Rare, but not unusual.

I just ate a hard-boiled egg.  This thing was a real pain to open; I lost most (or so I thought) of the white in the process.  Usually you get a piece off, and then at some point, it all just sorta unwraps from there.  Rinse it off to get rid of the stragglers, and you’re all set.  Not this time.  Didn’t get any traction.  It was pretty pathetic-looking when I was done.  I should have taken a picture, but I was hungry.

It was on actually eating this egg that I discovered the real weird thing – it had no yolk.  I’ve never had an egg with no yolk in it before.  I did some quick googling, and turned up this spicy bit of double-speak:

“Occasionally, a hen will produce double-yolked eggs throughout her egg-laying career. It is rare, but not unusual, for a young hen to produce an egg with no yolk at all.”  (source here)

From dictionary.com:

rare: coming or occurring far apart in time; unusual; uncommon: a rare disease; His visits are rare occasions.

unusual:  not usual, common, or ordinary; uncommon in amount or degree; exceptional: an unusual sound; an unusual hobby; an unusual response.

Synonyms: extraordinary, remarkable; rare, strange, singular, curious, queer, odd.

I thought so…  Either way, it’s somewhat reassuring to know that I just ate what might or might not be a statistical anomoly.

4 Comments:

  1. I don’t think I have ever had a yolk-less egg, but I have had a few double-yolked eggs.
    Did you note this bit of info about your peeling problem? “A hard-cooked egg will peel more easily if it is a week or two old before it is cooked. “

  2. “Yolkless eggs are usually formed about a bit of tissue that is sloughed off the ovary or oviduct. This tissue stimulates the secreting glands of the oviduct and a yolkless egg results.”

    mm, sloughed ovary and secretions. what a lucky boy you are.

  3. sarah: well, we did get this egg at the co-op, (as opposed to the “coop”), and it was locally… uh, farmed? so it most likely wasn’t even a week old. that ‘splains that!

    lura: mmmm. wow, that’s Really gross-sounding and unappetizing! thanks. 🙂

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