We are often asked the question “how do you like your eggs?”. The reality is that eggs are among the most widely served foods and also, there are traditions as to how to cook them.
This is because, breakfast in most of the country is about eggs. Eggs are mostly about motherhood, comfort, and emotional attachment. Why? It’s because the way we produce and how we use eggs for breakfast, especially at the Firefly, makes them an important part of the story.
In fact, at the Firefly, pretty bed and breakfast near Atlanta, we’ve devoted a lot of time, energy and effort to their production, consumption, and enjoyment. Therefore our Emotional attachment to Eggs is an important element of the guest experience at the Firefly.
We’re telling you this because we want you to know about the bed and breakfast lifestyle. We often cook fun snacks for groups of people. There is outdoor cooking as well, because we love happy groups of people gathered around a nice fire, sharing. We have this “unmanicured abundance” that we want to share as well. We call all of this “Human Scale Living”.
Background
This article is a revisiting of one we did a couple of years ago. We’re actually authoritative on the topic of serving breakfast. This is because Breakfast is half of why you come to a B&B. Hopefully you will finally click a few other articles to get an idea of what we are about.
We also like to pretend we’re homesteaders and food foragers, since there are some ongoing concerns about the security of the food supply.
We’ve also developed a chicken tractor, which is frequently admired from the road, and have a big kitchen garden and some converters in the backyard to do a little food production if we need to.
How Do You Like Your Eggs?
Of all the foods, eggs (well, chicken eggs) are the most mysteriously comforting. This is because their shape, size, and texture physically evoke our caveman ancestors’ emotional need for them. When prepared and eaten, they are considered a comfort food. In fact, when people are about to be hit by a hurricane, or other disaster, eggs are one of the three things (well four, it turns out, if you count toilet paper) that people rush out and buy at the store, and it is not completely about nutrition. This is more because of their emotional need for comfort.
https://www.cleaneatingmag.com/clean-diet/7-foods-to-ease-stress-and-soothe-anxiety
Egg History
Firstly, some egg history. The earliest known eggs are thought to have occurred about 65 million years ago. Therefore, they’ve been around about 64 million years longer than we have.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reptile_egg_fossil
Paleo
Our hunter-gatherer ancestors took advantage of the fact that all birds and most reptiles lay eggs. As long as you were prepared to deal with the potentially angry mother who laid them, they became a readily available food source.
https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/133/11/3893S/4818039
There are a couple of different theories about how humans came to the point of domesticating egg-bearing fowl. It makes sense to think that about 8000 years ago, we had killed off all of the mastodons. Because of that, we needed “easy” food. Not that killing a mastodon is all that easy.
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-domestication-history-of-chickens-170653
Chickens in the Southeast US
According to this source, chickens did not become an “industry” in the US until after 1844. The discovery of Vitamin D in 1910 was an important development. This is because if you fed your chickens Vitamin D, to make up for lack of sunlight, you could keep them year-round in places where the sun doesn’t shine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poultry_farming_in_the_United_States
Because eggs don’t really need refrigeration, and the weather is good most of the time, poultry became a bit of an industry in the southeast US. In fact, Gainesville GA (up in the hills about 2 hours north of the Firefly) is considered the “Poultry Capital” of the world.
Although, most of the chickens in this area are bred for turning into Chick Fil A, and KFC. With the exception of that monument, you would be hard pressed to find an actual live chicken in Gainesville.
According to the US Egg Board, the number one state for egg production is a place where the people are smart enough not to kill their chickens, even though the sun doesn’t shine as much.
The “Egg Bowl” football game is played every year in Mississippi. The winner gets the golden egg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_Bowl
Foghorn Leghorn
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvn9yx
The big mouthed southerner became a bit of a cliche’ thanks to the Fred Allen radio show in the 1930’s. The character Foghorn Leghorn evolved from this, although it was invented by a guy from Boston.
At the Firefly we are for the most part tuned into the ecological balance among the four species (dogs, cats, chickens, chicken hawks). “The mysterious case of the disappearing attack rooster” is a story that should therefore remain untold at the moment. We had a negative dog-chicken interaction the other day, as we occasionally do. We had a car-chicken incident a couple of years ago. Nothing is certain if you are a chicken.
Industrial chickens
We talked about industrial pigs a bit earlier. There are also industrial chickens.
According to this article, the native jungle fowl, from which today’s chicken is derived, laid 10 to 15 eggs per year. Today’s “modern” chickens crank out an egg per day. This is because of selective breeding, understanding feed, and other engineering methods.
These methods also include enclosing up to 100,000 of these birds into an industrial egg operation. Also, it’s because they are force fed, and not allowed to move around.
How Do You Like your Eggs?: Kindly Raised
The permaculture people believe that earth-friendly is good. Therefore a nice, friendly population of chickens will give you nice, friendly eggs.
A lot of time and effort has been put into this, and the “reverse pioneer” of this is Joel Salatin, who has constructed a little chicken and egg empire. This is because he is providing high quality eggs to the upscale restaurants around Washington DC. This was accomplished due to reverting to traditional and more natural methods of chicken control.
He actually forces his chickens to move around in such a way as to dig up and fertilize the land.
Video Link: Joel Salatin (Link)
Our Emotional Attachment to Eggs: Firefly Eggs vs. Regular Eggs
This picture kind of says it all.
This seems like an important enough topic that it deserves a book of its own.
Our Emotional Attachement to Eggs: Preparation and Eating
Okay, we’re going to approach this complex topic in increasing order of complexity.
Raw
No. An argument can be made that Firefly eggs have less chance of having cooties than industrial eggs. Nevertheless, we don’t advise it. We discussed the question of whether eggs should be refrigerated in this article:
Rolled into a Campfire
Tempting, but still no. Besides, they’re hard to pick up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1dNKN7w-vA
We are fire-pit friendly. We still might try it at some point if there is guest demand. This guy’s accent is also unlikely to happen.
Hard Boiled and/or Poached
Hard boiled eggs might be a reasonable way to make them portable. Poached eggs are the same as hard boiled, just without the shell. Neither method is exactly foolproof. Alton Brown is authoritative on this method.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/perfect-poached-eggs-recipe-2107472
Who knew that you shouldn’t add a raw egg directly to water. This is unless you want to make egg drop soup, which is an option.
Here’s a nice layout from our breakfast table. This is served along with tomato, avocado, a little ham, and smoked paprika. There’s no rule that says this has to be ugly. Presentation is an important element of serving eggs at this lovely place.
Egg Salad and/or Deviled
Food 52 has a nice recipe for Egg Salad for Breakfast. This is what you might get if you are around when we’ve boiled a lot of surplus eggs.
https://food52.com/recipes/49385-breakfast-egg-salad
- 6 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons full-fat mayonnaise
- Two tablespoons plain 2% Greek yogurt
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 4 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
- One tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 4 pieces 100% whole-grain bread, toasted
Certainly this thing has most of the elements that we’ve talked about in this series of articles, including the toast.
Diner-Type Eggs
Here are some scrambled eggs and potatoes from our place. The eggs are very local, the potatoes probably come from Potato Land, which is farther off than Egg Land.
Eggs Diner Style
Someone may be convinced to prepare you some eggs diner-style. This traditional US method of preparing and serving eggs originated in the US roadside and city diners. An approximation of this atmosphere may be had at the local waffle house.
https://skillet.lifehacker.com/a-comprehensive-guide-to-ordering-eggs-at-a-diner-1797272742
For the benefit of the Europeans (but not Californians) the US Diner and Lunch Counter culture probably also deserves a book of its own. It, too, evokes an emotional response for certain people.
This famous 1984 painting, by Helnwein, evokes this sense.
Anyway, we are trying not to have this sense of edgy loneliness at the Firefly. This is because we are about the Delightful Earth Goddess Breakfast Experience.
Actually this is a little better article about the Diner Lingo.
So if you want Adam and Eve on a Raft, it is not completely out of the question.
Omelets
Georgia is not known for its spinach, nor its mushrooms or broccoli. But, we do maintain a supply of fresh vegetables. PS The secret is out, occasionally we need to buy eggs because the supply dwindles. The crew doesn’t like cold and rain. When this happens, we gets “nicely raised” eggs.
For instruction on how to make a “perfect omelete” there is an external resource.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/perfect-quick-omlet-tips-995517
Omelets are forgiving, therefore they can be prepared in a hurry, and have a lot of filling fillers.
Fritatta and/or Baked Dishes
These are super-easy, and can be made the night before. This is because sometimes, we need sleep and do not want to spring up and make Adam and Eve on a Raft.
Probably Emma Christensen’s article on “How to Make a Frittata with Whatever you Have on Hand” pretty much says it all.
https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-a-frittata-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-170717
Now that we have Firefly TV we can do one of these ourselves. This noteworthy video is from Candace Kurnai from Women’s Health, and talks about being flirty. Most of the breakfasts that we do are “Keto Friendly” but not necessarily organic.
The Best Fritatta Recipe: Video Link (Link)
The Chain Hotel Eggs
We have to talk about this too. This is how you hard boil industrial eggs at the rate of 20,000 per hour.
Egg Boiling Machine (Video Link)
Chain Hotel Scrambled Eggs
Due to efficiency, this is how you produce mass quantities of scrambled eggs. This particular machine is in China, but no doubt the US ones are similar enough.
Scrambled Egg Machine (Video Link)
This is actually a little more interesting video.
Interestingly the place where live chickens are sucked up in a giant robot is early in the video. Because it’s a little rough, sensitive viewers may choose not to click.
Frozen Hotel Omelettes
I searched all over you tube for a video about how these things are mass produced, but couldn’t find a good one.
Evidently “they” don’t want you to know now it is done. However, “they” have their US patent, and if you want to know how to make an “omelet type egg product” they more or less tell you.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US3958035A/en
Robot Omelet Maker (Video Link)
“They” have even invented an omelete making robot.
Our Emotional attachment to Eggs
Because of all of this, at the Firefly, pretty little Bed and Breakfast near Madison GA, we have an emotional attachment to eggs. The question of “How Do You Like your Eggs” may be answered easily enough.
We go out and get them from the chicken coop in the morning. That’s because we like the chickens and have names for some of them. The chickens eat the bugs and grass we have around the place. They are on the payroll. Therefore they do not get sucked into a machine.
The eggs are cooked by a human and served beautifully. Maybe there is a group of laughing, happy people ready to enjoy them. That’s because it’s part of the experience that you can’t get just anywhere.
