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A dozen medium eggs weigh a minimum of 21 ounces, a dozen large weigh 24 to 26 ounces, a dozen extra-large have to tip the 27-ounce mark, and a dozen jumbo are a robust 30 ounces. At only 15 ounces per dozen, the peewee size don’t find their way to the breakfast table and are used instead for industrial purposes.

Egg size doesn’t necessarily correlate to egg quality; a grading system serves that purpose. Egg grading is voluntary, and falls under state statute, but many egg processors leave the chore to on-site USDA inspectors. The different grades of eggs are AA, A, and B. Double-A eggs are your freshest eggs. The white is firm and stands up when the egg is cracked open and the yolk is rounder. The difference between AA and A is mainly the age of the egg: an A-grade egg is just a little older than an AA. (So, somebody could buy a dozen AA eggs, take them home, leave them in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks, and they would drop to grade A.) A B-grade egg is good and clean on the outside but when twirled in front of the light you can see the shadow of the yolk. The reason you see the yolk that plainly is because the membranes have broken down. So, when you crack it into your pan or onto a plate it’s going to run out.

Eggs usually make their way to your market within a week of being laid and are a staple item that pretty much flies off the shelf; old eggs are a rarity. The Julian date (not the “use by” date) tells you when a carton was packaged. It will be a number between 1 and 365, representing the day of the year on which it was packaged.

When you peek into a carton of eggs checking for cracks, also check to see that the eggs are cold. A room-temperature egg ages more in a day than a refrigerated egg ages in one week. Keeping the fridge at or a little below 40° F will help keep eggs fresh. So will keeping eggs in their carton toward the back of a shelf. The nice little egg shelf found on many refrigerator doors is cute, but that door spends too much time open, hanging out and heating up. Plus, shelf bins promote drying and breakage.

RISK FACTOR

One in ten- to twenty-thousand eggs may be infected with salmonella, and even if an egg were infected, the salmonella level would probably be too small to harm a healthy adult. It’s advisable, however, that older folks, expectant mothers, young children, and anyone with immune system problems steer clear of undercooked or raw eggs. That means passing on sunny-side up eggs, homemade mayonnaise, hollandaise, eggnog, and classic Caesar salad.

Scrambled Eggs

Ask a French chef to scramble you a few eggs and you’re likely to see him whisk a few eggs together with a bit of heavy cream, then cook them in a double boiler over simmering, not boiling, water. I’m often annoyed by the persnickety extra steps that French cuisine demands, but this time I must agree. It’s not that it’s impossible to make good scrambled eggs straight in a pan, it’s just that the double boiler guarantees that the cooking will be done at a steady temperature and at a relatively low rate of conduction.

Don’t forget to garnish. A sprinkling of fresh herbs, especially chives, does wonders for scrambled eggs. The best plate of scrambled eggs I ever had (far better than the best omelet I ever had) was finished with truffle oil and sprinkled with finely minced red onion and a dollop of caviar.

Application: Simmering

Pour an inch or two of water into a heavy sauce pan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat until bubbles just break the surface (okay, I’ll say it: a simmer). Place a heavy metal bowl over the sauce pan and put the butter in the bowl. Make sure that the bottom of the bowl doesn’t come anywhere near the water below.

In a separate mixing bowl, whisk the eggs together with the cream and salt. You don’t have to get this completely smooth, but the more homogenized the mixture, the smoother the finished eggs will be.

When the butter has melted, add the egg mixture to the heated bowl. Now, when and how you stir with a plastic spatula will go