than three, so both chickens and eggs are
bargains among animal foods. Egg quality has
also improved. City and country dwellers
alike enjoy fresher, more uniform eggs than
formerly, when small-farm hens ran free and
laid in odd places, and when spring eggs were
stored until winter in limewater or waterglass
(see p. 115). Refrigeration alone has made a
tremendous difference. Year-round laying
(made possible by controlled lighting and
temperature), prompt gathering and cooling,
and daily shipping by rapid, refrigerated
transport mean that good eggs deteriorate
much less between hen and cook than they did
in the more relaxed, more humane past.
There are drawbacks to the industrial egg.
While average quality has improved, people
who pay close attention to eggs say that flavor
has suffered: that the chicken’s natural, varied
diet of grains, leaves, and bugs provides a
richness that the commercial soy and fish
meals don’t. (This difference has proven hard
barry
(Barry)
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