Noah writes:
Powdered eggs! There'll be a few tins of ex-WW2 stuff lying in a dusty corner of a war surplus store somewhere. Lovely jubbly!
As I understand things, there are a few varying grades of egg products which are designed to be easily prepared.
At the bottom, you have the powdered things - which are to fresh eggs what powdered milk is to fresh.
At the top, you have pre-mixed scrambles or omlette batter, which has a short shelf life but tastes close to fresh. Many chain restaurants use this stuff, and diners are none the wiser.
Most of it is, as a poster above mentioned, handled and treated ways to minimize food-borne illness. Cold handling, irradiated, et cetera.
Years ago, when I had a teenage part-time job in the kitchen of a buffet chain, I discovered an amazing product.
18" long hard-boiled eggs!
They're an extrusion of egg white and egg yolk at different temperatures, into a plastic casing, which is then "boiled" under closely controlled time and temp. (The casing passes through a hot water bath starting at about 170F and ending at about 230F...)
Voila! No shells to peel, just hard boiled egg to easily slice for salads or rend into cubes for egg salad.
A quick and odd question...
Many have stated that dining at cabin altitude "changes" the flavor of food.
I have never noticed this myself, but can more accurate tongues comment?
Also, would an average palette be able to tell pre-mix from cracked and fresh?
A comment...
On shorter flights, I wouldn't feel cheated or neglected with a simple selection of pastries, cheeses, fruit, and cold meats for breakfast - so long as the coffee was hot and good, and the fare was tasty.
It would seem to be a simple product - a choice of pastry and beverage, and a fruit/cheese/meat thing to go with.
So long as the quality was up where it should be...
Cheers!