What's The Deal With Double Yolk Eggs?
If you eat a lot of eggs, at some point you’ve probably come across a double yolk egg. And, given that you’re used to calmly cracking through single yolk eggs, it can spark a mini "holy sh*t!" moment.
If you’re superstitious about double yolk eggs, seeing one might cause a total freak-out. After all, some people believe they mean you’re going to get pregnant with twins or that someone in your family is going to die. That’s kind of a lot to process first thing in the morning when you’re just trying to make an omelet.
Superstitions aside, there are so many questions when it comes to double yolk eggs. Are they safe to eat? How often do other people actually see them? And how do they stack up, health-wise, against “regular” eggs? I've got you covered.
Why do some eggs have double yolks?
When chickens lay eggs, usually one yolk is released, travel down the chicken version of a Fallopian tube (called the oviduct) and gets encased in a shell. But when a double yolk egg is made, two yolks are released at or around the same time and then covered by the same shell, says Julie Upton, RD, co-founder of nutrition website Appetite for Health.
Is there any way to know before cracking it?
Kind of. TBH, it’s unlikely that you’re going to inspect every egg before you crack it, because who has the time for that? But, if you happened to have some extra time on your hands or just really, really like egg-inspecting, you can do something called “candeling,” where you hold an egg up to a bright light to see if there are two yolks inside, says Sonya Angelone, RD, a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
How common are double yolk eggs?
Double yolk eggs are a tough thing to track accurately and, given that, there are no hard and fast numbers on this. Still, Upton says that double yolk eggs happen in about one in 1,000 eggs. So, for every 1,000 eggs you crack, you should find a double yolker in the mix.
Are double yolk eggs better or worse for your health?
If you happen to eat one double yolk egg, it’s not going to make a huge impact on your health either way. But double yolk eggs happen to have more vitamin A and choline (a water-soluble vitamin-like essential nutrient), says New York-based registered dietitian Jessica Cording. They also have more saturated fat and cholesterol, so you’ll just want to keep that on the back burner, Cording says.
If you’re baking and come across a double yolk egg, you’ll probably want to save it for something else. “It’s harder to bake with double yolks since recipes call for single yolk eggs,” Angelone points out.
Can you buy double yolk eggs?
Sure, you can just sit around, waiting for fate to hand you a double yolk egg in a carton. Or, if you want to take matters into your own hands, you can actually buy them.
There’s a Pennsylvania-based egg company called Sauder’s that actually sells something called Double Yolk Eggs, which are double yolk eggs by the carton. The eggs are only sold at a Brooklyn-based swanky grocery store called Gourmanoff, though, so it’s unlikely you’ll just happen to spot them at your local chain next to the boring regular eggs.
Overall, stumbling across a double yolk egg doesn’t mean much—other than the fact that you’ve got a new ‘grammable moment to share.
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