So today I made pickled Quail eggs.
At once the easiest and most difficult thing to do. Easy because the recipe (go here for "Hot and Spicy Pickling Mix") is simple: vinegar and a bunch of spices, boiled. Hard, because you have to peel the eggs first.
Peeling quail eggs is not as easy as it might seem. For one thing, they are much smaller than chicken eggs and so harder to grasp for peeling. Second of all, they have a fairly thick membrane on the inside which makes it difficult to peel them - so difficult, in fact, that one can peel the whole shell off the egg with removing the membrane.
In the best circumstances, I was able to get under the membrane and either spiral the shell off or or simply slip the egg out from the shell. In the lesser best case, the shell came off with pieces of the egg whites. In the worst case (3 examples) the egg was so destroyed that I ate it then and there.
So twenty three eggs made it into the pickling solution for a 10 minute hot pack boil (I don't have to do that, but why not as it is so easy?). The finished result is supposed to wait two weeks for before sampling - I will wait at least a week before trying.
Another small victory achieved -more possible for a larger one as I realized that outside of the vinegar, the only additional ingredients (besides quail eggs, obviously) are spices and pepper flakes. Something that could almost completely be done at home with a little forethought and planning.
Another small step in the right direction.
woohoo for pickling the quail eggs! jam likes pickled eggs but me - no way! ick! blick! yuck! but a trick that i learned about hard boiling chicken eggs (and not sure if it would work with quail eggs - is to take a tack or a needle and put a little hole at the bigger end of the egg before boiling. it works like magic on chicken eggs and makes them so much easier to peel and remove the membrane with the shell. another thing to do is when cracking them, bang the bigger end of the egg on the bottom twice, then the skinnier end twice, then bang around all of the rest of the egg. there should be an air pocket either at the top or the bottom of the egg. start peeling there and you should be able to get the membrane with the first piece of shell making it easy to pull off membrane and shell all at once. again, this works with chicken eggs...not sure if it will work with quail eggs, but just wanted to pass it along.
ReplyDeleteyou'll have to let us all know how the pickled eggs turn out!
sending much love to you and yours! your friend,
kymber
Kymber - I have never had pickled eggs so I have no idea if I will like them, but I think so. That is a good idea for the hole in the egg - does the pre-boiled egg not come out. The Ravishing Mrs. TB also suggested peeling them under water. I have also seen recommendations for icing them down after boiling or soaking them in vinegar.
DeleteExperimenting is the most fun and especially now, before I really have to get it right.
Lhiats, TB