What's in the Chef's Market Cart: Eggs from Schaner Family Farms

What's in your cart, chef? This week we ask executive chef Charlie Parker of Freddy Smalls in West Los Angeles.

“I've got eggs from Schaner,” Parker says. “We use them in a few things. Devilled, fried, slow cooked.”

Schaner Family Farms is perhaps best known for their wide variety of excellent citrus fruits and juices, but they also raise several kinds of fowl. Over the past few years, we've seen eggs from turkeys, ostriches, quail, duck and guinea fowl as well as chicken. Their birds have a wide and varied diet, including barley mash from nearby breweries, vegetables that don't get sold at the market, and rinds and pulp left over from the production of their juices.

Well-fed and happy hens always produce the best eggs, and Schaner's are no exception. At Freddy Smalls, Parker cooks them overnight in a thermal immersion circulator at 65 degrees Celsius. The resulting egg just barely holds its shape, and quivers when touched with a fork. The white is just barely congealed and still soft; the yolk is lush, orange, and perfectly creamy.

Parker perches the resulting egg atop a corned beef hash that is a veritable farmers market in a bowl, with house-cured local corned beef, smoked potatoes from Weiser, squash from Peacock, and a romesco sauce made with peppers from Windrose and Tutti Fruitti. One stroke of the fork transforms the egg into an elegantly subtle sauce for this breakfast of, by, and for local champions.

Credit: A. Broder-Hahn

For more in this series, see:

What's in the Chef's Market Cart: Padron Peppers from Fairview Gardens

What's in the Chef's Market Cart: String Beans from Tamai Farm

What's in the Chef's Market Cart: Green Garbanzo Beans

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