Mystic and culinary, symbolism and aroma are combined in no other food as perfectly as in the egg. It has been the epitome of creation and eternal life since the dawn of civilization, which is why Sumerians and ancient Egyptians laid ornate ostrich eggs in the graves of their dead. For five thousand years, the Chinese have given each other painted eggs to mark the beginning of spring, and for a thousand years, Christians have decorated the Easter egg, which they see as the symbol of Jesus’ resurrection: cold and dead on the outside like his corpse, but full of life and hope on the inside .
And at the same time, the egg is an all-rounder in the kitchen: its yolk provides a bright color and velvety consistency in many dishes. Its proteins act as emulsifiers that combine water and oil, creating creamy sauces such as hollandaise or béarnaise. And its ovalbumin increases the volume eightfold when whipped, giving soufflés airiness and stability at the same time.
All of this has made the egg the most global of all foods. Mexicans eat it as “huevos rancheros” with chili and tortilla, Japanese eat it as egg custard chawanmushi, or as an onsen egg cooked very slowly in the hot water of their famous thermal springs. The Chinese love the sulphurous flavor of their “millennial eggs,” which are soaked in salt, anise, ash, lime, Szechuan pepper, tea leaves, and pine needles for three months until the yolk turns amber and the white turns gray-green.
Germans eat twenty billion eggs a year
Und der Gastrosoph Alexandre Grimod de la Reynière listete schon vor zweihundert Jahren 543 Eiergerichte der französischen Küche auf, während der Larousse Gastronomique heute die folgenden und noch viele weitere Zubereitungsarten kennt: à la Catalane, à la tripe, à la romaine, à la Lorraine, vegetable-style, Florentine-style, Provençal-style, bamboche, chartreuse, meurette, casserole, Brillat-Savarin eggs, Brimont eggs, Lenten eggs.
Happy hens give tasty eggs – just like at the Hofgut Oberfeld on the outskirts of Darmstadt.
:
Bild: Cornelia Sick
These three eponymous chefs and arch-gluttons didn’t have to worry about the quality of the eggs because there weren’t any bad ones in their day. Today, however, the egg has become an industrial mass product. The Germans eat 20 billion eggs a year and give in to the misconception that this gigantic number is only possible with turbo rearing, chemical feed, battery storage and pseudo species-fairness. We accept the rationalization of taste all too uncomplainingly, whereas more and more top chefs are rebelling, who serve eggs in their starred restaurants in a puristic and minimalist way – so that we don’t forget how fantastic an authentic egg tastes.
Pecking and scratching is fundamental to taste
They are almost always eggs from Demeter, the strictest organic association, eggs like those from Kathrin Goebel, who manages the Hofgut Oberfeld in the former archduke’s dairy on the outskirts of Darmstadt. Their chickens come from a small organic farm, not from one of the big corporations that control nearly 100 percent of the world’s chicken gene pool. Called Cream & Coffee, they are a cross between the New Hampshire, White Rock and Bresse breeds and live in three mobile stables that look like a mix between a large tent and a miniature hangar, stand on skids or wheels and are driven by a tractor every two to four weeks be transferred.