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Goose Eggs
Mar. 17th, 2025 06:48 pmSo - goose eggs - just got some from a friend - should I want to hard boil one, how long should I boil it for? I could just ask the Intertubes, but rather than do that...
Just like the Cheez-Its of yesteryear, out came the calipers. I measured the long axis of every "large" chicken egg I had in the fridge, which came from Market Basket and I think originate on farms that Mitlitsky Egg Company uses. Would you believe that out of the 10 eggs I measured, they all came in within a range of +/- *15 thousandths* of an inch of each other? 6 of them were 2.140 +/- 3 thou, the other 4 were 2.160 +/- 3 thou. Insane! who knew chicken egg production is so consistent? Of course, maybe this is a sorting artifact of the Mitlitsky company? So, on to the goose eggs from my friends in Ashburnham... and damn! Of the 6 I measured, they were all within a range of +/- 10 thou! Some 3.000 inches +- 3 thou, others 2.980 +/- 3 thou. again, insane. these came from 4 specific geese that I have met and heard honk. I would never have guessed that they'd be so consistent.
But anyhow, there we are. Chicken eggs, long axis number ~2.15", Goose Eggs long axis ~2.99". This gives a ratio of radii (assuming your "idealized spherical egg") of "goose egg radius is 1.39 times chicken egg radius". Which leads to "Volume (and thus mass) ratio should be about 2.68, and the surface area ratio is 1.93.
I then weighed all the eggs, and found that the goose eggs actually only weigh a bit more than twice as much as the chicken eggs, on average 131 grams versus 62 for the chicken variant, which tells me that there must be more percentage air space in there, and using that 2.68 theoretical mass ratio would be a mistake and lead to overcooked eggs. [Every f*cking time I try to type "ratio" into this thing, either FB or my browser insists on autocorrecting to "ration". G*d D*mn it]
So, I'll use the actual weighed mass numbers, and assume that the limiting factor is heat transfer across the egg shell. There is 2.11 times as much mass to heat up and 1.93 times the surface area available for heat transfer. So I should boil my goose eggs for ~9% longer than the chicken eggs. this really small increase seems counterintuitive, but Math is Math and ignoring all the model simplifying steps here, i'm going to believe the math. I usually boil my chicken eggs for 9 minutes, so the goose egg is going to get 10.
I'll report later with the results.
Just like the Cheez-Its of yesteryear, out came the calipers. I measured the long axis of every "large" chicken egg I had in the fridge, which came from Market Basket and I think originate on farms that Mitlitsky Egg Company uses. Would you believe that out of the 10 eggs I measured, they all came in within a range of +/- *15 thousandths* of an inch of each other? 6 of them were 2.140 +/- 3 thou, the other 4 were 2.160 +/- 3 thou. Insane! who knew chicken egg production is so consistent? Of course, maybe this is a sorting artifact of the Mitlitsky company? So, on to the goose eggs from my friends in Ashburnham... and damn! Of the 6 I measured, they were all within a range of +/- 10 thou! Some 3.000 inches +- 3 thou, others 2.980 +/- 3 thou. again, insane. these came from 4 specific geese that I have met and heard honk. I would never have guessed that they'd be so consistent.
But anyhow, there we are. Chicken eggs, long axis number ~2.15", Goose Eggs long axis ~2.99". This gives a ratio of radii (assuming your "idealized spherical egg") of "goose egg radius is 1.39 times chicken egg radius". Which leads to "Volume (and thus mass) ratio should be about 2.68, and the surface area ratio is 1.93.
I then weighed all the eggs, and found that the goose eggs actually only weigh a bit more than twice as much as the chicken eggs, on average 131 grams versus 62 for the chicken variant, which tells me that there must be more percentage air space in there, and using that 2.68 theoretical mass ratio would be a mistake and lead to overcooked eggs. [Every f*cking time I try to type "ratio" into this thing, either FB or my browser insists on autocorrecting to "ration". G*d D*mn it]
So, I'll use the actual weighed mass numbers, and assume that the limiting factor is heat transfer across the egg shell. There is 2.11 times as much mass to heat up and 1.93 times the surface area available for heat transfer. So I should boil my goose eggs for ~9% longer than the chicken eggs. this really small increase seems counterintuitive, but Math is Math and ignoring all the model simplifying steps here, i'm going to believe the math. I usually boil my chicken eggs for 9 minutes, so the goose egg is going to get 10.
I'll report later with the results.
