Cooking with Quail Eggs
**Watch the video I made for you below, for ALL the info!
Video Summary:
I wanted to show you all how I easily open quail eggs to cook with. The membrane on quail eggs is thicker than it is on chicken eggs, which makes it REALLY difficult to cleanly open with your hands, the way you would with a chicken egg. But they’re really, really nutritious, so I love using them in any recipe that calls for eggs.
We raise 2 varieties of Jumbo Coturnix quail here, as well as our standard-sized Celadon quail. The jumbos lay bigger eggs around 20-28 grams each and the Celadon lay gorgeous blue colored standard sized quail eggs, around 15 grams each.
For a quick swap with chicken eggs:
Jumbos, I use about three per chicken egg called for. Celadons I’ll use four per chicken egg.
And keep an eye out — every once in a while you’ll crack one open and realize it’s a double yolker! I usually get those from our Jumbo Pansy Quail.
Using Quail egg scissors:
The easiest way to open quail eggs for cooking with, is to use a pair of quail egg scissors. You can grab these off Amazon for just a couple of dollars. Here are the one’s I have and they work really well. My only issue is I keep loaning mine out to friends and then don’t have them when I actually need them!
Here’s how you use them:
• Hold the egg fat end up, pointy end down.
• Set the scissors right over the top — they nestle right into place.
• Slice off the top.
• Peel it up, and now you’ve got a little cup you can dump out.
Serrated Knife Method:
If you don’t have the scissors, or are waiting for them to arrive… a serrated knife works too.
There’s a small air sac right at the top of the fat end, and that’s the part you’re cutting off. You’re not cutting into the egg itself, just puncturing that air sac and slicing straight across the top. Lift that piece off, and dump the egg into your bowl.
A few tips:
• Fat end up — that’s where the air sac is.
• Go slow at first so you don’t break the yolk. I broke one on camera testing a double yolker, so don’t feel bad if it happens to you too.
• Once you get the rhythm down, it’s not any slower than cracking a chicken egg — you can do one every five seconds or so.
• I like to crack a whole batch into a bowl at once — I eat a lot of eggs, so I’ll usually do around ten — then pour the whole bowl right into the skillet.
Our quail lay more eggs per year than our chickens do, so I love having them around.
You can use quail eggs just like chicken eggs, except they’re healthier — more vitamins and minerals, lower cholesterol, and more protein per ounce than a chicken egg.
And I hope you feel less intimidated cooking with your own quail eggs. It really is super easy with a little practice.
**If you have been wanting your own little hutch of quail in your backyard, we can ship them right to your local post office and get you started off right