Participating in the U of A Heritage Chicken Program

My husband and I first read about the University of Alberta (U of A) Heritage Chicken Program in The Tomato's All about the Egg issue. The idea is based similar to that of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) where customers pay money at the beginning of a period to help a farm with seed capital and receive their investment in produce. 

The U of A - Poultry Research Centre, is interested in preserving five heritage chicken breeds in order to be a living genetic bank and for researchers to compare Heritage chicken productivity to modern chickens. Keeping Heritage chickens are expensive and thus, came into being a program where Edmontonians can "adopt" a chicken and in return get farm fresh eggs.

We adopted a Barred Plymouth Rock and named her "Peppa". Every two weeks for the next 5 months we get a dozen eggs from Peppa and the rest of the girls. Below is a picture of the different eggs we received.

Here are the various eggs that we received (Picture from Heritage Chicken Program)

What are the differences?

Like most of you, we had various questions and thoughts about the differences of a Heritage Chicken egg in taste, texture, visual presentation and the feel of the egg in comparison to the generic supermarket brand. I suppose the difference could also be between farm fresh eggs vs. the regular supermarket brand.

At first glance, there is certainly a visual size difference between the supermarket 'medium' brand and all of the Heritage Chicken eggs (the latter being slightly smaller). So, will the size of the chicken egg make a difference in better taste and overall quality?

In this picture we have the Barred Plymouth Rock
and the Light Sussex versus regular supermarket eggs. 

What does it look and taste like?
To do a taste comparison we prepared the Barred Plymouth Rock egg and the supermarket egg in a sunny-side egg fashion. Right away you can see that the egg yolk for the Barred Plymouth is a dark golden yellow, whereas the other yolk is a pale daffodil colour. 

Cutting into the egg yolk, we first tried the supermarket brand. The egg yolk had a watery texture, and there didn't seem to be much flavour. In comparison, the Barred Plymouth's egg yolk was creamy; almost buttery. There was a nice smoothness to the yolk as well. It also had a smoky flavour to it as well; but this may have been due to the cooking process. 

Now for the egg white. Was there a difference in taste for the egg white? I was surprised how much of a difference there was! The supermarket brand didn't seem to have much flavour and the egg white quickly fell apart as you chewed it. On the other hand, the egg white on the Barred Plymouth was firm and fleshy. There was also more body to the egg white. 

We also had both eggs on a piece of toast to see if there was a difference.
Here the yolk on the Barred Plymouth appears to be thicker in comparison to
the runny texture of the supermarket egg yolk. 

We also did a comparison test of the Light Sussex and the Supermarket brand with scrambled eggs. 

Scrambled eggs: Light sussex vs. Supermarket brand

Overall, there is a significant difference between the Heritage Chicken eggs in comparison to the supermarket brand in taste, egg white texture, the darkness of the egg yolk and even in the feel of the egg itself. The supermarket egg shell seems slightly thinner. The Heritage eggs appeared to crack more cleanly in comparison.

The cost to participate is $75 for five months, this works out to be $15 / month for approximately 2 dozen eggs or $7.50 / dozen. This is expensive for eggs, however, the point of the program is to preserve the genetic diversity of chickens and the eggs you receive are a by-product. If you wanted farm fresh eggs you could always check out the farmer's market which run about $4 a dozen from various vendors.

We have enjoyed participating in this pilot program and look forward to more uses of our Heritage eggs. The program is currently in full swing with their initial 200 participants. If you are interested in the program for the Fall, you can visit the Heritage Chickens website for more details.

Here are a few links about the program:

Edmonton Journal Article 

CBC Edmonton News Clip  

Heritage Chickens Website

Florentines Using a Pâte Sucrée Crust

Another French baked good that I thoroughly enjoy eating are Florentines. Florentines are fragile biscuits that have a nutty, caramel flavour, that sometimes include fruits and of course a thin layer of chocolate. They are also extremely addictive!

In order to start the process of florentines, you need to first make the dough - the pâte sucrée  As mentioned previously, this florentine recipe is based on Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery. To see how to make the pâte sucrée click here for my previous blog post.



Making the base:

1. Once the pâte sucrée has chilled in the fridge for 2 hours, roll the dough out into a rectangular pan.  

2. Press the dough into the rectangular pan. Patch up any spots with extra dough. Using a blunt knife or pizza cutter to cut off any extras.

3. Place a piece of parchment paper over the dough, and fill the pan with baking beans or baking weights. This is called "blind baking". Bake the dough for 350F for 15-20 min or until golden brown.

4. Once the dough has baked and the sides begin to turn a golden brown, take the pan out of the oven. Allow to cool. 

Nut Layer

Ingredients:

• 52g whole milk
• 79g granulated sugar
• 42g glucose
• 42g honey
• 105g unsalted butter @ room temp.
• 126g almonds
• pinch of salt

Notes: I used corn syrup for the glucose, and 1% milk instead of whole milk. 

1. Combine milk, sugar, glucose and honey into a small pot. Cook at medium heat stirring continually.

2. Stir continually to dissolve the sugar. Cook for 8 minutes or until you reach 248F (120C). 

3. Remove from heat, add in butter and salt. Stir in the almonds.

4. Slowly pour the nut-sugar mixture over the cooled down pate sucree. Use a spatula to reach all surface areas.  

5. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 325F. Rotate the tray around 15 minutes to ensure even cooking. It is done baking when you see the mixture bubbling and turning golden brown. 

6. Allow to cool (approx. 20-30 minutes). Then, flip the tray over onto a piece of parchment paper.

7. Spread melted chocolate (mixed with whipping cream) over the back of the florentine. To make cool patterns on the chocolate use a fork and draw an "s" shape into the chocolate. Have fun!

Once the chocolate has cooled, cut into squares. You can store these delish items in your fridge in a covered container for up to a week. It probably won't last that long as they are so good! If I had to describe how these taste I would say they have a hint of caramel, combined with the nut layer and then chocolate. There is also some almond meal in the pâte sucrée (sugar) crust which makes the entire florentine smell even more amazing. One friend said that it tastes like a mix of a turtle chocolate and skor toffee bar. What do you think it tastes like? Try making these and you will find out.