Egg sizes vary greatly depending upon your chicken type and their age. This section will help you to understand the sizes used by the egg producers to provide a standard across the industry. Ultimately the size of egg you use in your cooking will drive the size of meal you produce. If you find it hard to bake a great cake the size of egg you use might be what is making the difference between a light fluffy delight of a cake or a hard biscuit.
Once your chickens start producing you will soon get a feel for the size of their eggs. Our small flock tends to produce medium to eye watering with the occasional small one. This size guide has nothing to do with anything official! I am sure you will develop your own all to soon.
The only time you are going to need the official size guide is if you have a large flock and plan to sell your eggs commercially. However as a matter of interest the official size guide is as follows.
The official measurement of eggs does vary around the world but in all cases egg size is driven by the weight.
The European Union have an agreed sizing guide and have narrowed the sizing down to 4 different grades of hen’s egg as follows;
- Small – less than 53g
- Medium – between 53g and 63g
- Large – between 63g and 73g
- Very large or extra-large – greater than 73g
If you are following an old recipe you might well come across some egg size terminology that you don’t recognise. This is as in the Uk we used to grade our eggs between size 0 to size 7, most recipes calling for a size 3 egg which is equivalent to the medium egg today. These sizes were also set by weight as follows;
- Size 0 – greater than 75g
- Size 1 – between 70g and 75g
- Size 2 – between 65g and 70g
- Size 3 – between 60g and 65g
- Size 4 – between 55g and 60g
- Size 5 – between 50g and 55g
- Size 6 – between 45g and 50g
- Size 7 – less than 45g
For more information on eggs and egg sizing check out the regulations on www.gov.uk
As an aside, extra large eggs are highly likely to have double yolks. You are more likely to get double yolks when your chickens are young and are new to laying or when they start laying again after the winter break. Commercial egg producers check their extra large eggs and pull out any double yolks to sell, they are more expensive. The only way to check whether you have a double yolk or not, without breaking the shell, is to hold the egg next to a bright lamp, you should be able to see the shadow of two yolk masses. Double yolkers are great if you are planning to make egg based sauces, ice-cream or follow arecipe using extra yollks.
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