The Mystery of the Double Yolked Egg
It begins on a cold night in January, Sophia buys a 1/2 dozen carton of eggs to prepare the Chocolate Champurrado Tart crust for a cooking class she is teaching. There is an extra egg so I hardboil it for my salad. As I am eating I happily exclaim "I think this egg has two yolks in it!" "Oh yeah. They all do." Sophia says that all of the eggs in the carton had two yolks. Every single one.
I know that double yolks happen from time to time. My first (and only) encounter with a double yolked egg was an exciting novelty. Not so this time. We call the egg company and they explain that sometimes chickens lay eggs with two yolks. Yes, we say, but this was ALL OF THEM. The woman replies, "Some people would consider it lucky."
Not satisfied. I google it:
"double yolk eggs"
I find countless blogs and online forums where others are experiencing the same thing:
Thursday January 4, 2007: Multi Yolk Eggs
Monday June 30, 2008: Freaky Eggs
Saturday October 18, 2008: Tainted Food? Double Yolk Egg
Saturday January 3, 2009: Double Yolks: An Omen of Plentitude?
It seems that eggs with two yolks are so prevelant that there is even an online debate about the calorie difference between eggs with one yolk and two (no consensus).
From google I learn that 1 in every 1,000 eggs has a double yolk. I learn that early layers (spring chickens, if you will) are the most common perpetrators and that eggs get double yolks when ovulation occurs too quickly. I also learn that it is an inherited trait in certain (unspecified) breeds.
I am still not satisfied.
I call my dad because he teaches biology. "Twins are pretty rare, especially in the chicken world." He promises to investigate further.
This is not over.
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Comments
I live in winston-salem nc, and a man sells double yolk eggs by the dozen ..... EVERDAY. for 3 dollars per carton.....they are all double yolk ..... all the time...... I only eat the double yolk eggs for the last year now !!
Lol, Interesting story. I also have had that sort of experience this weekend. My family was down for the weekend so I cooked four eggs on Saturday morning, all were double yolked. We had a laugh and took a photo. Then on Sunday I cooked breakfast again and the next four eggs were also double yolked. My husband then mentions the first two he used from the carton were also double yolked. Now we have two left in this carton chances are they also will be. Hope to end it off with a perfect score! These were all free Range Eggs.
Thank you very much for the excellent and useful subject.
Wow, I'm so interested in knowing more now. I just got a double yolk the other day but that was my first in years.
This exact thing happened to my roommate and I back in September. 10 of 12 eggs were double-yolk! We were so freaked out, stopped buying that brand and now get only organic cage-free eggs.
These were organic free range! Making the whole matter extra troubling. Farmer's market only from now on I guess...
I had worked on an organic farm for a season where we raised chickens for egg production. They had complete free range and their diet consisted of mainly pasture and undergrade vegetables which yielded the brightest orange yolks. Quite often, we put the largest eggs to the side for our own personal use to please the customers with consistent sizes. Almost always, these 'larger' eggs contained a double yolk to the point where we would fight over them. The owner said it happens quite often, but conventional egg production screens through the shell to make sure each egg passes a quality test. If the egg fails, it is simply discarded. Continue purchasing from your local purveyor, and enjoy those double yolks!
Are you people seriously kidding about "Not buying this brand of eggs again"? I grew up with neighbors who raised egg-laying hens. They would x-ray the eggs to see how many yolks they had. Then they would sell "double yolkers" and regular single yolk eggs and label them as such. It IS possible someone at the egg farm where your eggs came from simply MIS-LABELED the box!
This WOULD make a lot more sense than assuming this happened "by chance" or thinking all the hens on this farm must be deformed or something! At any rate I am sure the eggs are fine to eat. In fact some people prefer them. As a kid I remember cracking open a fresh farm egg and screaming "MOM LOOK! This egg has TWO yolks!" I have always wanted to make deviled eggs from them. Anyone know where I can buy a box of double yolkers? They'd be great for deviled eggs! Or would they be double-deviled eggs?
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