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marlingardener

Do herbs flavor eggs?

marlingardener
16 years ago

A friend brought her visiting relative from France to see our little farm. Neither one of us (friend or me) speak French, and the relative is non-English speaking--thank heavens for sign language! From what we gathered, it is a custom in France to feed herbs to chickens, which gives a flavor to the eggs. We had never heard of this and aren't sure that we got the translation right, but if so, wouldn't it be great to have sage-flavored eggs, oregano-flavored eggs, etc.?

Does anyone know anything about this? Please advise!

Comments (6)

  • lucky7
    16 years ago

    I have heard that a diet of fish too much fish will make fishy eggs, I have never tried it. My hens get a fairly balanced diet, I don't know if I could even get them to eat lots of one herb or another.

  • goodhors
    16 years ago

    I have never done this deliberately, but would agree that the chicken's feed would affect the flavor of the eggs. I don't think chicken nibbling herbs, would give a really strong herb taste to eggs, so they are like herb flavored eggs in a prepared dish. Just that the basic egg has a slightly different flavor than a grain-only fed chicken egg does. Probably a very subtle taste/flavor in the herb fed chicken egg. You might not even notice it, while other folks could think the herb flavored egg to be a strong taste. Will be interesting to give it a try though!

    Might also affect the yoke color a bit. The free-ranging chicken folks brag on the rich color of yokes, along with better flavor, gained from chicken choosing a variety of things to eat.

    I do believe feed affects the animal, so the meat, milk, eggs from that animal will taste differently. The steer we fed on grass, lots of exercise going to pasture, coming to barn for drinks, was the best meat I ever ate! There was nothing on him that really needed a knife to cut it for eating off your plate. Fork tender, even the pot roast cuts. My mom used to lock up the cow, so she couldn't eat the early onions along the creek. Made the milk undrinkable for the children, with the strong onion flavor. Pigs didn't care though!! Slurped the milk up anytime they got any.

  • fancifowl
    16 years ago

    I read a study some years back re: this topic but hard to remember much of it. Poultry feed can contain fish materials for their feed values which can cause some fishy taste to th egg. Herbs of some kind can be fed to help alleviate the fishy flavors but I dont know the herb??
    Ducks which eat fish and other small aquatic life will make fishy eggs too.
    Eating green herbage will cause a more dark yellow yolk. Chickens which are allowed true free range ingest many herbs, I have never really noted any different flavors in the eggs. It would not surprise me if enuff of a particular herb could influence egg flavor but I would think it would require quite a large amount of the herb??

    Different herbage does influence milk flavor, especially onions and garlic, but other feeds can also. try a google search on the subject, it could be an interesting study.

  • sullicorbitt
    16 years ago

    Fish is not good to feed chickens, it absolutely will affect the smell and taste. A couple of years ago we had a big lobster bake and gave all the leftovers to the chickens including some crushed shells. WHAT A MISTAKE! the yolks turned RED! and the smell/taste was awful lol! live and learn :)

    The herbs sound harmless, it sounds like a nice experiment you might want to try?

    -Sheila

  • carmen_grower_2007
    16 years ago

    Our chickens feast on various herbs they find on the property and in my gardens. They especially love chives and comfrey which they keep trimmed right to the ground. We feed all sorts of table scraps and have never noticed an off-taste to the eggs.