The historian told how our ancestors hunted eggs

“Our ancestors used chicken eggs and dishes using them as one of the ingredients for food many centuries ago,” says Anatoly Gorbatov, who has studied many documents and old books related to “chicken fruit” (this is how it was delicately customary to call this a product in former times among the ladies of high society).

– In addition to our usual home production – breeding chickens and obtaining eggs from them, in many areas, especially remote northern ones, seasonal collection of wild bird eggs was practiced among the population. In the spring, peasants combed forests and river banks and completely emptied nests with masonry found in accessible places. Zoological scientists have repeatedly raised the alarm on this matter: they say that such “primitive” gathering can lead to a catastrophic decline in the number of game birds.

However, the bulk of eggs was still obtained from domestic chickens, ducks, and geese. In the 19th century, at the beginning of the last century, Russia turned out to be one of the world leaders in the production of “chicken fruit”. Large quantities of them were sent abroad. For example, we were able to find data for 1903: then nearly 3 billion eggs were exported from Russia.

The records of the famous cook I. Radetsky dating back to the second half of the 19th century have been preserved: “According to reliable information, residents of St. Petersburg spend up to 130 million eggs a year… The cheapest price is in June and July. In these two months, up to 30 million eggs are consumed, and by the bright Resurrection of Christ, up to 6 million eggs are painted in egg shops alone.”

– How delicacy was this product considered by our great-grandfathers?

– In the middle of the 19th century, in the capital St. Petersburg, “first fresh” eggs, recently brought from suburban villages, were sold for 20-40 kopecks per ten. This was considered an expensive pleasure that only the wealthiest residents could afford. The simpler public bought “floating” eggs, that is, delivered from more distant places by water on barges or large boats. Wholesalers supplied these large quantities to city shops and warehouses. The goods were, of course, not so fresh, but they were cheaper: from 10 to 25 kopecks per ten.

According to the 1913 price list, the average purchase of ten eggs cost 30 kopecks. Is it a lot or a little? The monthly salary of an ordinary factory worker was then about 20-25 rubles, the salary of an army lieutenant was 70 rubles a month.

Here’s some more interesting data. At the end of the century before last, Moscow wholesale traders bought eggs from peasants at a price no higher than 26-28 rubles per thousand pieces. For the time being, business on such a product turned out to be unprofitable. The main reason was Russian roads. While the eggs collected from the villages were transported along bumpy highways and country roads to the central warehouse, some of them inevitably broke, and in many, the whites and yolks inside were mixed due to shaking. This problem began to be solved only with the development of railway transport in the country.

The question of how to store eggs for a long time was very acute at a time when electric refrigerators did not yet exist. Housewives in villages had to spend a lot of time caring for them.

There were quite a few options for saving egg conditions.

Here, for example, are tips from the Tula landowner Levshin, which he published based on the information collected on this topic: “To preserve eggs, you should choose a place that is colder than warm; lay them out separately and turn them over often. For, if you miss the latter for a long time, then the yolks will gradually settle to the bottom side, and this will cause a void at the top, into which the air, penetrating, can finally damage the yolks; the yolk subsequently dries to the shell, and rottenness takes its beginning…”

Many owners set up special egg storage facilities in their closets: they installed homemade shelves, each of the shelves having rows of conical holes where “chicken fruits” were placed.

It was possible to use a simpler “hydraulic” storage option. It was mentioned by the same Levshin: “Some put eggs in a tub and pour cold water; Every week the water is released and fresh water is poured in…”

However, although the mentioned methods protected the fragile product from damage, they were fraught with another disaster: when severe frosts set in, eggs in an unheated closet could freeze. Another storage option made it possible to be on the safe side: the eggs were placed layer by layer in a wooden box, sprinkling these layers with ash or sawdust. Being buried like this, the “chicken fruits” withstood sub-zero temperatures much better

Here is an even more reliable way to preserve eggs in their original form and quality. It was mentioned by the culinary master Cordelli, who became famous in the nineteenth century. Drawing attention to the fact that in some periods of the year a completely understandable egg shortage may arise (hens lay eggs much more actively in spring and summer), he gave the following recommendation: “Eggs can also be saved in the following way: by placing them, for example, in pot, you should pour melted lamb fat over them so that they are completely covered with it. They claim that with this remedy you can save eggs after two years.”

An interesting fact from Russian history. It turns out that the surge in demand for chicken eggs in villages was provoked by… the development of tourism in the Russian Empire, which became especially noticeable at the end of the 19th century.

Then cycling became fashionable. At the same time, among the many fans of the two-wheeled pedal vehicle (and these were mainly representatives of the wealthy classes), there were many who wanted to make rather long trips. On the way, the gentlemen needed refreshments, but not always at the right time did they come across a decent tavern along the route. And at an ordinary rural inn or in a simple peasant family, a menu awaiting travelers was not only meager, but also often fraught with health problems. Low quality provisions plus unsanitary conditions in all its glory.

Among the few products that more or less guaranteed the absence of infection harmful to the gastrointestinal tract were chicken eggs. This is what our great-grandfathers-tourists, who found themselves in the wilderness of the village, had to rely on.

The scale of such meals was mentioned in the stories of travelers published by Samokat magazine in 1894. Peter Orlovsky wrote then: “The main food that was possible to get in the villages was bread, milk and soft-boiled eggs…” This author is echoed by another “bicycle pilgrim” who traveled around the south of Russia at the same period: “The food was quite meager… The basis food were eggs. I ate up to 25 of them a day!”

– Isn’t this a typo? Too much…

– One can, of course, assume that an error has crept into the text. But in fact, cases of an egg “diet” of amazing scale are known. For example, I came across mentions that back in 1910 a record was set for the number of chicken eggs eaten in one meal: a man was able to force himself to “feast” on 144 eggs!

And in 2003, American Sonya Thomas, nicknamed “Black Widow,” managed to swallow 65 boiled eggs in 6 minutes 40 seconds.

But these are competitions for the amusement of the public. Although in real life there have also been cases of overconsumption of chicken eggs. Let’s say, in the summer of 1975, five researchers from Israel published a report in a journal about how one of the experiments was conducted related to the problems of consequences that arise after plastic surgery. So it was reported there that some patients who needed help due to burns received were given an average of 35 eggs per day for quite a long time.