Egg Basics

What would our food be like if the humble egg didn't exist? Not only would we lose all the basic egg preparations, like scrambled, poached, and fried eggs, we'd also miss out on some of our most important emulsified sauces, like mayonnaise and hollandaise. Our baked goods, pastries, and breakfast confections would take a major hit—cookies, cakes, custards, waffles, pancakes, and meringues would be far more difficult, and in some cases flat-out impossible, to make. We'd have to say sayonara to tamagoyaki, ciao to frittatas, hasta luego to Spanish tortillas, and au revoir to omelettes. At breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert, the absence of eggs would leave our food an unrecognizable shadow of itself. And let's not forget that without eggs, we most certainly wouldn't have chickens—because the egg inarguably came first. Since we're so dependent on eggs, it helps to know a bit about them. Here are the basics, from buying to cooking and beyond.