Table Talk – What is that nasty little white thing on my egg yolk?
What is that nasty looking little white thing that attaches itself to my egg yolks? I’m embarrassed to say that I grew up on a large farm in Kentucky, with chickens all around me, yet to this day, I cannot stand to leave that disgusting looking little thing on my egg yolks. What the heck is it? Oh my goodness has my imagination worked over time on this one for years……is it the beginning of an embryo? a chicken umbilical cord? chicken sperm? OMG! It looks nasty, disgusting and like some of the aforementioned subject matter, and of course, I remove it from every single egg yolk that I use for cooking or eating….YUK!!! And now that I have my own chickens and fresh eggs, they seem to be even more pronounced as they attach themselves to my egg yolks like a tick on a dog…..Ohhh….I can’t take this anymore. I have to find out the purpose of this gross little thing that’s attached to every single one of my egg yolks….I’m so tired of trying to detach them from my egg yolks with a spoon before I use my eggs!!
It’s a Chalaza? What the heck is a Chalaza? You mean this nasty little thing has a name? OMG! Why didn’t my mother tell me this when she was wringing the neck of a chicken or plucking feathers to make a pillow…she was supposed to tell me these things, so I wouldn’t have to look so stupid later in life, after growing up on a farm. Come to think of it, I never saw my mother trying to remove those nasty little things from her egg yolks. And ya know….I guess if I could wring the neck of a chicken and pluck it’s feathers after I killed it, I probably wouldn’t think twice about that nasty little white thing either. Well I didn’t kill chickens and I do think about it.
What purpose does it serve???? Well much to my stupidity, I finally learned that it really does serve a purpose and it’s actually full of protein. Yuk….I’m still not eating it…just saying….no way! If you check the dictionary, it says that this thing called Chalaza is actually the string like line that connects the egg yolk to the outer membrane, which is that white skin attached to the inside of the egg-shell. If you ever try to peel a boiled egg, you remove the shell, then there’s that little white skin that is sometimes still on the egg and you have to peel it off. The Chalaza actually holds the egg yolk in place, or the egg yolk would be bouncing around all over the place. It’s little white strands of protein. No Thank You!!! I’ll get my protein elsewhere. Well at least I’m relieved to know that it’s not the things that ran through my imagination, but I still can’t stomach the thought of eating it. I also found out that the Chalaza is more pronounced in fresh eggs so that one thing wasn’t part of my imagination.
By the way, most bakers do remove the Chalaza from egg yolks when they are making such dishes as puddings and custards….anything that you can see that disgusting little thing in.
So tell me….am I the only one who feels this way? Do you remove this nasty little thing from your egg yolk?
There’s more than one white thing in that egg yolk there’s a glob of white stuff but I was raised on a farm we never had that in eggs and when you make a hard boiled egg you don’t know where it’s at so you don’t even want to eat them anymore this is sickening
I remove them both every time as well.. found it easier to use two spoons to remove it
My mom always removed it so I did to.
I never knew what it was so thank you for sharing information on it. I still remove it and I still ca t eat it. I’m with you on that.
I always remove it, they look so gross. I’ve found the best way is to use a grapefruit spoon with those little “teeth” on the end. Scoops it right out!
I use tongs and snatch it haha
Never thought about it.
So no it never got removed. My mom nor dad..who grew up on a farm, never removed it. But thanks for the information. .
my mom always removed it, though she usually did it in the pan, and I always remove it.
I always crack eggs into a separate bowl before adding to anything and I just use pick them off with my fingers.
I’ve been cooking for over 50 years and having never even heard about it until tonight, I have never removed it, there was never a discussion about it at Cordon Bleu. I have spoken to many of my friends, they haven’t heard of this supposed ‘horror’. None of us are going to change after so many decades of being unaware of this ‘thing’
I read somewhere that you should the shell to remove it
EDIT: Use the shell itself to remove it.
I refuse to cook that crap. I use a fork to remove it & then rinse it down the drain. Eggshell works too. My neighbor uses metal tongs.
I always remove it too! It just grosses me out!
I remove it from dishes it might be spotted in, such as pudding and custards as you said. Otherwise I don’t bother. I knew it was full of protein as my grandmother told me when I was little. , But we had no idea what it was called. My Mom ALWAYS removes it and is just as grossed out by it as you are. Thank you for educating us about the chalaza.
Hi Kay, You’re so welcome!
Thankyou for telling us what that icky is! I
too was raised on a farm, but never knew what that was! and to this day I still remove it from all the eggs I use…..I’m 84, so that is a LONG time!!
I also use my grapefruit spoons, it’s a chore when I am scrambling eggs for a crowd. Does anyone know why sometimes there can be some specks of feed in my egg? I used to love deviled eggs but have a hard time eating them anymore.
I’ve always removed that globbulen (my name for it) because it’s just way too gross. to eat. How can people want to eat that ugly slimy rope like snotty thingy!!?? I crack the egg hard enough to be able to get it in two pieces then sometimes have to pour it back and forth into one side or the other until it’s either hanging off the side or easily available for me to attack. Sometimes best to drop the whole thing into a dish. Then it’s a simple matter of using the edges of the empty shell to capture it, break it off and drop it into the garburator. The entire method still gives me the shivers but my hubby likes eggs and doesn’t care but i won’t let him eat it until i get rid of that glob.
Hi Lorraine, That’s so funny. You sound just like me. No nasty little white thing in my scrambled eggs. 🙂
Yes, I remove it and will continue to do so. Even if I’m baking a cake, cooking cornbread or making a meatloaf. I even look for it in the boiled egg
I thought I was the only one grossed out by this. Yes, I remove it. I also occasionally find small globs of brownish red floating around or stuck to the yolks, which I find particularly disgusting. What causes this? Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t remember eggs being like this years ago. I used to love soft-boiled eggs, but can’t bring myself to make them anymore. I have to crack the eggs in a bowl and make sure I get all the nasty things removed first. Another thing that I’ve been noticing recently is the fact that many of the eggs have a white membrane-like thing covering the yolk. I try to peel it off, but it’s almost impossible to remove without destroying the whole yolk, and wasting quite a bit of it. Has anyone else noticed this? It seems to be happening a lot more often lately and I’m wondering why.
I use an eye dropper…….in reverse it’s still a bit of a pain and if you’re to aggressive you can cause the yolk to leak. Compress the little bulb hold it on the white gunk and release. It may take a few times but it will work.
Hi Pat, What a great tip!
You are literally eating something created for reproduction, and the one part that has the least involvement in that process is the concerning part? It baffles me that people are picky in what part of an unfertilized egg they want to eat.
I should add that it grosses me out too. I baffle myself.
Oh my!!! I certainly do. I thought all the things you were thinking and my grandmother owned a farm. A homec teacher in school said it was chicken sperm si I went with it and it looked like it, so I always removed it from my eggs. Gross. Some people don’t care, but hey I am still not going to eat it. Lol
Hi Tavida, Ha…you are just like me! 🙂
How we think about something causes emotional reaction. If you dont see it as bad your attitude will change. Be strong. It is good healthy protein. Just cook your egg and be grateful for all its goodness. See the white part as a healthy topping that is yum. Use your imagination for good and your emotional reaction will change. It never did the baby chicks or chooks any harm. It is healthy, people. Good for you. Save your harsh reactions for reality situations like a bear chasing you or a spider on your arm. Not harmless healthy eggs.
Oh yes, I do! It’s so gross! I even pick it out of the boiled eggs, yes you can see it!!
Yep. I always remove them. So gross. I don’t care what they are, they have to go!
It grosses me out too. I’ve tried not removing it when making scrambled eggs because I consider that restaurants surely don’t remove it when making omelets, etc. And I never notice any globs then. But I usually remove it, especially if it’s unusually big and disgusting. I’ve often wondered if other people feel the same as I do about this
I didn’t know that the white thing had a name but it males sense. My mother did tell me that the red flecks in the eggs is probably when the chook is menstruating.!!!
OMG
THANK YOU!
I could have written this, have you been living in my head for 50 years?
Well I have to blame my big brother who as a child to me it was the sperm. So all these years I have to remove it from every egg!
Now mind you, I know in my head that if I eat anything anyone else cooks in a restaurant they probably don’t remove it. And I have never found it in my cooked food!
I’m with you, even knowing what it is, I still can’t stomach even baking a cake without removing the little white thing from the egg!
Hi Trista, Great minds think alike! 🙂 🙂