Once upon a time Julie Kos had 200 chooks laying around 5000 eggs a month — and she thought that was keeping her pretty busy. She couldn’t have been more wrong.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
In sleepy Stonehaven, just west of ‘Sleepy Hollow’ (Victoria’s pet name for Geelong), the egg business run by Julie and Paul Kos probably rated as a fair-sized enterprise.
But these days Julie has bigger things to fry than eggs, as it were, because this small farmer from a small farming community is in the business of selling intellectual property that is redefining the egg in local, national and international markets.
And it all started with the couple’s 30th wedding anniversary when Julie thought it would be a great idea to buy Paul a smoker.
Then she decided to experiment with it and some of their eggs on a whim.
Little did she know she was about to revolutionise the egg industry.
If you want to grasp just how quantum a leap the couple has taken, try thinking Louis Pasteur and his discovery of pasteurisation.
Pasteurisation is a win-win process in which packaged and non-packaged foods (originally designed for milk and wine) are treated with mild heat, usually to less than 100°C, which delivers two benefits — it eliminates pathogens and dramatically extends a product’s shelf life.
So standing on Pasteur’s shoulders, Julie’s experimentation eventually went in the opposite direction, and she would spend several years battling away to prove they had the technology to produce a radically new product that could be replicated anywhere.
And you can forget their 200 chooks and 5000 eggs. Nowadays they buy in eggs in lots of 75,000, delivered to their off-farm facility to go through their secret smoking system.
Julie said the biggest challenge in the whole process was getting people to grasp their smoked eggs were not hard-boiled.
Because they’re not.
“Not many people understood what we were doing,” Julie said.
“As soon as they heard the word ‘smoked’ they automatically assumed it was a cooked product — which ours aren’t, they’re still raw.
“When Paul put the first ones through the smoker and I cooked them up it was incredible, we found they had the most amazing flavour.”
At which point husband and wife were hooked on the cooked product and started working on plans to take it to the world.
After all, they reasoned, if you can smoke meat, why couldn’t you smoke eggs?
In many ways, the initial products were an amazing marriage of flavours that quite a few people describe as bacon and eggs without the bacon — that was the flavour the smoke-infused eggs delivered.
But as Julie was soon to discover, the smoked eggs delivered a lot more than a great taste.
“We now have the world patent on an advanced smoking technique that actually stops the ageing process in eggs,” she explained.
“Our chilled-smoked eggs are taking Australia by storm because of that.
“This process is a game-changer in the food industry because laboratory tests indicate no bacteria at 18 weeks of age compared to the normal egg held in the same environment shows 21 million bacteria, which means our chilled-smoked eggs stay as fresh as the day they were laid.
“And just in case you missed it, they are still raw eggs.”
But no two eggs, let alone tens of thousands of eggs, are the same — in shape, size and flavour.
“Sometimes you get a stronger hit than others and it really depends on the size of the egg,” Julie explained.
“Obviously we don’t have any process that lets us control the natural pores in an eggshell, so in some eggs the flavour isn’t as strong, but most of the time it’s that strong flavour we fell for in the first place.”
Even though they are producing plenty of their own eggs on-farm, they have resisted adding theirs to the smoking process.
Paul said that was mostly because Kossies Free Range eggs are recognised for their beautiful, creamy flavour, which gets masked by the smoker.
That aside, it was during the R&D phase with the smoker the couple began to realise they were doing more than altering the flavour of uncracked eggs.
They also discovered smoking was not breaking down the egg whites and Julie did that one thing which has always set success apart from the rest.
She didn’t just go ‘oh, that’s interesting’.
Seizing on this unexpected development during the trials, she turned to Food Innovation Australia for funding to get official confirmation if what she believed was happening was true.
Julie wanted to see if their smoking process was also pasteurising the eggs at the same time.
“The eggs went off for testing at the CSIRO Werribee to complete food safety testing and to define the impact the process appeared to be having on salmonella,” she said.
It wasn’t just a positive effect, it appeared to be permanent — normal eggs contain millions of bacteria, but the Kos eggs had none.
“It’s a precise equation of time, temperature, humidity, volume of smoke and volume of product and it all happens because we [smoke] close to freezing point and that sets it apart,” Julie said.
“Eggs can contain harmful bacteria, including salmonella, and salmonella can have a serious — even deadly — impact on people’s health.
“But our smoked eggs are safe for everyone, such as helping people with vulnerable immune systems.
“Plus we've got a safe egg for pregnant women, young children or people who are ill and who need to be eating bacteria-free food — we regard it as nature’s own vitamin capsule that is bacteria-free.”
A lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of eggs and a lot of frustration have gone into the smoked egg — at times it had got so bad Julie said they almost walked away from the whole idea.
Fortunately they didn’t, because all that work is starting to pay some serious dividends.
The couple’s Smoked Egg Company today holds patents in China, Japan, the United States, United Kingdom and European Union, and — with every one that gets locked in — the value of the intellectual property keeps climbing.
The eggs are also sold through the Woolworths chain and Coles has just started taking them as well.
“But we had reached the point where Paul said he hated seeing yellow and he wasn’t doing this any more,” Julie said.
“I went to bed in tears but when I woke the next morning I told him I thought I had it all worked out — so Paul agreed to one more go, but only if I promised him we would walk away if it didn’t work.
“So we went much colder in the process, and it worked.”
And the rest is history.
SIDEBAR
If you don’t have a crack at this, the yolk’s on you
Julie Kos, from the Smoked Egg Company, talks about her products and how to use them.
Smoked Raw Eggs
The precise equation of time, temperature, humidity and volume of smoke has created a beautiful aroma and taste of smoke within the eggshell. The smoky flavour is full-bodied, but not overpowering. They taste great poached, boiled or fried. Scotched eggs are fabulous.
Liquid Egg Whites (Wholesale)
Full-bodied, smoky-flavoured egg whites. Whips, bakes and acts the same as a normal egg white, but with a lot more palatable character. Use in a soufflé, pavlova, sweet or savoury macaroons — and be amazed at the subtlety and delicacy of the smoky flavour.
Liquid Egg Yolks (Wholesale)
Beautiful creamy yolks, now better than ever with a full smoky flavour. The yolks are great in mayonnaise, hollandaise sauce, smoky creme brûlée — the possibilities are endless.
Whole Egg, Liquid (Wholesale)
If you want to be known for creating food with flavour then you can’t beat our whole egg liquid. Absolutely amazing in quiche, great for smoky batters, pasta, gnocchi — the list is endless. If it's a smoky flavour you want, this is the egg for you.