Ina Garten Only Uses One Type Of Egg When Baking

Egg naming would be a hilarious party conversation party starter. Ask people to list every type of egg, and a lot of people would start with egg preparations: Over easy, poached, and so on. Fewer would begin listing species: Chicken, duck, sturgeon destined to serve as caviar, whatever. But an even smaller segment would dive into sizes, because most folks just reach for a familiar carton at the grocery store and don't worry too much about the difference between medium and large. You know who does concern themselves with egg sizes though? Celebrity chef and cookbook and memoir author Ina Garten.

The Barefoot Contessa herself only uses extra-large eggs. Garten made this assertion without elaborating why in a nine word response on the "Ask Ina" section of her website. "I use extra-large eggs in all my recipes," she replied to a question about sour cream coffee cake. Her preference made headlines after she shared a little more detail in a Q&A with People magazine in 2024. Their size-to-price ratio makes them a better value, Garten explained at long last.

In her Q&A with People, Ina Garten also said that egg size does make a difference in recipes. Baking being the science that it is, where even a stray gram here or there can send a preparation careening toward disaster, this tracks. And plenty of recipes do specify egg size. But if we're talking about the best scrambled eggs, any difference will be sub-negligible to most folks. We also believe that the value will actually vary from location to location, but, then again, Garten is the erstwhile shop owner.

Still, the literal physical difference in egg sizes is worth noting. Medium ones usually clock in at about 1 ¼ ounces, while large should be about 2. And extra large eggs tip the scales at 2 ¼ ounces. So, what do you do when you've already assembled your ingredients for chocolate chip cookies, only to realize you have medium eggs instead of large? You can run a quick back-of-the envelope calculation and add a just a little bit more than what's instructed if you had the recommended size. Or, you can apply the grandma cookie principle: Grandma probably would have simply pressed on, and you can, too.