$6.20 for a dozen eggs still sounds like a good deal. Think about the amount of work to get those onto a refrigerated shelf in the supermarket. It's amazing.
Wow, today I learned that in some countries, the supermarkets keep their eggs in the refrigerator! Apparently there is a protective coat on eggs that sometimes gets washed away, and when it is, you need to store the egg in a cold environment otherwise bacteria gets in. In other places, eggs aren't washed (that much at least) so the protective coat is still there, so we store our eggs on normal room temperature shelves.
They're still washed, otherwise they would have all kinds of crap on them (literally, chickens only have one hole), they just aren't subjected to chemicals and scrubbing etc.
Having very low salmonella rates in the flock makes it really unnecessary
The eggs I buy in my supermarket don't have literally crap on them, but it isn't uncommon that they have bit of dirt or hay/grass on them, and those are bought from a mainstream supermarket chain. I do realize they obviously do a quick cleaning pass regardless, just wanted to clarify that many eggs aren't pristine when bought :)
They are probably washed, but only minimally - sometimes there is still a small feather or some dirt on an egg.
That might be easy for you when you're working at Microsoft and making $500,000 a year, but that's a significant amount of money for a lot of people in the United States. And eggs aren't some fancy item. They're eggs.
"It's one banana, Michael. What could it cost?"
>"It's one banana, Michael. What could it cost?"
It's funny you bring up that up, because bananas are tropical fruits shipped from thousands of miles away, but somehow cost less than domestic fruits like apples. You might not think bananas are "fancy" either, but it's a miracle it's as cheap as they are.
A dozen eggs lasts months in my house (family of 4). We just aren't egg people. The kids will ask for scrambled eggs occasionally, but it's pretty rare. The only time we use a lot of eggs is when we make Christmas cookies, and an 18-count pack typically does the job there. My point being, it's all relative.
One angel food cake or batch of soufflé and you’ll use a bunch right there. Just a glaze on some meat pasties might burn two or three, and they’re barely even an ingredient in that case. Hell, family of five, one scrambled egg breakfast a week can knock out an entire dozen if you use zero other eggs that week for anything.
The things are little chemical miracles somewhere between useful and indispensable for all kinds of stuff in the kitchen, or good as a (usually…) dirt-cheap source of protein, vitamins, and flavor that can be added to lots of dishes or eaten on their own, making them remarkably versatile and easy to use.