I always have a box of organic eggs in my cupboard. They are a great standby for a quick tea for my daughter Maya, such as scrambled eggs (well-cooked) on toast, or the classic quiche Lorraine (see recipe, below), great for using up bacon and cheese.

When straight out of the oven, with new potatoes, a little butter on top and a simple green salad, it makes a cheap and quick supper for friends. I enjoy making pastry, but when the kitchen’s hot and time’s short there’s nothing wrong with rolling out some ready-made shortcrust pastry.

Ever since Edwina Currie’s remarks about salmonella in eggs and doctors cautioning that we should watch the number we eat because they’re bad for our hearts, many people have been incorrectly turned away from this nutritious, cheap food.

In fact, the amount of cholesterol in eggs is insignificant compared with the amount of cholesterol that our bodies already contain, and we can break it down efficiently. Eighty per cent of our body’s cholesterol is manufactured by our liver (blood cholesterol) and only 20 per cent comes from food (dietary cholesterol).

Eggs are low in saturated fats so they needn’t be off the menu for people with a raised cholesterol level, or avoided by those who are trying not to get that way. The cause of high cholesterol is more likely to be the result of eating too much saturated animal fat, such as butter, cream and fatty meats.

The World Health Organisation states that most people should be able to eat ten eggs a week, which is far more than most of us eat anyway. If you have a high cholesterol level, you should probably eat only five, as some studies have shown that a high intake of cholesterol can strengthen the effect of saturated fats on blood cholesterol. But even taking this into consideration, you don’t need to avoid them.

I love eggs nutritionally because they contain loads of protein and are a good source of vitamins A, E and D, niacin and vitamin B12. But although eggs contain minerals such as iron, the body isn’t great at absorbing it. If you don’t eat red meat and you’re looking to eggs as a source of iron in your diet, include some vitamin C-rich food alongside them, as vitamin C improves the body’s ability to absorb iron. This could be fresh fruit as a dessert, or a big green leafy rocket and spinach salad with a quiche.

With young children you need to be careful, as eggs can cause food poisoning and can be hard for a sensitive gut and immune system to cope with. So use the following guidelines: six months or under, no egg at all; six to nine months, you can give a hard well-cooked yolk, but avoid egg white and soft yolks; and 9 to 12 months, it’s fine to give well-cooked yolk and egg white, but avoid raw and runny egg.

The Food Standards Agency says that for all babies and toddlers, we should avoid raw or partially cooked eggs. But I would also say that it’s best not to give undercooked eggs and raw eggs to children until they’re school age.

You need to be careful with old people and pregnant women, too, because uncooked (found in home-made mayonnaise) or undercooked eggs carry a risk of salmonella, which can be extremely serious to these groups. Play safe and stick to a slice of well-cooked quiche Lorraine, which is no second-best to me.

Jane answers your questions in T2 on Tuesdays; e-mail Jane.Clarke@thetimes.co.uk and visit www.janeclarke.com. She cannot enter into personal correspondence

Quiche Lorraine

Serves 4
225g ready-made shortcrust pastry
100g streaky bacon, chopped finely
75g mature Cheddar cheese, grated
Freshly ground black pepper and a little Maldon salt
3 medium-sized eggs 150ml milk, could be semi-skimmed

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas 5. Roll out the pastry and line an 18cm metal pastry case or tart tin. Line the pastry case with a piece of baking paper, pop baking beans on top, and bake the pastry case blind for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, fry the bacon in a non-stick pan until golden brown, adding the tiniest dash of olive oil if you need it — though the bacon should contain enough fat. Take the pastry case out of the oven, scatter the bacon on the bottom along with the cheese, and season with the black pepper and salt. Beat the eggs and milk together and pour into the pastry case. Return it to the oven for a further 30 or so minutes until the quiche is golden brown and firm to the touch.

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