What an Egg Consists Of
Chicken eggs can be found in almost any fridge. You can quickly make breakfast using eggs, and they are often used in baked goods.
Eggs are amazing not only because they are good for us but also because of how they are made. 5-Minute Crafts is going to tell you about what’s inside an egg.
Why eggs are good for you
Eggs contain a lot of high-quality protein. It means that eggs have all the amino acids we need. Eggs also contain all the vitamins, except for C, along with many good minerals.
Eggs of all birds are built the same way. At first sight, there’s only a shell, the whites, and the yolk, but it’s actually way more complicated.
Egg structure
All eggs consist of the following:
- Cuticula
- Shell
- Thin albumen
- Air cell
- Thick albumen
- Chalaza
- Vitelline membrane
- Yolk
- Germinal disc
Cuticula
Cuticula is a waxy substance that protects the egg. It doesn’t let microorganisms get into the egg. It protects the egg from bacteria and dust.
There’s no cuticula on the eggs you buy at the store. It’s washed off.
Shell
Eggshells consist of calcium carbonate. So they can be dissolved with many acids, like vinegar.
Eggshells are covered in lots of small pores that let the oxygen through. There might be anywhere from 7,000 to 17,000 pores on an egg.
Thin albumen
This membrane keeps the egg contents together. It consists of keratin, so it’s like human hair and nails.
Air cell
The air cell is between the outer and the inner membranes. When you peel a boiled egg, you can see an empty spot. This is where the air cell is.
Thick albumen
Most of the egg is albumen — 60% of it — and it’s made of 90% water. The albumen protects the yolk. Egg white is an alkaline solution and contains around 149 proteins.
Chalaza
Chalaza consists of thin threads that keep the yolk in its place in the middle of the egg.
Vitelline membrane
The vitelline membrane is a thin film around the yolk that doesn’t let it mix with the other part of the egg.
Yolk
Most of the vitamins and minerals of an egg are in its yolk. All the fat and cholesterol are in the yolk. The yolk contains 3 times more calories than the albumen.
The color of the yolk may vary from light yellow to dark orange. This is determined by the breed of the chicken and the food it ate.
The yolk takes about 30% of the entire egg. An average-sized egg yolk contains around 70 calories.
Germinal disk
The germinal disk is a small white spot on the surface of the yolk.
The disk of an unfertilized egg is flat. And the disk on a fertilized egg is convex. There are rings on a fertilized disk.
An egg is called fertilized if a chick hatches from it. If a rooster didn’t fertilize the egg, it only contains the genetic material of the chicken.