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Eggs are a staple item in the refrigerator of many homes. Who would ever have thought that buying eggs should require more thought than where to get the best bargain? I’m sure you have wondered what the difference is between all the confusing labels on egg cartons and if they really make the eggs worth paying a king’s ransom compared to plain old Grade A Large eggs. What is free range, cage free, organic or vegetarian fed? Organic is always good, right? People who eat a vegetarian diet seem to be healthy enough, so shouldn’t chickens benefit from being vegetarian too? None of us want the chickens to suffer, so cage free should be good enough, shouldn’t it?

Before I give you the low down on getting the best price for eggs at major food retailers in Columbus, Ohio, I thought I’d spend some time clearing up the confusion.

First let’s focus on how the chickens are raised. Typical labels on egg cartons found in the grocery store will say either cage free of free range. Free range means the chickens have access to the outdoors and are not raised in battery cages. There is no standard for what kind of outdoor access this is though. Cage free means just that. The chickens were not raised in battery cages, but did not necessarily have any outdoor access.

Another term not likely to be seen in the grocery store, but one you may have heard is “pasture raised”. Pasture raised means the chickens and the eggs are produced the way nature intended. The animals are allowed free access to the outdoors where they can scratch and peck in the grass for insects and anything else they want to eat. Some will argue that use of the term pasture raised is not regulated, therefore how can one be sure of the hen’s lifestyle? I’ll address that a bit more later.

In addition to living conditions, how hens are fed and whether or not the eggs are organic appears on egg cartons too. If the eggs are labeled as UDSA Organic the chickens must be cage free, given no antibiotics and fed with feed from crops grown without chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Vegetarian fed hens are never given feed that contains animal byproducts. I don’t condone the use of animal byproducts in feed for chickens or any other living creature, but feel it should be noted that chickens are not vegetarian by nature. Like any other bird they enjoy eating insects as well as seeds and grain.

A couple other terms you might encounter on an egg carton are Omega-3 and pasteurized. Omega-3 eggs claim to have a higher percentage of Omega-3 fatty acids as compared to eggs produced without the Omega-3 enhancing diet fed to some hens. Pasteurized eggs have been heated to just below the coagulation point for a period of time to destroy illness causing bacteria. These are recommended for any recipe that calls for eggs to remain uncooked such as Caesar salad dressing or mayonnaise.

By now, I’m sure everything is clear as mud for you! My recommendations for what kind of eggs to buy is in the following order: pasture raised, organic, cage free.

The caveat with pasture raised is that they can be hard to find and they are often quite expensive when you do find them in the grocery store. Whole Foods market in Columbus carries pastured eggs produced by farms in Central Ohio, but they do come at a price. I recommend finding a good source where you can buy directly from the farmer. Several years ago, I bought pastured eggs from a friend for $1.00 per dozen. Back then, I had no idea how good I had it! If you stick with it and do your homework, you should be able to find pasture raised eggs at prices comparable to or less than buying organic eggs at the grocery store. www.localharvest.org is a great way to start your search for pasture raised eggs. The added bonus of buying eggs directly from the farmer is that you can verify how the chickens are treated and see for yourself if they do indeed have unlimited access to the outdoors.

If you can’t find pasture raised eggs in your community or simply aren’t compelled to make the effort the easiest to find best price for organic eggs in Columbus, Ohio is at Giant Eagle where you can get large, organic eggs for $3.09 per dozen. If you are a regular customer at North Market, downtown Columbus, North Market Poultry and Game has eggs for $3.00 per dozen.

One last note: I don’t feel compelled to eat eggs for their supposed Omega-3 value. There are many better ways to increase Omega-3 consumption, but that is a discussion for another day.

As you might have guessed from my lack of blog posts over the past month, life has been a bit busy for me lately. I’ve recently gone through some schedule changes and the adjustment period is over, I think! Aside from needing to take advantage of the last bit of gardening weather for the season and getting bogged down with canning some excess produce we’ve been blessed to receive, I have been chipping away at some new recipes a little at a time.

Sometimes the process of creating and testing recipes can be exciting, discouraging, enlightening and funny all at the same time. The best thing about failures and near (or total) disasters in the kitchen is that they provide helpful information. Namely in the form of what not to do or what does not work.

Yesterday was one of those experiences for me. Any of you who know me well or have spent more than just a little time with me in the kitchen know I do not proclaim to remotely excel at baking. I do have a number of desserts which I have become known for and do get the urge to knead some bread dough every now and then, but these do not amount to actually being a pastry chef.

Eight years ago when my husband and I were married, the country club where our service and reception were held served these amazing chocolate chocolate chip muffins as part of our brunch. I had asked the club manager for the source or recipe for these muffins, but he never responded. Every now and then I think about these muffins and contemplate trying to duplicate the recipe (as if I could remember exactly what they tasted like all these years later . . . ). Yesterday was the day I decided to start my quest for the perfect chocolate chocolate chip muffin. I thought I would start out by adjusting my chocolate cake recipe. This is a solid tried and true recipe for me. I figured if I could make it a bit more dense all I’d need to do was add chocolate chips and I’d be done. Easy, right?

Well, maybe not so easy. Being the non-pastry chef that I am, I made the silly assumption that if a box of cake flour says to simply add two additional tablespoons of flour for every one cup of all purpose flour called for in a recipe all would be just fine. For starters I don’t know what possessed me to use cake flour when I always use all purpose flour in this recipe. I think it was because I wanted to get rid of the hardly ever used cake flour taking up space in my pantry. Whatever the reason, I bet several of  you already knew using cake flour was not appropriate for this application and could have saved me from my fate of flat, unattractive, cakey muffins. For those of you who didn’t already know cake flour does not work well for muffins, think of this as your tip of the day.

Hopefully I’ll have the courage to make an attempt at the chocolate chocolate chip muffins again. In the meantime if any of you have a really great recipe for chocolate chocolate chip muffins, I’d be eternally grateful if you’d be willing to share it with me!