I'm a huge fan of the egg.  It's a fantastically cheap source of high-quality, readily available protein, and it's extremely flexible in the kitchen - boiled, fried, scrambled, baked or mixed into a frittata, eggs have a place at every meal (and dessert!).

But stand in front of the egg section of your supermarket, and you're overwhelmed with an array of marketing buzzwords that may or may not mean anything - priced accordingly, of course.  So what do these terms mean, and which eggs should you spend your money on?

The Best Option

Well, the very BEST thing you could do would be to not buy your eggs at all.  Get some chickens, and put 'em to work!  This will ensure your eggs are of the highest quality, and come from happy hens (assuming you're not a jerk to your chicks).  I would totally do this, if I had a yard.

OK, OK, so you can't raise chickens.

I get it - not everyone has the time, space and interest to become a chicken farmer.  So that means you're stuck with the rest of us, back in front of that supermarket egg display.  Here's a primer:

• Nothing - no marketing terms at all.  Typically this means the hens are confined to cages too small to spread their wings or turn around.  Avoid if possible.
  
• "Organic" - this means the hens were fed organic feed (ie, food according to organic guidelines).  Also means they weren't fed rendered beef fat or - worse - other chickens, which is good (while chickens are omnivorous in that they just love them some bugs, they do not fare well on other animals, particularly other chickens).
• "Vegetarian" - on the surface, this is silly - chickens are great munchers of bugs, and are not vegetarians by nature.  However, since nobody PUTS bugs in chicken feed, this label is more likely to mean that there were no animal by-products in the chicken feed, which is good.  Still, I'd put more faith in "Organic."
• "Free Range" - this term is basically unregulated, and is essentially meaningless in practice.  All that is required is that the chickens have access to a door that allows them outside.  Since those who raise chickens don't OPEN this door until the chickens are at least 6 weeks old, there is no chicken brave/intelligent enough to actually go THROUGH the door to see what's outside (why would it?  food, water and flock are all inside), so it nearly always goes unused.  A prime example of what Michael Pollan calls "Supermarket Pastoral" style of marketing.
• "Cage Free" - hens are allowed to move about inside their shed, rather than confined to individual cages.  Generally better, but still not great:  in very poor conditions, the stress causes the birds to peck each other, and in order to prevent this the farmers will burn their beaks off.
• "Pastured" - if you can find it and you can afford it, get it.  This means the chickens were raised the way chickens are meant to live:  on fields, under the sun, eating bugs and grasses.  Sadly, this kind of egg is very difficult to track down.  But if you can get it, these eggs will be packed with Omega 3's and other nutrients, and much more flavorful than regular supermarket eggs.  Seriously, these eggs are much, much better for you.  If you frequent farmer's markets, they're often the best place to find pastured eggs.

Have any great egg recipes?  Share 'em in the comments!