What Exactly Are Liquid Eggs?

If you've walked along the grocery store aisle where the eggs are kept, you'll find the full array — different sizes from small to jumbo, free-range and cage-free, pasteurized and organic, vegetarian-fed and good old conventional eggs. Then of course there are edible eggs from all kinds of different poultry, but the most common are chicken eggs. Whew, that's a lot of different types of eggs! In some stores, however, you'll find what some consider the elite of the egg world, created for convenience and to make life easier for the cook: liquid eggs.

You might think of "liquid gold" when you picture the sunshine-yellow yolk that is rich, buttery, and brings so much to recipes that call for eggs. But what exactly are liquid eggs? Well, the name kind of says it all — eggs that have had their shells removed for you and packaged so you just have to pour out the right amount with no fuss and no mess.

They come in three varieties: whole liquid eggs, egg whites (here are some tips for cooking with them), and egg yolks. So depending on what part of the eggs a recipe needs, you can skip the whole shebang of cracking the shell, separating the yolks and whites if needs be, and fishing out those annoying pieces of shell that often sneak along into your bowl. Pretty convenient, huh?

Liquid eggs start with their source: whole shell eggs. Special egg-breaking equipment is used to break the eggs out of their shells. They are then filtered to remove little bits of shell and any other contaminants that may have been on its exterior. Next, they are pasteurized. This means heating them to the lowest possible temperature to remove any pathogens like Salmonella (which can be very dangerous for humans), but not too hot that it destroys the integrity and health benefits of the eggs. The liquid eggs are then cooled down super quickly to avoid protein breakdown (called denaturation), and voila — you have clean and healthy shell-free whole eggs, yolks, or whites ready for convenient packaging.

Some schools of thought believe that this pasteurization process removes the goodness in the eggs — the vitamins and nutrients — but scientific research has proven that because the temperatures are so low, this is not the case. So what you're pouring out of your conveniently separated egg whites-only container is just as good for you as the egg directly from the shell.

If you're buying whole eggs (yolks and whites mixed together), it's important to check your label and ensure that the whites and yolks are from the same batch. A label cannot state that the eggs are "whole eggs" if they are not from the same batch. This ensures that the proportions are correct.