Eat & Drink
President's Choice Leaves Me Bloody
I've cracked my share of unsavoury eggs before but none quite as nasty as the bloody one that revealed itself in my pan last night. Maybe I was asking for it by thinking fried eggs would make a suitable dinner, but I guess I expected more out of my premium President's Choice free-run variety procured earlier in the morning from the local No Frills.
This thing was seriously nasty. I'm up for early Christmas surprises but this wasn't what I had in mind.
Aside from the red hue, the egg came with a sizable chunk of something dark red (clearly visible in the photo) plus other unidentifiable objects attached to the yoke.
Now, blood spots in eggs aren't exactly a new phenomenon, although they're not really that common occurring in less than 1% of all eggs. The apparent cause is a tissue irregularity in the hen. BUT, since these eggs are marked as grade A, the mess inside should have been caught before they ended up on the store's shelves.
Before eggs get boxed and shipped to a retailer, all of them end up at a grading station. While there, eggs go through a process known as candling where the eggs pass over a strong light making the shell essentially see-through and the yolk and white inside visible to inspectors.
How this egg was missed I have no idea. But it was and the defect ended up in my pan, essentially hijacking my plans for dinner.
Just for curiosity sake, I kept the egg in the pan until it was cooked and surprisingly it looked slightly more palatable by the time it was done. Here's a look at its evolution.
Slightly cooked:
Cooked:
The box (I'm afraid to crack another one of these suckers):
Discussion
46 Comments
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I'm not sure what PC's quality control sampling protocol is, but I'm pretty sure only one out of every X eggs is candled. It's not a surprise to me at all that this got by them, and as nasty as it is, it's pretty common since eggs are early chicken embryos and all.
The eggs we eat are not fertilized...female egg-laying chickens are kept away from roosters.
That looks like much more than a blood spot though. Did a rooster sneak into the hen house?
oh gross
can you at least put the picture after the fold, what a way to start the morning!
Why oh why did you have to share that with us?
ewwwww...
Delicious!!!
lol, perhaps a late-night rendezvous. it is gross, whatever it is!
Next week on blogTO:
There's a cracked egg in my egg carton! Damn that President Choice! Where was quality control on that one??
If you're complaining about a bloody egg, then I sure hope you better be a vegan. Afterall, eggs are the equivalent to hens as to what periods are to women. There, we can ruin eggs for everyone together!
I can haz high-five now?
Dude you really burn your eggs... take it easy man, low heat, low heat...
It's an immaculate conception just in time for the holidays!
That egg is nasty. Love it. Eggs are pretty much tissue anyway (and this is hardly balut), and homemade gravy is pretty much blood sauce, but there's something disconcerting about cracking open a sealed egg to find something in it that isn't supposed to be there.
Awesome, I have the exact same package of eggs in my fridge right now.
But I love how your "plans for dinner" was two fried eggs.
Go Vegan? Seconded!
"The Egg" (NFB, 1979)
Where are you getting this "one percent" from?
I think I once heard eggs described as "chicken menstruation."
Fits here.
Also, nobody who read that may ever have lunch ever again.
ohh! that happened to me when i was a kid, stopped eating eggs for over a year.
The first picture reminds me of the intro to 'Dexter'
OMG that made me nauseous!
This is fairly common and has nothing to do with the quality of the brand. It really is no big deal. Throw it out and crack another one. And, frankly, I have no idea why this belongs on Blog TO.
First of all, fried eggs is a fine dinner.
Second, I've had this happen with eggs from various sources over the years, generally Grade A in all cases. Candling only does so much, I guess. I think unless this happens in every PC egg you crack open, it's gonna be hard to mount a law suit.
Also, agree with bumdarts (never thought I'd get to put that into a sentence), you gotta ease back on the heat. A nice medium-low... trust me...
Clotty egg! Clotty egg! Ewwww!
I was buying brown eggs for a while simply because I thought they were prettier, but found that almost one in every carton had a blood spot in it. Never to that extent though. Even still, NOTHING compares to that one unfortunate time when my dad cracked one open and found a half-developed chick inside.
Guess the inspector was off that day.
I think we all agree with bumdarts. 3/10 heat and a few minutes before you think it's done, turn off the heat entirely. thanks bumdarts!
quit being such a whiner. You pump me with steroids, cut off my beak, stick me in a cage for life and then steal all of my eggs. spoiled little turd.
ps. thanks for the lifetime supply of corn feed. it's great! corn, corn, corn... for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'm being sarcastic. Maybe some chocolate cake once in a while?
ras bloodclat mumfi egg mon!
Hey Chicken! what you up to tonight?
Wanna go watch a movie? the wrestler? we'll get big popcorn, i know you love it!
http://one_foggy.tripod.com/sounds/rrr_somethin.wav
Boo-hoo. What's the big effing deal? So you got a bad egg. Next time, crack eggs into a small bowl one at a time and add them to the pan as you go; you won't ruin your whole dish if you get a bad one. This may be gross but it's not that different from getting worms in apples. Get over it.
Holy high school paper, batman! It's spelled "yolk" and these things happen, what with eggs being made from chicken eggs and all.
Tomorrow on Blog TO: Oh noes! My potato is looking at me!
This displeases me. Prepare to be smoten.
So what, Throw it out and start over,
You do realize what an egg is right, I'm pretty sure the people at PC Quality control don't have X-ray vision.
Most cooks will advise you to crack your eggs into a bowl and never in to a pan or recipe for this very reason.
looks fine to me, and don't make a big fuss out of this.. is today no news day? btw, i hope you know all these variations from regular eggs are just gimmicks..
My grandmother always told me that if there were any blood spots or suspicious bits in a cracked-open egg, it meant it had been fertilised. But maybe that's an old wives' tale.
I think I love you.
If you read about blood spots, it doesn't indicate a fertilized egg. It merely indicates that a blood vessel ruptured when the egg was forming.
It's still safe to eat. You can choose to remove the blood spot if you want.
Torontoist wouldn't do a post on bloody eggs.
Just sayin'.
(Tongue in cheek.)
People here apparently know A LOT about blood clotty eggs.
With "bumdarts" offering cooking advice and the "appearance" of Galen Weston, this is the most hilarious yet stomach-churning comments thread I've read on BlogTO.
(Happy Holidays everyone!)
that's nasty
I have a net worth of over 7 billion dollars and I have an eight dollar haircut. It's difficult not to love me.
> quit being such a whiner. You pump me with steroids, cut off my
> beak, stick me in a cage for life and then steal all of my eggs.
These are free-run eggs, so you're not in a cage for life. And steal? Come on, what do you need them for?
Can't lie - had to Google the name. I just loved you because you used the word smoten.
The magic is gone now.
oh no! I'll never buy a President's Choice product again! How dare they do this to my breakfast?! I need answers! We need to call the Food Inspection Agency. Let's sound the alarm and get this bastards to admit to their poor quality control and lack of responsibility for the health and safety of our citizens. I eat my fair share of eggs and this is the first time I have ever heard of this. I am terrified and I am concerned....for godsakes something think of the children!!
My uncle is a farmer and raises chickens. He gives us eggs (brown ones) and today my mom was making muffins and she had to throw the whole thing out because there was a bloody one that she cracked into the mix. It was icky! Haha, good luck with trying to stomach the thought of eating an egg EVER AGAIN. I am with you...so so groos and how did it get past inspection?
It's free range, dude--that means the odd egg has a chick in it. You like nature or not? In nature, chickens and roosters have sex, and make eggs with chicks in them (this is traditionally where we get the NEW chickens from), which start out as slimy red dots. You don't like em, don't buy organic
You got lucky, that is one in a million. You ; P
Yeah, PC free run organic eggs are full of blood spots. I have been buying them for quite some time, but I think it's time for a change. Someone's clearly asleep on the QC line... either that or their lamps are burned out and nobody's bothered to change them.