What's up with eggs? What's happened to the supermarket?

Bruce is on his own for this episode, since Mark is still recovering from his broken leg.

Join us for a fun and informative podcast about food and cooking!

Here are the segments for this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK:

[00:36] Our one-minute cooking tip: bake some breads in a heavy, superheated Dutch oven.

[02:31] What’s going on with eggs?

[12:56] What’s making Bruce happy in food this week? Decaffeinated coffee from Mexico!

Hey, I'm Bruce Weinstein, and this is

the podcast Cooking with Bruce and Mark.

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Mark is just learning how to walk

again after breaking his leg.

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He's just starting to do stairs.

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So we've got one more episode with me

before he gets back to the studio and

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joins me for all this cooking fun.

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But today I have got a

one minute cooking tip.

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I'm going to talk all about eggs and

what is going on in the world with

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eggs, and I'm going to tell you what's

making me happy in food this week.

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So let's get started.

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My one minute cooking tip, My

one minute cooking tip, bake your

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free form breads in a covered

Dutch oven, not on a baking sheet.

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What do I mean by free form?

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Not the loaf bread you put in a loaf pan.

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I'm talking about a round loaf, a French

boule, or even a braided round loaf, or a

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small braided oval, like a small challah.

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But you want to make sure that your

Dutch oven is going to be big enough.

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to hold it.

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So here's what happens.

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The Dutch oven is heated in your oven

at 400 degrees for about an hour.

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So it gets super hot and

you've made your dough.

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You've let it rise.

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You've shaped it.

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You let it rise again.

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Now, instead of baking it on

a baking sheet, you put that

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risen loaf of dough Into that

superheated Dutch oven immediately.

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It will spring up as it does in a

professional oven and get significantly

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bigger than it would in a baking tray.

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Second, it's a closed system because

you put the lid back on it and that

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lid was in during the preheating.

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So the lid is hot.

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So we'll create some steam and that

steamy environment delays the crust

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formation, allowing it to get.

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Even bigger.

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So try that and see if you like baking

your bread in a covered Dutch oven.

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before I get to the next segment

of cooking with Bruce and Mark,

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I want to thank you for listening

and ask you for your indulgence

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to please rate this podcast,

wherever you get your podcasts from.

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Please give us a rating, leave a comment.

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We are not supported in any other

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ratings are what do us the best good

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So thank you for spending your time

with us here and for leaving us a

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review Okay on to our next segment.

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What's up with eggs?

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Eggs are all in the news, right?

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Everywhere you look, it's eggs.

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It's on social media.

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It's on the news.

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It's in the papers.

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Prices are through the roof.

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Last week I went shopping and

almost all the eggshelves in

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my supermarket were empty.

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And what was there was 13 a dozen.

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That is kind of nuts.

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Now this week I went shopping and

there were more eggs and prices

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had come down a little to about 20.

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And I know that that's a lot

to pay for eggs, but why have

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the price of eggs been so high?

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Well, it's because of outbreaks of a

highly pathogenic avian influenza, or

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bird flu, and cases have significantly

reduced the United States Egg laying

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flock, and that's causing a shortage

of eggs, which is raising prices.

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But here's the thing.

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This bird flu has been

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And that's why egg prices have been

up and down for the past three years.

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This isn't something new.

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This has been coming in waves, right?

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And it's estimated that more than

136 million birds have been infected.

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by the avian influenza in the

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In December, there were over

18 million birds affected.

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And in the U.

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S.,

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when the flu is detected at a farm,

sadly, the entire flock is culled.

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And that means that

they are all destroyed.

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And then the farm is disinfected.

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And so what does this mean besides

the lack of eggs in your supermarket

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and the prices going through the roof?

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Well, more and more eggs, believe it

or not, are being found at both our

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southern and northern border crossings.

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and being taken away from

people yep, egg smuggling.

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But why isn't the bird flu and egg

shortages a big problem in Canada?

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Well, there's a bunch of reasons why.

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Let's start with the fact

that Canada has so many fewer

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people than the United States.

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320 million people here in the U.

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S.

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It's hard to produce food for this many

people without Giant industrial farms.

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So in Canada, they have smaller

farms and Canadian poultry farms

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are not only smaller, but it means

if an outbreak occurs, it affects a

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smaller number of birds and limits

the potential economic impact.

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Also, the farms are spread out.

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There's so much land in Canada

versus how many people that the

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geographical distribution of

these farms really helps prevent.

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the rapid transmission between flocks.

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So you're not going to get a farm

in one place getting bird flu and

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then the farm, you know, half a

mile down the road getting it.

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They're really spread out.

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Also Canada has strict.

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regulations.

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And Canadian authorities implement strict

biosecurity measures to monitor and

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control potential outbreaks on farms.

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And also, their culling

practices are different.

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Well, here, we might have to wipe out

an entire farm with millions of birds.

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If avian flu is detected on an egg

laying farm in Canada, Canada, sometimes

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the infected birds can be culled

without the entire flock coming out

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and that helps prevent further spread

and monitoring and surveillance.

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Canadian public health agencies closely

monitor avian flu both domestically and

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globally and that's something we're just

not quite doing as much in this country.

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So that's why People are trying

to smuggle eggs in from Canada.

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Now, one of the benefits of living

rurally, and Mark and I live very rurally

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in New England, is that we can go to

local farms and local backyard farmers

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who have chickens and they have eggs

out in coolers on their front porches

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and at the ends of their driveways.

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And there's been a bit

of an egg war recently.

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In our area and in our town and

eggs were 5 a dozen from these local

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farms and some of them organic.

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And all of a sudden I've been

seeing people crossing out the

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five and putting 4 a dozen.

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Everybody is trying to beat

out their neighbors and getting

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my money for their eggs.

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And it's really kind of fun

because you could see the chickens.

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They're running around

one of the farms near us.

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All she has are Guinea fowl, which are.

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In French, pintade.

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And they run around the roads,

and luckily I've never seen

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any hit by cars on the roads.

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People are very careful.

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And those eggs are delicious, and

they're beautiful, and they're 5 a dozen.

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So I've been stocking up

on those kind of eggs.

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There's a lot of weird

news going on about eggs.

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, there's a butcher in Bed Stuy in

Brooklyn, Prince Abu's Butchery,

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and two weeks ago they handed out

200 dozen eggs to New Yorkers Free.

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And their feeling is eggs are a staple.

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Everybody needs them.

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And they wanted to make sure

that people in their neighborhood

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were still able to get eggs.

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New Yorkers lined up for their free eggs.

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And, also, in New York, go into any of

the thousands of bodegas in New York City,

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and let me tell you, there are thousands.

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And you will find many selling

eggs in packages of three.

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Little, three little

eggs for three dollars.

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That's one dollar an egg, which is

about twelve dollars a dozen, which

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is about what they're costing in the

supermarkets up here, but this is nice,

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so you only have to buy three eggs.

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You don't have to buy a whole dozen.

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And people are not only smuggling

eggs, people are stealing eggs.

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Last month there was the theft of

one 100, 000 eggs of Pete and Jerry's

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organic eggs in Pennsylvania and they

were stolen from one single store chain

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and it is insane a hundred thousand

eggs So what's happening about this?

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Well to mitigate the shortage Turkey,

the country of Turkey, they have

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begun exporting approximately 33

million pounds of eggs to the U.

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S.

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to help.

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This is part of a preliminary

agreement between our countries and

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it will continue through July of 2025.

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So some of those eggs you may be

getting at your store are actually

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from the country of Turkey.

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And while I'm talking about eggs, how

about some fun egg facts for the day?

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about eggs, how about some fun

egg facts Did you know that an

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eggshell can have As many as 17, 000

pores, yep, eggshells are porous.

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And when the chicken lays the egg,

they're coated in a protective

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layer that sort of seals those.

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In many parts of the world, a lot

in Europe and Asia, they do not wash

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the eggs before they sell them, so

eggs can be kept at room temperature.

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In the U.

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S.,

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eggs are washed, so because

they're porous and that Protective

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layer's been washed off.

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We have to keep them in the fridge.

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And did you know that an egg shell and

an egg yolk color have no effect on

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the taste or the quality of an egg?

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Nope.

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That's just about what

the chicken was eating and

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the breed determines the egg color.

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Some are brown, some are white, some lay

blue eggs, green eggs, even pink eggs.

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However, chickens that lay brown

eggs tend to require more feed to

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produce their eggs, so that's why

brown eggs sometimes are a little

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bit more expensive than white eggs.

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And did you know it takes a chicken

24 to 26 hours to produce an egg?

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Which is why, in the height

of laying season, a chicken

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can produce an egg a day.

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And, although ostrich eggs are one

of the largest bird eggs known to

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us, Kiwis, a much smaller bird, lays

the largest egg in relation to its

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body size of any species of bird.

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And when it comes to the number of eggs

laid each year, Iowa leads the nation with

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almost 15 billion eggs produced annually.

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Ohio, a close second, with

8 billion eggs a year.

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And Finally, about eggs.

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This has been an internet

favorite for the past few weeks,

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and this is cracking me up.

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You scroll through TikTok and Reels

and Facebook and Instagram, and you

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see this headline, Scientists Find

the Perfect Way to Boil an Egg.

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Now, maybe you haven't seen that.

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Google it if you haven't,

but I see it in my feed.

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And the truth is, to make a really

good hard boiled egg is difficult.

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Why is that?

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Because the yolk and the white

cook at separate temperatures.

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65 degrees centigrade or 150 Fahrenheit is

the most perfect texture for an egg yolk.

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185 Fahrenheit, that's 85

centigrade, is the most perfect

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temperature for an egg white.

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Boil an Egg and You end up getting

a slightly overcooked white or

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a slightly undercooked yolk.

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So, here's what happened.

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An Italian scientist and

his team figured it out.

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They used math and the knowledge

they gained from working with them.

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Plastic foams.

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Yeah, you heard me.

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Plastic foams to invent something

they're referring to as periodic cooking.

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Periodic cooking has you flip the egg

between boiling water and room temperature

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water, about 85 degrees Fahrenheit

or 30 Celsius, every two minutes.

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And you keep doing that

for a total of 32 minutes.

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Now with this rapidly shifting

temperature you end up with this

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incredibly beautiful boiled egg.

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Now do you want to spend

32 minutes boiling an egg?

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I don't know, that's up to you.

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What I usually do is I put an egg in

boiling water for minutes, I turn

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off the heat, I set the pan aside, and

I let it sit for another four minutes.

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That, to me, gives me a perfectly

set white, the yolk is slightly

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jammy in the middle, and I absolutely

love a boiled egg done that way.

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In fact, that is just about the

only way I will eat a boiled egg

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when the yolk is a little jammy.

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Once it's cooked all the way, it's not

my favorite, so I am not a fan of your

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egg salad or of your deviled eggs.

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My husband is though, and I

make them for him all the time.

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Our last segment of the podcast, what's

making me happy in food this week?

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Believe it or not, decaffeinated

coffee from Chiapas, Mexico.

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A few months ago, I decided to give up

caffeine and I thought it was going to be

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really hard, but surprisingly, I didn't

go through any of the headaches or any

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of the nervousness that people claim.

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I'm a little tired and it gets

harder to wake up in the morning,

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but I have found this amazing Swiss

water process decaffeinated coffee

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from Southern Mexico that is.

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is just fabulous.

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It's a dark roast.

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I do it in my espresso machine.

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I have a latte with that every morning,

sometimes in the afternoon too, because

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for me coffee is not about waking up.

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It's about the flavor.

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I just love coffee.

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So what's making me happy is a

beautiful Decaffeinated Mexican

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coffee from the south of Mexico.

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And if you want to try it, go ahead.

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Tell me what you think about

decaffeinated coffee from Mexico.

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So, that's our podcast.

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We talked about baking

bread in a Dutch oven.

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I talked endlessly about eggs

and what's going on with eggs.

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And I talked about decaffeinated coffee.

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Please go to our Facebook group

Cooking with Bruce and Mark and

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tell me what and tell us what's

making you happy in food this week.

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We tell you every week

what's making us happy.

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We want to know what's making you happy in

food this week and we might even try it or

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certainly talk about it here on the next

episode of Cooking with Bruce and Mark.