I’m fairly new to baking and find myself wondering about egg size. I haven’t seen any recipes that specify what size eggs should be used and there’s a big difference between a small and a jumbo. How much could a recipe be influenced by the size of eggs used?
Most recipes are written with medium to large eggs in mind. Anything larger might introduce too much liquid into the recipe.
As a baker professionally I can say that what we do is use large eggs. There are, in two cups volume, roughly nine large eggs. It can vary a little, but not too much.
So if you have, for some reason, a bunch of small or medium eggs, you can calculate it by volume instead of individual eggs. I’ve not used small, but I have used medium.
I can’t believe I can give a better answer than someone with the handle Baker:, but, supermarkets generally sell large eggs, and those are fairly tightly controlled for size, and usually what’s specified in a recipe. And probably what is meant when they don’t specify. Now if you have a Bantam hen, then yes, Baker:'s calculations may come in handy for you. But I’ve never seen small eggs, and I rarely see medium or jumbo eggs, they’re fine if someone wants to customize their breakfast servings, but they just screw up our baking measurements,
All three supermarkets that I frequent stock medium, large, extra large, and jumbo. But yeah, I’ve never seen small, either.
Same here. Small grocers might be limited to 2 sizes, and bodegas might only have one (usually jumbo), but if you walk 2 blocks to a medium sized grocer you can get 3-4 sizes and large grocers and supermarkets will have white eggs in 4 sizes and brown in 2 sizes. Joys of living in Queens, NY.
I’ve seen small, but that was from a neighbor’s hens. If you’re getting eggs from chickens out back of someone’s house they will likely be quite variable in size, at which point calculating by volume might become important.
Outside of that, though, most commercially sold eggs are large to jumbo. Most recipes aren’t sensitive enough for that to matter, although YMMV depending on what you’re cooking.
Large eggs, dude. The recipes are calling for large eggs. Most cookbooks say that in the prefaces.
I generally buy jumbo eggs, because I am an omelette glutton. I use them for baking and have never had a problem. But the recipes call for large eggs.
Yep. Home ec taught me that recipes are always talking about large eggs.
Unless otherwise stated in a recipe, large eggs are what is being called for. For a 1 or 2 egg recipe, going up or down one size is negligible, but if your making chiffon cake, custard, poundcake, bread pudding, meringue, etc., which call for a lot of eggs, separated or not, then you’ll run into problems.
BITD used to see small eggs all the time, and at the big baking holidays, Christmas and Easter, pullet eggs would suddenly become available, then disappear.
Best to familiarize yourself with egg sizes if you’ll need to substitute one size for another. My rule of thumb is 4 large eggs = 3 extra large eggs.
I keep large eggs in the fridge for baking, and jumbos(put into a large box) since I’m trying to up my husband’s protein levels, for medical reasons. He feels he can only eat 2 eggs at a time, but isn’t hip to egg sizes. Pretty sneaky, huh? 
I am crashing this thread blind to advocate duck eggs instead of chicken eggs for your OMFG amazeballs baking pleasure.
I keep hens and I’ve learnt that size isn’t everything. Eggs change in their quality as they age. An egg fresh from the hen is useless in a cake. They will give the best rise when they’re 5-10 days old. Before and after that they are only good for breakfast or omellet.
Many professionals use weight of eggs rather than number of eggs in recipe; and to be even more accurate - weight of yolks and weight of whites.
My mom raises hens, and while the eggs do vary considerably in size, they’re usually jumbo at the smallest. She’s occasionally had single eggs that weighed as much as four ounces. Apparently some of her chickens think they’re geese.
True indeed, hence the origin of the word POUNDCAKE. The four major ingredients each weighed a pound, with eggs being weighed prior to being shelled. In actuality, eggs ARE sold by weight, each egg in a carton of eggs must fall within certain parameters. It’s just easier to sell them by the carton/dozen, and not get the average customer flummoxed having to think about weights.
Egg is not a critical ratio to a recipe ingredients. It just lends a quality to the character of the better. A little more or less won’t matter. Ever see a recipe that called for 3/4 egg?
When I make nokedlis, I just use one egg, and then keep readjusting the flour or water to get the right consistency. But some egg has to be in there, or they won’t be nokedlis.
Same with French toast. Mix one or two or three eggs with as much milk as it will take, according to how many pieces of bread you are going to make.
Same here I see the same size as you . I did ask why I don’t get double yolks eggs anymore and the guy at store said there better control now and he said he wouldn’t want to get eggs with a double yolk . I thought that was odd b/c I like a the yolk and 2 are better than one to me!
Just remember that eggs are sized by the dozen rather than individually. That means that the egg carton total weight averages out to whatever size egg you’re buying which means that one or more eggs in a large batch could be jumbo or medium.
Funny, I was just thinking about this. I assume all recipes mean “large” eggs. I made a box-mix cake the other day which called for the usual 3 eggs. But I had bought a carton of “medium” eggs, so I shrugged and used 4 instead. The cake was perfect. 