[aclimatt]

Aquafaba is amazing. But since we're talking about egg replacers, here's one even more remarkable:

Carbonated water.

No joke. Carbonated water can seamlessly replace egg in almost all things where the egg provides some rising / fluffy texture (not so much binding, like aquafaba does). It won't be stepping in your quiche any time soon, but cookies, brownies, cupcakes, anything with a fluffy inside.

1/4 cup of water equals one egg. Try it, you'll be amazed.

https://iambaker.net/egg-substitutes/

[hashmap]

I tried making a fried egg using this suggestion and it did not turn out as well as I had hoped.

[wickchuck]

This is gold

[whoisburbansky]

I'd like to point out that GP's comment went entirely over my head as I was scrolling past quickly, and your comment is the only reason I came back, took a closer look, and chuckled heartily.

[StrangeOrange]

Pics or it didn’t happen.

[Wohlf]

Interesting, is carbonated water an emulsifier? I was under the impression this was the purpose of eggs in most recipes.

[mattmaroon]

Eggs do a lot of things and carbonated water does almost none of them. The CO2 bubbles are ghetto leavening (which I guess would replace yeast) so overall, I think this is totally wrong.

[LesZedCB]

> not so much binding

[ajot]

Not as a substitute, but my Galician grandmother always add some carbonated water to the pancake (think more like crêpes) batter, it helps a bit with retaining some bubbles but mostly make them more tender.

[lapinot]

I have experience with a bit of beer or old leftover sour dough for the same use (slightly thicker and fluffier crêpes).

[koheripbal]

What's the best way to get carbonated water at home? Is it to buy it, or is there an efficient way to produce/consume carbonated water at home?

[canjobear]

did not work for scrambled eggs

[jiofih]

Why would you substitute egg in cookies if nearly all of calories come from sugar and flour anyway?

[pcthrowaway]

Not sure if this is a serious question, but other than the possibility for allergies and concerns about hormones, eggs cannot produced at mass scale in an economical, sustainable manner, without killing lots of chickens & chicks

[jamesrcole]

> concerns about hormones

are there chickens anywhere that are given hormones?

As far as I have been able to determine, this is a myth, and the reason they grow quickly is selective breeding.

For example, in Australia https://theconversation.com/ten-facts-you-need-to-know-about...

[mekkkkkk]

If it's the same objection that is raised against milk drinking, then it's more about natural hormones in the milk/egg that is intended for a calf/chick. Not artificially introduced hormones.

[aszantu]

eggs can soon be sorted out before there's a chick, saw it the other day. At day 6 they can now tell if it's a male or female egg and put it away, before it's gonna develop.

[danShumway]

It's not that simple.

Aborting chicks is better than killing them post-birth, but even so, egg-laying birds will still eventually be killed off and turned into meat/byproducts -- and the cruelty-free environments don't scale. Chickens just aren't really built to lay that many eggs, and ultimately there doesn't seem to be any way to optimize industry-level farming to care about animal health/happiness. At best we get much more expensive products that appeal to a minority of the market. Especially when you realize that a nontrivial percentage of the eggs you eat are coming from restaurants and as ingredients in pre-made foods, where there's basically no current market pressure to ethically source those materials.

In theory there could be a version of the egg industry that avoided most of these problems (yes, I know some vegans would view that as non-consensual exploitation anyway) but regardless, practice is still a long, long ways away from theory.

I know people like to believe that you can just get cruelty free eggs that solve all of these problems, and you can certainly do a lot better than just buying the cheapest brand -- and I'm not going to shame people, doing better is a good goal to have. A lot of food, even vegan food, has problematic elements that you can dig up, we're all just trying to do a bit better than the default and to be more ethical than we otherwise would be.

But while it would be really convenient if the modern egg industry was ethical, it's just very hard to argue that point.

[lapinot]

OTOH if you happen to live in a house with a decent sized garden it's really nice to get chickens. You will treat them with cooking waste (and cereals and ground seashell) and they give you deep orange eggs. Chances are you can save to-be-killed chicken for free, some local farmer gave us a dozen (they're not productive enough for exploitation but still can have a healthy life). IMO the important thing (as always) is DIY: understand how it's done, do it right. The degeneracy of industry for a big part a byproduct of insane scale.

[pcthrowaway]

I read about that as well and, while the technology is exciting, it introduces additional cost and complexity into egg production which I doubt will be used at scale, especially as there's no legal issue with culling the male chicks anywhere (though some countries have introduced legislation into how the male chicks can be culled). I can't imagine a day when it will be cheaper to use this tech than to just let the eggs hatch and throw the males in the grinder.

As another user alluded to, the "layers" (egg-laying hens) also have a productivity drop very early in their possible lifespans, and are then killed as well.

There are no industrial egg production facilities which feed and give chickens and roosters a place to live out the natural duration of their lives in humane conditions (not cramped in battery cages where they frequently die of infection from pecking each other to death). I did the calculation a while back and found that doing so would result in eggs that cost over $10 each. The reason eggs are so cheap is because male chicks and hens that have passed their productive years are killed, and while alive, the layers are confined to an neverending nightmare of cramped conditions.

[jcul]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/22/worlds-f...

I don't think they are widely available yet though. I certainly haven't seen them in my country.

[ArchOversight]

For ethical and moral reasons.

[weaksauce]

egg allergies are a thing. people also like to be vegan/vegetarian. also chicken farming is notoriously cruel in a lot of ways though it's getting better.

[jakear]

Helps to not cheap out on the eggs you buy. I pay ~$6/dozen (maybe less), but I also get a nice video feed of the chickens on their pasture clucking around and having a grand old time.

[StrangeOrange]

I’d definitely pay more for my veg if they came with videos of them relaxing in the fields.

[m463]

I think eggs are actually quite healthy, so I assume removing them from a recipe is probably to avoid eggs.