Eggsactly how are these hens 'happy'?

A recipe for frittata

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English author Fay Weldon came up with one of the best ever advertising slogans, with a play on the traditional English breakfast. A copy-writer in 1957, she produced the sharp-witted ‘Go to work on an egg’ for Britain’s Egg Marketing Board. Until 1971, it was used in TV ads like this, starring two popular comics of the day.

The slogan lasted but the Egg Marketing Board didn’t. It was replaced by the Eggs Authority, then by today’s British Eggs Industry Council, an organisation of 11 trade associations covering all aspects of the industry from breeding to marketing. 

Except, it seems, the freedom of the hen.

Enough is known about the cruelty hens endure when raised in battery farms, packed into cages up to four levels high, that consumers fortunate enough not to be forced to watch their budgets can buy free-range eggs instead. 

But legal standards defining ‘free-range’ differ from country to country, and are not always regulated in every area. You can be forgiven for imagining that, in the food business at least, ‘free’ would equal freedom. 

‘Free-range’ means egg-layers must have access to the outside world. But there is no regulation as to how long or how often they are outside, nor on the quality of the outside. 

‘Cage-free’ and ‘barn free’ mean the birds are not restricted to cages and can roam inside a barn. But not outdoors. Eggs like these, also labelled ‘barn-roaming’, ‘barn’ or ‘aviary’ eggs - ‘happy’ eggs, even - come from hens that have only ‘freely-ranged’ indoors and have never felt the breeze ruffle their feathers. 

Except for ‘Certified Organic’, the U.S. government does not set definitions or requirements for any egg-carton labels. A plain ‘Organic’ label can be used simply if the hen hasn’t been fed antibiotics and chemicals but may still be cooped up in a restrictive cage.

In the UK, where ‘organic’ and ‘barn free’ account for only 5% of the market, organic label certification by the UK’s Soil Association requires flocks of no more than 2000 birds to be free-range and fed on organic feed, with growth hormones and antibiotics prohibited. 

For ‘free range’, which accounts for over 44% of eggs sold in the UK, there is no maximum flock size. Commonly, a single flock of up to 30,000 intensively reared ‘free-range’ birds is housed in one shed.

‘Happy’, ‘Cage-free’, ‘Free-range’ hens

In the US, the vast majority of laying hens are raised in caged systems, 10 to a cage, accounting for around 80% of all hen production. Packed together, they’re allocated space less than the size of a sheet of paper - just enough to stand upright but not enough to turn around or stretch their wings. What can’t be seen is what goes into caged laying hens - the antibiotics and growth hormones.

The US egg industry isn’t happy about moves from caged to cage-free, believing it will raise the price of eggs to the point where consumers can’t afford to buy them and cause an industry decline. Given ‘cage-free’ eggs represent only 26% of all US eggs produced, it doesn’t seem much of an imminent threat. 

In the UK, sales of eggs from battery-farmed hens are going down, in 2021 accounting for 38% of the total against 57% of free-range eggs.

Should you crack an egg and discover a glorious sunset yolk, don’t be seduced into supposing that’s any guarantee the egg was laid by a free-range hen. While outdoor-access hens may lay eggs with yolks of a more intense orange due to the insects and greenery in their diet, feed-additives like marigold petal meal, dried algae and alfalfa meal can be used to stain the yolks of indoor hens.  

Egg tips:

• When using for baking, bring eggs out of the refrigerator in time to reach room temperature.

• For the best froth from egg whites, whisk them straight from the fridge.

• The French beat egg whites in copper bowls to force some of the ions in copper into them, bonding with their conalbumin quotient. This produces shinier and frothier egg whites and makes them less vulnerable to collapse.

• If your bowl has the slightest grease in it, egg whites won't rise.

• To get a peeled hard-boiled egg inside a bottle - why wouldn't you want to try? - get a clean, empty glass milk bottle and drop a twist of burning paper into it. Put the egg on top of the open neck. The burning paper will suck up the oxygen inside the bottle and then the egg, vacuuming it in. Run the whole thing under running water to get rid of the paper ash. How cool is that? (To make it even easier, you can soak the egg overnight in vinegar to soften it.)  

Go to work on a frittata. It’s a basic omelette to which you add your treasures. They’re a great solution to those left-overs on little saucers in your fridge and perfect picnic food - if we’re allowed out on those…

Photo Klaus Einwanger: The Bruno Cookbook, Martin Walker & Julia Watson

The base for 2 servings:

1 generous tablespoon butter, olive oil or duck fat
4 eggs, at room temperature
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Set the broiler/grill to its highest. 

Melt the fat in a frying pan over medium-low heat and make an omelette in the usual way. Once the eggs are mostly set but still a little runny on top, add the extras then a suitable cheese and slide the pan under the grill to set the top of the eggs and melt the cheese a little. But don’t overcook.

With an oven glove, remove the pan and serve immediately by running a palette knife around the edge of the pan and sliding the frittata onto a warmed serving plate. Otherwise, serve straight from the pan, in slices.

Some filling suggestions:

Duck confit filling:
7oz/200g shreds of duck confit and a handful of cooked potato warmed over low heat by continuous tossing so they doesn’t fry, seasoned with salt and pepper to taste, with roughly chopped parsley leaves folded in.
Optional finish: 7oz/200g Comté or Gruyère cheese, in medium slices.
Spring greens filling:
5¼ oz/150g small unpeeled cooked potatoes, cubed, heated through in a little melted butter. Add a 7oz/200g mix of young spring greens – spinach, nettles (they must be young enough not to sting, but handle with tongs anyway), sorrel, watercress, beetroot or radish leaves, etc - and sweat in a little butter. Season with salt and pepper and 1 tablespoon of chopped chives or tarragon folded in.
Optional finish: 2oz/55g fromage frais or ricotta, flopped onto the frittata in teaspoonfuls after grilling it.
Asparagus filling:
8-10 asparagus stalks, trimmed and chopped in 1 inch/2cm pieces and sautéed in butter, stirring occasionally, until crisp-tender and lightly browned, 3-5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Optional finish: 2oz/55g mild chalky goat’s cheese, or Brie thickly sliced, or dabs of fromage frais.