I often don’t have the correct size of eggs in to follow a recipe. If I only have large eggs, how many should I use when the recipe calls for small eggs? With only medium yolks, how many should I use when a recipe calls for small yolks?
Small eggs weigh approximately 50g, medium eggs 60g, and large eggs 70g. Large eggs are roughly 15% larger than medium eggs (70 / 60 = 1.17), and small eggs are roughly 15% smaller than medium eggs.
For example, if you only have large eggs, but a recipe calls for 6 medium egg yolks, do the following sum:
6 x 20g of yolk [from picture above, showing a medium egg] = 120g. Large egg yolk weighs 15% more than a medium egg yolk, or 1.15 x 20g = 23g. 120g of yolk in large egg yolks = 120/23 = 5.2 yolks. This rounds to 5. So for 6 medium egg yolks, you will only need 5 large ones.
Yes, it’s tough without a calculator, but memorising the picture above definitely helps!
Strange to be reading this today, as have been having egg discussions with the editor of my cake book. It’s a dual US/UK edition and Americans call our large eggs XL. I have put medium eggs in some recipes and am in the process of adapting the recipes so the whole book only uses one size of egg. So thanks so this! Very useful indeed!
Can’t imagine how difficult the conversions back and forth are! Can’t wait to see it x
Thank you so much for this – it is such a useful piece of information, especially as I have had troubles with US / UK recipes, and often Waitrose / Ocado will just sub medium for large eggs (or visa versa) and then I’m left wondering what to do. Favouriting, printing, and placing sheets in my favourite cookbooks for reference!
It is a pain. Most often, with small numbers of eggs in a recipe it’s usually fine – just with more eggs the differences really add up! Glad to be of use