Eggs .“A hen is only an egg’s way of making another egg.” Samuel Butler (1835-1902) Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Samuel Butler obviously thought he had the age-old riddle worked out. But he may have had a point: Eggs have existed since the evolution of sexual reproduction in multi-celled organisms around 1 billion years ago; birds first appeared 150 million years ago; Gallus domesticus, the hen whose eggs we most commonly use, is a relative latecomer, only arriving on the scene some 4,500 years ago. The ancestors of the hen lived in the jungles of Southeast Asia and India and were probably initially bred for use in cockfighting, one of the world’s oldest ‘sports’, which dates back to at least the 5th century BC in India. The bird has also been used since earliest times as a means of divination and as a valuable sacrificial offering with which to appease a god. Food use, for both flesh and eggs, would probably have followed quite quickly and, as each female chick is born bearing 5,000 eggs, 200-250 of which will be laid during her lifetime, the bird would have been regarded as a better source than most other species. A pheasant, for example, only lays between 60-80 and a goose a mere 20-30. The egg is, of course, the perfect fertility symbol and it has been used in spring rituals since prehistoric times. Egg-rolling at Easter, for example, pre-dates Christianity by many centuries and was originally part of the spring rites, performed to transfer the eggs’ fertility to the soil, thus ensuring a good harvest. The Christian faith added a further spiritual layer to the practice, attempting also to squash the pagan associations in the process, by explaining the practice as being a re-enactment of the rolling away of the stone which had sealed Christ in His tomb, allowing Him to rise again and save mankind. The Romans loved eggs and Apicius, the Delia Smith of his day, gave instructions on how to boil and fry eggs and even included a recipe for an early type of custard. La Ménagier de Paris and The Forme of Cury, cookbooks from the 14th century, include recipes for omelettes and custards which are very similar to the modern versions. The Victorians developed a craze for chicken breeding after the cochin, an exotic variety appeared from China and hundreds of new breeds appeared in a very short space of time. Industrialisation brought even more changes: birds born in incubators, fed on a diet of chemicals, living in cramped cages which cause deformities with egg production forced up to between 250-290 eggs per bird. However, pressure from modern consumer groups seems to have started to take effect, with more and more ‘free range’ and organic eggs appearing on supermarket shelves. Eggs received a bad press during the salmonella crisis, but the slow change in farming methods and a public awareness of when eggs can be a risk, have helped to ease many minds. They were also attacked for being high in fat and cholesterol. In fact, an average egg contains only about 6g fat, about 7% of the average person’s daily intake and 65% of this fat is the ‘healthy’ unsaturated fat. As to the cholesterol, studies have shown that, as long as the whole diet is low in saturated fats, the dietary cholesterol in eggs has very little effect on blood cholesterol levels. Eggs are rich in lecithin which is good for the nerves and metabolism and are rich in protein. 100g boiled hen’s egg contains 75% water and gives 147 kcalories energy. The same weight also provides 12.5g protein, 10.8g fats, 3.1g saturated fatty acids, 57mg calcium, 1.9mg iron, 140mg sodium, 190µg vitamin A, 0.07mg vitamin B1 (thamin).