Jim: For the majority of us who buy eggs in the store, "large egg" is in fact an appropriate designation, as the mass range of the customary names is based on a standard. People don't generally weigh eggs before they buy them, but go by the small, medium, large, extra large, and jumbo labeling. Thus, the recipe does, indeed, tell them what to buy. Gentleman farmers like you need to put a little chart on the side of your fridge. :)
Metric countries also go by size names and don't agree with one another as to what each name means. Here's the rundown from the Wikipedia article on eggs (food). You can see all of this neatly formatted at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_(food). Chicken egg sizes Chicken eggs are graded by size, for the purpose of sales. The United States Department of Agriculture grades them by weight per dozen. The most common US size of chicken egg is 'Large' and is the egg size commonly referred to for recipes. The following egg masses have been calculated on the basis of the USDA grades: Modern Sizes (USA) Size Mass per egg Cooking Yield (Volume)[1] Jumbo Greater than 2.5 oz. or 71g Very Large or Extra Large (XL) Greater than 2.25 oz. or 64g 56 mL (4 tbsp) Large (L) Greater than 2 oz. or 57g 46 mL (3.25 tbsp) Medium (M) Greater than 1.75 oz. or 50g 43 mL (3 tbsp) Small (S) Greater than 1.5 oz. or 43g Peewee Greater than 1.25 oz. or 35g In Europe, modern egg sizes are defined as follows: Modern Sizes (Europe) Size Mass per egg Very Large 73g and over Large 63-73g Medium 53-63g Small 53g and under In Australia, the Australian Egg Corporation defines the following sizes in its labelling guide.[26] Modern Sizes (Australia) Size Mass per egg Jumbo 68g Extra Large 60g Large 52g In Western Australia, two additional sizes are also standardized by the Golden Eggs Corporation[27] Additional Sizes (Western Australia) Mega or XXXL 72g Medium 43g In New Zealand sizes are based on the minimum mass per egg: [28] Modern Sizes (New Zealand) Size Minimum mass per egg 8 (Jumbo) 68g 7 (Large) 62g 6 (Standard) 53g 5 (Medium) 44g 4 (Pullet) 35g Traditional Sizes Size Mass Size 0 Greater than 75g Size 1 70g-75g Size 2 65g-70g Size 3 60g-65g Size 4 55g-60g Size 5 50g-55g Size 6 45g-50g Size 7 less than 45g Bill __________________________________________________ -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of James Frysinger Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2008 13:58 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:40833] KitchenAid pasta attachment A few minutes ago I sent in the following inquiry to KitchenAid using their "fill in the box" form. OK, so maybe I played it dumb just a little bit. I **was** pleased to see that they gave the extrusion lengths only in centimeters; not a hint of an inch (or foot or yard or statute mile) was to be seen. Jim I was full of hope when I read your instructions for use of the pasta maker attachment for the K5M5; you gave extrusion lengths in centimeters. But when I got to your basic pasta dough recipe I was lost. I cook in terms of metric units and weigh my dry ingredients on a scale that weighs to the nearest gram. I harvest my own farm-fresh eggs and weigh them (in grams) after washing and before refrigerating. When you call for "large eggs", how many grams do you reckon a "large egg" is? How many grams of flour is "2-3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour"? I assume 15 mL for each tablespoon of water. -- James R. Frysinger 632 Stony Point Mountain Road Doyle, TN 38559-3030 (H) 931.657.3107 (C) 931.212.0267
