I’m over at Simple Bites today sharing an in depth article on The Beauty of Farm-Fresh Eggs and How to Source Them. I’ve been wanting to write an article on the nourishment of “real” eggs for quite some time. I’ve included information on the seasonality of eggs, their nutrients, farm-fresh versus conventional and even tips on how to get started on raising your own chickens for eggs.
The main reason that I started raising my own chickens is that my family eats a lot of eggs. Coming from a traditional Spanish family, we include eggs in many of our dishes.
Ask any Spaniard what their favorite meal is and I’m sure they’ll reply, “papas fritas con huevo frito.” Fried potatoes with a fried egg. Traditional and in it’s simplicity, exquisite.
Since I’m over at Simple Bites today sharing on eggs, I wanted to share on my blog one of my favorite simple, traditional and nourishing snacks that has been passed down from generation to generation in my family.
Huevo con miel, raw egg yolk with honey
It’s always so inspiring for me to learn recipes from my traditional family that they intuitively knew would nourish their children.
According to the Weston Price Foundation, Egg yolk supplies cholesterol needed for mental development as well as important sulphur-containing amino acids. Egg yolks from pasture-fed hens or hens raised on flax meal, fish meal or insects are also rich in the omega-3 long-chain fatty acids found in mother’s milk but which may be lacking in cow’s milk. These fatty acids are essential for the development of the brain.
Growing up, my mother would give us a raw egg yolk mixed in with a bit of sugar. She was given the same thing growing up as did the generations before her. My mother knew that eggs were nourishing and insisted that my sisters and I ate one a day and always snuck in a raw egg yolk when ever she could.
I remember my younger sister Lisa running through the house, hands wailing through the air and excitedly screaming, “huevo con azucar! huevo con azucar!” We would slurp it up quickly and always ask for more. However, my mami always replied, “just one!”
Can you believe it? We were excited to eat our raw egg yolk. It goes to show that it’s what you feed your children on a consistent basis that develops their palates and makes the seemingly “un-normal” seem normal.
One thing to remember is that I would not feed my children grocery store raw egg yolks. Please be sure to only use raw egg yolks if the eggs are from a local family farmer pasturing their hens or from your own backyard. I go into more detail on my post over at Simple Bites.
Huevo Con Miel, Raw Egg Yolk with Honey
Ingredients:
- 1 farm fresh, pastured egg yolk
- 1 tbls raw honey
Method:
- In a small dish, mix one farm fresh egg yolk with a tablespoon of honey.
I’m sure once your children taste the egg yolk and honey mixed together, they’ll eat it up and ask for more.
Buen Provecho!
This post is part of Real Food Wednesday’s and Simple Lives Thursday
I WILL have to try it with honey. I am so very pleased to hear this was not just my tradition growing up. And for those reading this post, PLEASE do keep an open mind, it is ABSOLUTELY delicious. The closest I can come up with is imagine eating a chocolate mousse but instead it tastes like eggs, custardy type. Now Diana I have a question for you. I have been wanting to start raising chickens? What do you do during the cold months? how much of your time do you take for them and so on? Would LOVE to hear and learn more. Both my grandparents and parents raised them, but then again they had a large farm and people helping.
Sofia, great comment!! Thank you! You know, I need to write a post on raising chickens in the Midwest. Since it gets freezing around here, as you know, I have winter hardy birds. They do great in the winter. Just for you Sofia, I’ll write up a post next week on this very subject ;D
Diana, I think more and more people are going back to their roots and caring for what they eat, growing their own vegetables, etc so THANK YOU for creating a post on raising chickens in the midwest but hopefully not just me but MANY others will enjoy it too and think about it! I will certainly share it your post on my blog!
We used to get the same thing in my family, except that we also added a bit of cocoa to the mix, and when we studied for something, it was instant coffee instead of cocoa.
Diana: great post!
We used to make zabaione with raw egg…
I grew up with chicken in our backyard (in Italy) growing up… it was so great to go with a basket and pick the eggs up, and then when the chicken was old we’d make the BEST ever chicken soup.
mmmm … papas fritas con huevo frito! That’s an idea for my lunch. I’d never heard of huevos con miel but I guess it’s worth a try.
What a great idea – so perfectly sweet and creamy.
Our little one loves a raw pasture-raised egg yolk mixed with maple syrup poured on top of her organic oatmeal.
Susan, thanks for sharing that!! What a great idea 😀
This sounds like a raw custard :-). I am curious what it tastes like, and it’s so simple to make. Beautiful pics too!
Thanks for stopping by Cooking Rookie!
Hi Diana, I was wondering if you saw about “MAITRI – A Friendship Chain” event. If not, please do take a look and try to participate, it will be fun 🙂
http://mharorajasthanrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/03/maitri-friendship-chain.html
Send me an email @ [email protected]
OMG!! I’m Cuban and my mom used to give me a raw egg with sugar every morning when I was little..breakfast of champions!!
I’ve heard this from so many Latinas Limay! So fun to see how we all share tradition 😀
YUM!! Love it!
oh wow. I’ve never had or heard of this before. I’ll definitely have to try this.
Eggs have been a newfound treasure for me. When I was recovering from veganism induced deficiencies, I craved eggs big time, which was really unusual because I hadn’t even liked eggs before!
There is something so perfectly delicious and nourishing about free-range organic eggs…just seeing the bright orange yolk makes me hungry!
Thanks for the comment Tasha! I’ve been following you on your ride as a recovering vegan. You are such an inspiration to many!
It looks so delicious.Lovely and colorful recipes .cool ideas for recipes i loved that . interesting this post and i just try make this recipes Eggs my favorite recipes. YUM!!!
Thanks Diana for MAITRI comment, I am happy. Please email me @ the address I gave before, so that when I match you, I have your email id to give you details.
And, yes, I live in Rancho Cucamonga, though not in victoria area. I guess next time you are visiting, we have to meet 🙂
As a food microbiologist I am, quite frankly, appalled at the suggestion of feeding raw egg yolks and honey to a child, as these are two of the biggest food-borne-illness risk foods known. Honey, when fed to children under the age of 1.5 yrs can pose a risk of botulism due to the underdeveloped immune systems in children this young. They are still vulnerable to the bacterial spores in honey that do not affect adults. And as for raw eggs, it is common knowledge that the risk for salmonella infection is real and no laughing matter. What is just a 24 hr bout of foodborne illness for an adult can easily kill a child. Why do you think that they have warnings on packaged cookie dough about not eating it raw. What you choose to feed your children is obviously your choice, but I suggest you add a disclaimer so that unknowing parents do not unknowingly infect their child with a deadly strain of bacteria.
I’m no microbiologist, but I think the author meant for this to be a snack for kids that are old enough to go running through the house yelling “huevo con azucar! huevo con azucar”…. I don’t know any 1.5 year old who can speak that well 😉 So that takes care of the honey issue.
As for the raw eggs, I AM a chicken owner and can tell you the eggs my chickens lay are way safer than store-bought eggs… Why? Because here in the good ol’ US, we cleanse and sanitize the living daylights out of our eggs and make them vulnerable to the microbes we are so dang scared of! We scrub off the naturally occuring “bloom” that each egg is laid with to protect them from said microbes; eggs can be stored for weeks (sometimes months) at ROOM TEMPERATURE if you do not take off the bloom. Do you think the chicken race would have lasted this long if nature didn’t provide a way for eggs to be protected during incubation? Chickens lay an egg a day for at least a week before actually sitting on them for incubation, which lasts about three more weeks. And why do we scrub down our eggs? Because people are afraid of a little chicken poop :/ I’m betting my chickens’ poop is alot cleaner than any human, lol. Imagine the amount of fossil fuels we’d save if we didn’t have to refigerate eggs that we’d “sanitized”???
The author clearly states to NOT use store-bought eggs! She says to seek out the wonderful eggs from a local farmer, or better yet, get your own little backyard flock (I’m happy i did).
One more thing :} It seems like generations of people in many countries have enjoyed this treat with no ill effects, I don’t think we should be so quick to draw conclusions 😉
Not entirely sure where to start with this response, so I guess the beginning and I’ll work my way down.
1) If you’re “no microbiologist,” then perhaps the assumptions that you are listing as fact do not hold as much truth as you think they do. I didn’t spend 8 years in a research laboratory at the CDC for nothing.
2)The generations of people who managed to survive without modern food safety techniques had a higher child mortality rate than we would ever accept now in the US. Although not all of these were food-related, a good many of them have been proven to be a result of food-borne illnesses that we no longer have to worry about thanks to modern food safety technology. And as for farmers growing up eating unpasteurized milk, they have garnered a natural immunity to some of the less deadly bugs because they spent years as children getting mild bouts of food-borne illness. (PLEASE NOTE THAT NO ONE IS IMMUNE TO E.COLI O157:H7 or Salmnonella Enteritidis, two of the most deadly infectious agents)
3) Furthermore, the “bloom” of which you speak on the external eggshell certainly is not dangerous to humans. But we do not eat the eggshells, do we? Salmonella is an infection that does not typically affect birds (which is why your argument about nature’s way to protect developing eggs makes no sense), but is carried within the bird and is inherent in the inner egg. Birds rarely show any signs of being carriers of Salmonella, which is why large-scale egg-producers often treat their birds with antibiotics, leading to antibiotic resistant salmonella in meats and eggs. Although the risk of antibiotic resistance in local or backyard eggs is almost zero, salmonella knows no difference between large and small production locations. And refrigeration does not affect the existence of Salmonella in an egg, but rather slows the growth of the bacteria inside. So, although not every egg contains Salmonella, many of them do.
Basically, what I was saying to the author is this: if you choose to feed your children raw eggs, a substance commonly known to contain infectious agents, so be it. But let readers know about the risks they are taking if they follow in her footsteps.
lol.
“Scientists believe that under normal conditions, only a tiny fraction of eggs contain salmonella.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/weekinreview/26eggs.html
“Although not all of these were food-related, a good many of them have been proven to be a result of food-borne illnesses that we no longer have to worry about thanks to modern food safety technology.”
I take issue with the above quote. Modern technology has not made our food safe but has in fact done the opposite by rendering it lifeless. Now we suffer and die from malnutrition. No thank you, I will gamble on the microbes.
PRO.PO.GAN.DA 🙂
Ok, ok, let me rephrase: We all have different experiences that shape the way we think about any subject and believe me I’m not one to roll around in the mud; I wash my hands thoroughly after the gym and once again when i get back home, lol. I’m also not one to shun science, in fact I was on my way to becoming a Botanist years ago (I thought going into plant genetics could help feed the world!)…. but i had a rude awakening about GMO’s and the harm they can do to people and the Earth (and realized people are starving in other countries because of politics and NOT because they don’t have drought-hardy wheat :/ ha!)
Another awakening I had was after a set of antibiotics that left my body more susceptible to sickness than I’d ever been before. It frightened me that a few pills could change my entire body’s ecosystem like that (I haven’t taken anything more than a headache pill since, about the last decade), at that point I realized we can end up doing more harm than good by living in a hyper-sanitized world where pharmaceutical companies tell us how to live.
This long-winded post is to basically say:
At this point in time I am more likely to trust what an anthropologist has to say rather than alot of scientific studies. There are so many contradictory studies out there that cancel each other out, but anthropology can tell you “this is what people do, and this is what happens when they do it”. I think an egg yolk from a sweet little hen you have in your yard will be just fine as an afternoon snack, or even better eggnog!
This is in no way to say that Microbiology and the like are not important or significant to our everyday lives, it’s just that it can go too far when it comes to feeding the kind of public hysteria that sets cases of Purell flying off the shelves! Right now I’d be more wary of spinach and romaine lettuce than eggs 😮 But then again maybe that’s just a helping of the public hysteria I mentioned :/
fascinating ! i am 77 and have been practicing the Tibetan Rites for five years / the lamas who teach the Rites recommend 2 raw egg yolks to provide the brain with all nutrients it requires / they do caution on the source of the egg / the closest i come to a raw egg yolk is a coddled egg yolk / really barely coddled / just not quite cooked / i am also an aficianado of raw honey / the honey i use is from a hive in my neighborhood or else i purchase honey from Mesa Verde (ancient home of the Anasazi here in the southwest) / well, tomorrow is the big day and i will have an egg yolk in honey / i almost cant wait until morning but i do think it seems like a morning thing / btw the eggs i get are all local and from happy hens
thanks for an interesting topic, including the post from the microbiologist / he is doing his job !
sincerely, Katherine
I think you gave enough warning, Diana, by stipulating that we NOT use an unpastured egg. 😉
This sounds great – we’ve always done this with maple or coconut syrup. So tasty! I’ll give the honey a try next time! 🙂
What great discussion. It’s always interesting to learn information from both sides of the camp.
@Amanda – Thanks so much for your comment. We definitely are on the same page 😉
@Bones – Although I appreciate your feedback, I lean more on the foods that have nourished my family for generations. As far as the honey, of course. Never to a child younger than one. I do understand that there is a real risk of salmonella, however, more likely from industrial foods raised in confinement.
Here at Spain in Iowa, we advocate real food raised as God intended.
Month after month, widespread cases of salmonella occur in our nation. However, not just from eggs but from meat, spinach even peanut butter and pancake mix. Should we advocate to stop consuming these products as well? No, the real risk… the real threat is from industrially raised eggs and meat that pollutes our airs and bacteria laden manure that leaches into our streams and rivers and ends up in our water and produce.
I will continue to eat as my family has thrived on for generations. Eating real food from family farmers and foods that I have grown and raised with my own two hands. Yes, this includes raw milk and raw egg yolks.
@Katherine – What a sweet comment 😀 You made my day sweetie and I do hope you come back to let us know how you enjoyed the egg yolk with honey 😀
Let me just weigh in that it wasn’t just Spaniards who ate such things. I learned the raw egg yolk with sugar treat from my Swedish mother when I was young. Maybe it’s time for me to resurrect it… 2.5 weeks before I cut out all sugar for many months. Ha ha.
Soli, that’s great! I’ve now heard from many other cultures as well that they’ve had the same thing. Isn’t it great to see how similar we all are, just love this 😀 Thanks so much for sharing!
looks healthy haven’t had like this
I loved that you also touched on this,”It goes to show that it’s what you feed your children on a consistent basis that develops their palates and makes the seemingly “un-normal” seem normal.” Absolutely! It starts with the exposure and education… giving our children the opportunity to engage and nourish their bodies with farm-fresh, responsibly-grown food. I read through the exchanges and wanted to say thanks for those of you who are taking action to build local food economies and educate the community about the importance of locally-grown, farm-fresh, responsibly-grown food.
@Bones and @Amanda,
Thank you for the information and the debate. As a scientist and a mother I want to give my children the best food possible.
Determining what that is, is more than believing only one side or another, it is reading information from sources you trust. Make your own decisions. Observe closely. And don’t be so stubborn not to change, if those choices don’t work out for you.
Here’s to the good health for ourselves and our children!
Raw egg with sugar and wine is a common treat in Italy as well – called Zabaione. My husband also used to eat wine soaked peaches for breakfast when he was little. Different cultures have different foods to nourish their young. Here, in the USA, our food culture is based on fear. Some of it warranted and some of it not. As a homesteader that also raises her own chickens and has eaten my eggs raw on occasion, I would never in a million years do that with store-bought eggs. All the salmonella outbreaks we hear about are from farms where chickens are raised in confinement and living in their own excrement, not only would I avoid eating those eggs raw, but I would avoid eating them all together. Far afield from the way we raise our birds to feed our families.
Wow, Diana… interesting comments here! LOL! I am always amazed at how much USA freak about about bacteria in eggs and YET DO NOTHING ABOUT IT to stop it. Here in Central America… people know not to eat industrialized egg yolks raw because it’s nothing like high quality eggs from free ranged chickens. When we go to the store… we always see eggs just sitting on the shelves instead of the refridgerated section. Most USA people freak out over that and always ask me why they don’t put it in cold storage. In my three years of living in Central America… I’ve never once heard of an salmonella outbreak. Yet, I’ve been hearing about the crazy outbreaks in the USA in eggs, meat and PEANUT BUTTER.
Here’s the definition for insanity: DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND EXPECTING DIFFERENT RESULTS.
That’s USA with their food system ;D
well, i did it ! raw yolk in dark rich honey / yum / gosh, what i have been missing all these years. for a long time, however, i have only eaten yolks due to the “Alkalize or Die” book which states that yolks are alkalizing and whites produce an acid ash / when surviving cancer i went on an alkalizing diet / sunnyside up yolk on home fries or on freshly made ricotta is what i mean / now i will go raw
the discussion that has continued here on food safety is a plus for your blog / thank you for much Food for Thought
I already eat raw egg yolks, and they’re delicious! but haven’t tried it with the honey just yet. I’ll give this a go tomorrow. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Could I give this to a child who is 6 months? Nourishing Traditions recommends soft boiled egg for baby around that time, but wondered if raw egg would be ok, too. Thanks!
Charlene, as long as you have a reputable source for farm fresh eggs, the yolk would be okay. However, I would not give a child, under the age of one, honey. I bet a bit of real maple syrup would taste just as lovely 😉
My brother sooo loved this! The only way he would drink anything from a bottle was if my mother dipped the “tete” (nipple) of the bottle into raw egg yolk!
This has been a great read. I will try this with my 4 yr old twins and my 12 yr old. I love to learn of other cultures, especially their food. I am ready to live in another geographical area, just to hear other languages and see other faces. You are now bookmarked!
Growing up in Italy I remember it was very common to beat an egg yolk with sugar for breakfast until it turned pale and creamy. To make it even more energizing they added a dash of espresso in it, for the older kids. I hadn’t thought of that in ages, don’t know if they still do it. Must investigate with my childrens’ friends.
Hi Diana, so I am a 17yr old and I am craving for some raw pastured eggs ! Is it ok to just brake the shell and devour 1 or 2 whole fresh and pastured eggs without getting sick . Please answer me thanks 🙂
Nice this was my dinner last night. . . And wanted to google to see if this is something someone does. . . It was quick and easy and good:) 2 raw eggs yolks and about a tablespoon of raw honey eaten separately though.
Here in Tanzania. we normally use raw eggs mixed with honey as a treatment of stomach ulcers
That’s so interesting! Thanks for sharing that.