During my last trip to the grocery market, there was a sign in the egg case announcing that, yes, the price of eggs are rising. I’m guessing that there have been a few complaints.

There are several reasons for that rise, with consumers blaming everything from the Atkins diet to ethanol — Atkins because of a higher demand for beef, eggs and other food high in protein and ethanol because of the use of corn (also used for chicken feed) in ethanol production and an upwards trend in corn prices. One key issue is actually the rapidly rising cost of transporting eggs from the chicken to your kitchen; that is to say rising gas prices mean rising food prices.

The cost of a dozen eggs has jumped, on average, 60 percent from where it was a year ago, and grocery stores are passing that cost along. Organic products, by the way have seen an equivalent jump, pricing plenty of buyers out of the market.

There isn’t a simple solution to combating rising food prices. I’ve been concentrating on making as much of my menu from scratch as I can. But even staples are costing more than they did even a few months ago.

Of course, that hasn’t stopped companies with coming out with new egg products, such as ready-to-serve hard-boiled eggs . For $4.59, you too can buy a bag of already cooked eggs.

Elizabeth Passarella, at The Kitchn , has reviewed these gems (marketed to those of us without 10 minutes and a pan full of water, perhaps?).

They tasted stale, the whites were rubbery, and the yolks were pretty hard. Our bag contained 11 eggs and cost $4.59, which isn't a premium we're willing to pay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth, thanks for your review — personally, I think I can skip the taste test. I’ll stick to buying an uncooked dozen for half the price. I know I’ll be surprised at how well these pre-cooked eggs will end up doing. I’d like to think that they won’t sell, but I know plenty of people will buy them just to save a few minutes.

And the price of eggs (cooked or raw) will keep going up. In the next year, the USDA predicts that 31 percent of American corn production will not go to food. Instead, it will be used in ethanol production. One third of American corn crops will raise food prices even further, from eggs in a Maryland grocery story to bread in Haiti and Bangladesh.