The Egg Size Ina Garten Uses For All Of Her Baking

Chances are there's a size of egg you gravitate towards at the grocery store. Whether you grew up eating that brand or size of egg or you've just found it appeared to be the best size to suit your needs, the egg size you keep on hand clearly works for you most of the time. However, the Barefoot Contessa probably uses a larger egg size than what you're likely used to, which can be confusing if you're following her recipes.

Lois Stark, a fan from Greenwich, N.Y., asked Ina Garten, "What size eggs do you use for baking? I'd like to make the Sour Cream Coffee Cake, but would like to know what size eggs to use," (via Barefoot Contessa). Garten answered, "I use extra-large eggs in all my recipes." According to The Kichn, this is unusual because most people and cookbooks use just regular eggs. Fortunately, there's an easy work around for this egg size discrepancy.

According to The Kichn, eggs are differentiated by weight and grade as they are sorted to follow USDA guidelines. Each size of egg you see in the grocery store has the same average per dozen weight and volume. Most people tend to use medium, large, or extra-large eggs. Medium eggs are typically about 1.75 ounces or 1.5 liquid ounces per egg, while large are two ounces or 1.6 liquid ounces per egg and extra-large are 2.25 ounces and two liquid ounces per egg. On the extremes of the scale, small eggs tend to be about 1.5 ounces per egg, while jumbo eggs are 2.5 ounces.

If you have large eggs on hand and a recipe like Garten's calls for an extra-large egg, you can swap them out without it changing the recipe. However, you could not substitute egg sizes beyond one size difference. So a medium egg for an extra-large egg would not work as well, for example. The best way to make it work, is to do a conversion. So, if a recipe calls for two extra-large eggs, you could use two and two-thirds medium eggs. Food Network suggests you crack and whisk the eggs together before weighing them out on a kitchen scale to ensure you have the most accurate amount possible for the substitution. You can always use the leftovers for another baked good or breakfast the next day.