Do a blind taste test with store bought and home grown eggs. You will be able to tell. After years of eating home grown eggs, I nearly spit out store eggs when I had them. The texture and flavor is so bad it was an immediate involuntary response. Home eggs are velvety and rich in flavor. Store eggs tasted like bland rubber. I say the difference is as stark as comparing scrambled store eggs and reconstituted powdered eggs.
My wife claimed there was no difference for a very long time. She had the same experience when we needed to buy store eggs last winter.
Strangely, when going from store eggs to home eggs the difference isn't as pronounced.
I have been raising pastured free range egg chicks for years. If I don't see the color of the yolk, I can't tell the difference between mine and store bought.
Oddly enough, others can and cooks say the whites are much easier to whip.
Did I sit down with a blindfold on and eat unknown eggs? No. I will eat anything that is food. I had every intention of eating the store eggs with no hesitation. I even ate them after taking pause at involuntary revulsion to the tasteless gelatinous mass I was chewing on. I grew up eating store eggs. Now I will avoid them when possible.
To be honest, I would also pay attention to the experience. Were you predisposed towards liking your friend's eggs? Were you having a great time? Those things matter -- haven't you ever found yourself enjoying your food because of the mood or your companions?
I think in order to make the comparison fairer, you should do a blind tasting of the two kinds of eggs at your home, in the same sitting, and under the same conditions as much as possible.
Overkill? Maybe, but also warranted, given that there are experiments out there asserting people cannot really tell the difference.
Ok, fair enough. Human perception is subject to all kinds of bias. My perception is that store bought eggs are vastly inferior to home grown. Whether that is just perception or truth matters little to me.
Store bought eggs are older, have the protective mucus coating removed, are washed with chemicals and come from chickens inundated with medication and fed the cheapest feed possible. If you think that none of those things affect flavor or texture I dont know what to say.
A fair comparison would compare home grown with non-premium eggs that most people are eating and are cost comparable. The test must also not be funded by an egg producer or supporter of big egg, if you grant calling egg factories as such.
It's really not. Most scrambled eggs are overcooked, and what you use for oil (or butter) and anything you add (eg milk) has a large effect. Not to mention seasoning correctly.
My wife claimed there was no difference for a very long time. She had the same experience when we needed to buy store eggs last winter.
Strangely, when going from store eggs to home eggs the difference isn't as pronounced.