Method of making value egg products

A method of preparing shaped, ready-to-cook or ready-to-eat egg products comprising,

• a) providing solid food inclusions, wherein at least 50% of the solid food inclusions have a longest dimension size in a range of from 0.6 to 12 cm and at least about 50% of the solid food inclusions are at a temperature of less than 34° F.;
• b) providing a liquid egg composition comprising from about 60 wt % to 100 wt % of liquid egg based on the total weight of the liquid egg composition, wherein the liquid egg composition is flowable at 35° F., wherein the liquid egg composition is at a temperature above the temperature of the solid food inclusions, thereby providing a temperature differential between the solid food inclusions and the liquid egg composition;
• c) mixing the solid food inclusions with the liquid egg composition to provide an extrudable egg-based matrix having a total egg content of from about 15 wt % to 96 wt % based on the total extrudable egg-based matrix, and comprising from 50 wt % to 90 wt % of the solid food inclusions,
• wherein the mixing of the liquid egg composition with the solid food inclusions with the temperature differential provides a temporary binding effect of the liquid egg composition with the solid food inclusions, providing viscosity and texture properties to provide the extrudable egg-based matrix that is formable to a predetermined shape;
• d) forming the extrudable egg-based matrix into a self-supporting, shaped egg product having a predetermined shape that is self-supporting for at least two minutes at an ambient temperature of 40° F. by either
• i) delivering the extrudable egg-based matrix into a forming plate to form the extrudable egg-based matrix into the predetermined shape to provide a shaped egg product, removing the shaped egg product from the forming plate, and depositing the shaped egg product onto a surface that does not provide support that would prevent the shaped egg product from changing shape in a width dimension to provide the self-supporting, shaped egg product, or
• ii) passing the extrudable egg-based matrix through a forming orifice onto a surface that does not provide support that would prevent the shaped egg product from changing shape in a width dimension to form the extrudable egg-based matrix into the predetermined shape of the shaped egg product to provide the self-supporting, shaped egg product;
• and
• e) either
• i) cooking the self-supporting, shaped egg product to provide a cooked, shaped ready-to-eat egg product, or
• ii) quick freezing the self-supporting, shaped egg product to provide a frozen, shaped, ready-to-cook egg product.