Egg; known for thousands of years, can be produced easily in everywhere of the world, can be cooked in various forms and consumed, delicious and does have a high value nutrition. Since the beginnig of civilization egg has been evaluated as the symbol of life and fertility. Even some philosophers see the egg as the symbol of world'd four elements. They think its shell sybmolizes the earth and the soil, the white liquid symbolizes the seas, the yellow part symbolizes the fire; and the emptiness at its end symbolizes the air. At the early era of Christian belief, egg as the symbol of re-birth, was cooked hard and decorated and was served as a gift at the Easter Festival.

12% of the egg consists of the shell, 58% is the white part and 30% is the yellow part. The yellow part is surrounded by a 2 layer tissue called “chalaza”. Also this tissue forms an air baloon at the end of the egg-circle. As the egg loses its freshness, this area increases. The yellow part is less stable than the white part and gets hardened under heat. The yellow part and the water molecules seperate from each other easily and the yellow part gets hardened. The white part of the egg has an elastic form. The elastic-walls found in the white part of the egg, get wider when the egg gets boiled and the cells got heated. Most of the egg consumed today is gained from the domesticated chicken. Chicken are grown up in farm in free areas or with the modern electric method. There is no difference in nutrition value between the eggs which are produced in both methods. If we take the subject from the cooking point, the free-area eggs go bad quicker.

All eggs are classified according to their size. There are 7 sizes at the market standards. The biggest 70g is the first class, and the smallest 45g is the seventh class. The eggs are classified according to their qualities as A,B and C and packed with their package date printed. A high quality, B medium quality and C indicates egg only good for food industry. There are indicators which indicate the egg’s freshness. Its shell should be clean, good-shape, hard enough and should have no roughs. Fresh egg should be tight, thin and in a form supporting its yellow part. The freshness of the egg is understood the best when broken. When the fresh egg is broken, the white and the yellow parts do not brake apart and mix to each other. Yellow part looks higher. The most important factor which prevents its freshness is the keeping conditions. Craked and broken eggs shouldnt be bought. Those eggs loose their freshness and go bad quicker. They form a suitable enviroment for microorganisms. Eggs can be frozen up to 9 months under huge usages but should be defrosted in closed packs before use. Under normal conditions, eggs should be kept in refregirators and the usage amount should be taken out. Under home conditions eggs should be kept in refregirator (0-5C) without washing in its cardboard package which prevents it from going bad quickly. If it is washed it looses its natural preventing tissue. For this reason eggs should be washed before usage. Besides eggs should be kept in a position in which the emptiness comes upside. Thus the yellow part can rest on the white part.

Eggs should be consumed in 3-4 weeks before the loose their good quality. Cooking should applied to all description including eggs. Digestion of raw egg is difficult and there is a risk of microorganism infection.

Food including eggs or rich in egg ingredients shouldnt be kept out of the refregirator more than two hours except cooking time. Before and after cooking egg meals hands, pots and the equipment should be well washed. Raw eggs should be broken in clean pots. Cooking time of egg should be adjusted well. For examlpe, if the egg is boiled for a long time and if it is not fresh the iron in its yellow part combines with the sulfur in its white part and forms a green circle arount its yellow part (iron-sulfur circle). It gets harder to digest the long cooked egg and loss off B group vitamins occur according to their cooking style. Instead of wino-break, other cooking styles should be prefeered in order to prevent the loss.