Figuring Out The True Price of Eggs- Are They Really So Cheap?

Image credit- Simon Howden

I think the standard frugal kitchen maven knows, de-facto, that eggs are the cheapest protein you can serve your family, other than legumes (cooked from dried beans, not canned).

But I don’t like taking such knowledge for granted- I mean, is it really true? Is it perhaps even wrong, like the common knowledge that chicken breast is the cheapest type of meat, because there’s no bone in it, and that wings and necks are a waste of money because they’re mostly bone, which I actually proved wrong, when I did my calculations to figure out which type of meat is actually cheapest, and discovered that, contrary to popular belief, necks and wings are cheaper than breast, even once you factor in the bones and skin.
And maybe eggs are the cheapest animal protein sometimes, like if you can shop at Aldi’s- but where I live eggs are much more expensive than Aldi’s- so maybe here they are not the cheapest option?

I’ll admit, eggs have been my go-to protein to cook for my family when they don’t want legumes, because I assumed they were cheapest- but are they really?

Add to that the fact that there are three different sizes of eggs sold locally regularly- medium, large, and extra large, all with different pricing, and I really had no idea which was the best buy.

So that made me realize- it was time do to another crazy calculation- to figure out how much I’m really paying for my eggs, figure out type of egg is most worthwhile to buy, and if eggs are actually the cheapest type of animal protein out there.

To do this, I went to a super cheap sale and bought 3 trays of 30 eggs each (they’re generally sold by 30 in my country, not by the dozen) in three different sizes and went to work.
The medium eggs cost $6.86 for the tray, or 22.8 cents an egg, or $2.74 a dozen.
Large eggs cost $7.43 for the tray, or 24.8 cents an egg, or $2.97 a dozen.
Extra large eggs cost $8.57 for the tray, or 28.6 cents an egg, or $3.42 a dozen.
(This is not the standard price of eggs locally, but pretty much the best deal I can get. Typical pricing for eggs at non cheapo places is $7.43 for 30 medium, $9.14 for large, and $10 for extra large.)

I then weighed and measured it a few different ways.
Each time I weighed it, I did it with 4 eggs of the same size, because I assume there is some variation in sizes of eggs, so by taking 4 and then using the average of them, I’m getting a more accurate picture of the size of the standard medium, large, and extra large is than if I just measured one of each.

I measured them whole and raw, then peeled after being hard boiled, taking care not to leave any on the shell. I also measured them raw shelled, after getting every last drop out of the shell that is possible, and then after frying it in a teaspoon of oil (which I didn’t subtract in the final tally since it was such a small amount- weighed less than 5 grams.
I weighed everything in metric units, after which I converted it to pounds (since it is so much easier to work with metric when it comes to these types of calculations) and then made them into this chart.

You always think of a shell as insignificant in terms of weight- at least I do, anyhow, but I see now that with the medium eggs, 14.5% of its weight was actually in its shell, vs with the extra large egg, only 8% of its weight was shell.

If you notice, you get much less quantity of egg when you fry the egg vs hard boiling it. With the extra large egg you get 20% less than the original weight when fried vs 7.5% less when hard boiled. With the medium you get 26.5% when fried vs 11.5% less when boiled, and with the large eggs 21% less when fried vs 13.5% when boiled.
I know that the second I say this I’ll have people already thinking I’m wrong- because its still the same amount of nutrition when boiled vs fried, that its still going to be 6 grams of protein in a medium or large egg and 7 in an extra large egg, no matter whether boiled or fried, but hear me out for a second.

We don’t just eat for nutrition. We eat for satiation, and satiation is based on so many factors. I’m assuming that when an egg is boiled, it keeps its moisture inside it, as part of the egg, and when fried most of the moisture evaporates, and it kind of shrivels up, hence weighing a lot less when fried vs boiled, and now that I think of it, it looks a lot less as well. When we eat, our brain is getting all sorts of messages to signal satiation, and how many times we take a bite of something, how much we see visually, how it tastes, all plays a part in how satisfied we feel after eating it. When something looses its moisture and is smaller, size-wise, even if the nutrition stays the same, we feel less satisfied and end up wanting more of that food before we feel content.
That explains why my kids are generally happy with 1-2 hard boiled eggs, and generally 1-1.5 hard boiled eggs if mixed with mayonnaise and/or some other veggies like celery and onion, vs wanting 2-3 (or even more) if its scrambled eggs or an omelet. Though I asked my husband while I was writing this post, and he said its equal to him, he’d be satiated with the same amount of eggs hard boiled vs scrambled, I have seen from when I’ve made him eggs, he eats more when its scrambled vs hard boiled.

Ok, so is it cheaper to buy medium, large, or extra large eggs?

Well, I plugged in the numbers and calculated this chart to figure out how much I was paying per pound for eggs, and per gram of protein.