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The Food Geek

Egg sizes and substitutions

comments (9) August 6th, 2009 in Blogs     
TheFoodGeek Brian Geiger, contributor
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Kitchen Mysteries is a weekly exploration of oddities surrounding cooking and food. They could be recipes that fail when they shouldn't, conflicting advice from different sources, or just plain weirdness. If it happens in a kitchen, and you're not sure why, send a tweet to The Food Geek to find out what's happening.

Elizabeth asks via twitter:

The size labels for eggs are a bit misleading. The USDA size guidelines don't have anything to do with the volume of the egg directly. In fact, the USDA "size" guidelines are determined by how heavy a dozen eggs are.

According to a USDA PDF on choosing eggs that I found, sizes go something like this:

  • Jumbo eggs are at least 30 ounces to the dozen.
  • Extra large eggs are at least 27 ounces to the dozen.
  • Large eggs are at least 24 ounces to the dozen.
  • Medium eggs are at least 21 ounces to the dozen.
  • Small eggs are at least 18 ounces to the dozen.
  • Peewee eggs are at least 15 ounces to the dozen.

There's even a "peewee" egg size. That's fantastic.

Most recipes call for large eggs, probably partially because it's a very common egg size, but probably mostly because there are 24 ounces to the dozen, which means that it's 2 ounces per egg. This means that if you're baking a dish that requires 3 large eggs, what you really want is 6 oz of eggs.

I wouldn't stress too much if you can't find the exact combination of eggs to give you the proper weight, as there's about 6 ounces of difference between medium eggs and extra large eggs, which is 1/4 of the weight of a dozen large eggs. This means that, even with large eggs, 3 eggs could be between 5.25 ounces and 6.75 ounces. You have some leeway.

posted in: Blogs, baking, egg, farmers market, weight, size
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Comments (9)

GeorgeCooks writes: I thought double-yolked eggs were just an accident, not a result of size. How can they tell those Jumbo eggs will have 2 yolks (short of X-ray vision)? Posted: 4:38 pm on August 25th

kathy978 writes: I inherited some older cookbooks from my great-aunt. In a Betty Crocker cookbook from 1937, it said to measure eggs by the cup in all their cake recipes. So, according to the USDA guidelines listed above, if a recipe calls for 3 large eggs, they should measure about 6 oz. Then you just fill the measuring cup until it's at 3/4 C. I'm no expert, but I believe the amount of eggs in a cake is crucial for success. I get farm eggs too. Sometimes I'll have pee-wee's up to what I could swear is a goose egg in the same carton! They make the best omelettes or scrambled eggs we've ever had. Posted: 11:21 am on August 13th

jennifers writes: Jumbo eggs may be an exception. Jumbos are usually double-yolked eggs, and I use them for custards so I have less egg-white waste.

If all I have in the fridge are Jumbo eggs, how do I make a recipe that calls for three large eggs? That extra yolk is definitely going to make a difference, isn't it? Posted: 7:33 pm on August 12th

Itsgigi writes: What really bothers me is that what used to be "large" eggs seems to have become smaller in the past few years. When a recipe calls for "large" eggs, I almost always used "Xtra Large" because the others look "medium" to me. I have been baking and cooking for a long time, and I think the egg producers are giving less for the same price. I'm not sure that it makes a great difference in most recipes, but I still will opt for the "Xtra Large". I also buy Jumbo for eating; it looks better on the plate! Posted: 5:49 pm on August 12th

AlexisMH writes: Thanks, this is all really helpful. My eggs come from my backyard and they're all different sizes, depending on which hen layed what. And since they're right out of the nestbox, I can weigh a single egg easily to figure out its size. Posted: 4:32 pm on August 12th

SheMichaels writes: A Greenmarket vendor told me that "Peewees" were the eggs from his very young hens as they just begin to lay. I would suppose they'd be most plentiful in the early Spring. Posted: 4:27 pm on August 12th

SheMichaels writes: A Greenmarket vendor told me that "Peewees" were the eggs from his very young hens as they just begin to lay. I would suppose they'd be most plentiful in the early Spring. Posted: 4:27 pm on August 12th

Pat1969 writes: I agree with Monelle. I usually bu my eggs at a discount store where all of the eggs are extra large. I really haven't seen that they have made a difference in recipes calling just for large eggs. However, there IS a difference if you happen on medium eggs. You are going to have to use the beat and then measure technique for that. It appears to me that a little extra doesn't hurt, but using less in baking or in souffles is courting failure. Posted: 3:52 pm on August 12th

monelle writes: It's all well and good for the weight of a dozen eggs to be a measuring guide; however, in a carton of eggs, there are more likely to be eggs of different sizes and so the theory is shot. I have discovered that using extra-large eggs even when large eggs are called for doesn't make any difference in the outcome; in fact, I think the tiny bit of difference enhances the finished product. Posted: 3:12 pm on August 12th

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