderful cookbook, "The Farmstead Egg Cookbook", available from our bookstore. Read "The Farmstead Egg Cookbook" book review in the December, 2006/January 2007 issue of Backyard Poultry.