St. Ewe liquid egg: uncompromising quality from farm to kitchen

For St. Ewe Free Range Eggs, launching a liquid egg range is about more than adding another product to its portfolio.

It is the latest chapter for a family farming business that has grown by placing quality, hen welfare, provenance and long-term relationships at the centre of what it does - and now wants to bring those values to a category traditionally led by convenience.

St. Ewe liquid egg was introduced to hospitality at an exclusive event at Carousel in London, hosted by founder and CEO Bex Tonks and Michelin-starred chef and St. Ewe ambassador Lisa Goodwin-Allen.

Guests were served canapés created by Lisa, including Lancashire cheese choux with Branston pickle, a carbonara croquette, egg custard tart and meringue with vanilla diplomate and berries.

The afternoon also featured insights from David Mulcahy and a live pasta-making demonstration from Simon Allott, showing how the product could move across savoury cooking, pastry and baking.

The next step for St Ewe

St. Ewe is Europe’s first B Corp-certified egg packer, with the independent certification reflecting its approach to responsible business, ethical farming and hen welfare.

For Bex, entering the liquid egg market was not simply about expansion. The business had produced liquid egg previously on its home farm, but wanted a dedicated facility capable of meeting its own standards before launching to professional kitchens.

Asked why now was the right time to launch their liquid egg products, Bex said: “It’s actually been the right time for a long time. We finally got the sign-off for our new plant.

“It’s a product that we used to produce on our home farm. We started building our new liquid egg plant last year.

“We’re very fortunate to get some funding from Cornwall Council as well, which enabled us to get some really good equipment in there.”

The new range comprises British free-range whole egg, egg yolk and egg white in ready-to-pour cartons for professional kitchens. The eggs are fully traceable to the family farms supplying St Ewe.

The facility also includes equipment that allows eggshell to be dried and repurposed as a soil conditioner.

“It's making sure that we’ve got a very responsible working production unit that does the whole cycle," Bex said.

“I think it’s about the whole sustainable system. Everything’s in place now.”

Quality starts with the egg

Convenience is an obvious benefit of liquid egg, but St. Ewe does not want convenience to define the product. The starting point remains the quality of the egg entering the process.

Bex said: “If you use the analogy of grapes and wine, if you start with a really good grape and a good-tasting wine, as it ages it’s going to get better.

“But if you don’t start with a great product to start with, it’s never going to get there.

“That’s what we pride ourselves on. It’s very much focusing on great nutrition for the hens and good quality.”

St. Ewe uses Class A eggs in its pasteuriser and has invested in testing equipment to validate the product throughout production.

“We test our products all the way through the process," said Bex. 

"There’s quite a lot of validation that’s done before our egg leaves our pasteuriser.”

Bex said the approach is underpinned by four values: being bold, being positive, nurturing and being transparent.

“It’s keeping it simple,” she said. “That’s how we approach everything.”

A chef’s perspective on liquid egg

For Lisa, whose restaurants include Northcote and the Beaumont Mayfair, the product’s value lies in combining convenience with the flavour, provenance and versatility expected by professional chefs.

“St. Ewe has the same values as what we hold,” she said.

“We always search for the best ingredient because we’re looking for the flavour, the footprint of where it’s come from, to be able to create the best dishes.

“For me, the liquid egg fits really well. Not only does it taste great, it’s a fantastic ingredient to cook with."

The launch menu demonstrated how the range could work across different kitchen sections. Egg yolk was used in the coddled yolk served with garlic mushrooms and the custard tart, while the whites were showcased in the meringue.

“The beauty about the product is, when you get something that’s such good quality, it’s like thinking outside the box because you can do so much with it,” Lisa said.

“You can make a delicious egg yolk purée from it, just by cooking it really slow and getting the real depth of the flavour.

“It adds that note of richness to baking in your pastry, and equally throughout the different sections of the kitchen.

“When you have a good product, sometimes you have to do little with it to really get flavour.”

Convenience without compromising standards

Professional kitchens continue to face pressure from labour costs, food prices, recruitment and the need to deliver consistent results. A product that removes shelling and separating, supports portion control and allows chefs to use only what they need can offer practical value.

For Lisa, however, convenience only works when chefs understand and trust the producer behind the ingredient.

“I think it’s about relationships,” she said. “It’s relationships, research, seeing where your product comes from.

“Sometimes people don’t do research into that enough and you make this partnership because then you both come to have these same beliefs.

“For us to be able to create amazing dishes, we need great products.

“St. Ewe are passionate about it. They want to serve you something that’s the best and it’s making those partnerships, and then taking it further through our doors into creating some amazing dishes with it, to really celebrate the ingredient when you’re delivering it to your customers.”

Liquid egg can also help kitchens reproduce recipes more consistently. Rather than separating shell eggs for each batch, chefs can measure the amount required and expect the same functionality each time.

“Buying a liquid egg yolk, it’s much more profitable,” Lisa said.

“It’s a consistent product when you’re putting it into your dishes or your baked products that you’re making.

“You can rely on it so that, when you’re creating something, it’s the same every time.”

Supporting chefs under pressure

Lisa believes high-quality products requiring less intervention will become more important as kitchens look to protect standards with fewer resources.

“When you’re looking at that kind of labour within the kitchens now, you’re looking for that amazing produce that you have to do little with,” she said.

“It’s like buying a fantastic piece of fish and just simply finishing it.

“Having a great product and an egg yolk, and just adding it into something that makes it decadent and the best it can be.”

The aim is not to replace creativity, but to give chefs a reliable ingredient that saves preparation time and provides a consistent starting point.

Asked what she would say to chefs sceptical about liquid egg, Lisa’s answer was direct.

“Have a go,” she said.

“That’s the beauty about working with ingredients and maybe discovering something new.

“Read about its characteristics, taste it, its flavour profiles, and then your creativity will come with it.”

Bringing farming and hospitality together

The launch also celebrated the connection between British farming and hospitality - two industries dealing with rising costs and operational pressure while continuing to deliver quality to customers.

“It’s a great thing that it’s produced in this country,” Lisa said.

“Through the British Isles, we’ve got some amazing ingredients and suppliers that keep, time after time, producing - and it’s hard times out there at the minute.

“To support them as much as we can and really champion those ingredients and bring them to life, and encourage more people to use them."

That farm-to-kitchen connection is central to St. Ewe liquid egg. The range offers the efficiency and consistency chefs expect from a foodservice product, while retaining the provenance, welfare standards and focus on quality behind the St Ewe brand.

St. Ewe liquid egg is available now. Chefs can contact their usual supplier directly to order or email chef@stewe.co.uk for product information, questions and ordering support.