Pastured Eggs vs. Pasteurized Eggs: What’s the Difference?
Pastured Eggs vs. Pasteurized Eggs: What’s the Difference?
Pastured and Pasteurized might sound alike, but they mean two totally different things when it comes to eggs.
Pastured eggs from Wattle & Comb are available only at Sigona's Farmers Market.
We’ve recently spent some time on our blog talking about our amazing standard-sized and PeeWee pastured eggs from Wattle & Comb. A common question we continue to receive at each store and on the blog is, “What’s the difference between pastured eggs and pasteurized eggs? These words sound alike so they’re basically the same thing, right?” Well, there’s actually quite a big difference between them.
What’s The Difference?
Pastured eggs come from hens that are born and raised on a pasture. This vast expanse of chicken utopia allows our feathered friends to walk and prance about a large pasture while eating directly from the land – just as Mother Nature herself intended. The end result is pastured eggs consisting of richer yolks and livelier whites.
Pasteurized eggs, on the other hand, refers to the process of pasteurization, which consist of heating the egg for a set amount of time before immediately cooling it down to combat spoilage resulting from microbial growth. An example of this would be heating an egg yolk in the microwave to kill pesky bacteria without actually cooking the yolk. This is a process that’s fairly common when whipping up a batch of mayonnaise.
As you can see, the terms “pastured eggs” and “pasteurized eggs” might sound similar when spoken aloud, but they mean two incredibly different things.
Where to Get ‘Em
Looking to buy the freshest pastured eggs in the entire Bay Area? Sigona’s Farmers Market is proud to be the exclusive provider of standard-sized and PeeWee pastured eggs from Wattle & Comb. These cute and adorable PeeWees, commonly referred to as “pullet eggs,” have become quite popular on menus these days due to their high omega-3 fatty acid content and rich flavor.
In fact, our Pescadero-based friends are currently busy with hens that are producing an abundance of eggs, now that molting season is over, and they’ve also brought in more chicks which have grown to be pullets, i.e. young hens that are just learning the ropes of laying eggs.
Now that you know the difference between pastured and pasteurized eggs, come on in and check out our 6-packs of PeeWee and standard-sized eggs. To learn a little bit more about these adorable oblong-shaped beauties, please check out our video below.
