They’re all they’re cracked up to be
By Becca Camacho
Is there a more versatile staple than an egg? Eggs play a starring role in omelets and quiches and in sauces like gribiche, hollandaise and carbonara. They are a transformative and flavorful ingredient in noodles, ice cream, tiramisu and pancakes. They serve as a binder for crab cakes and meatballs and an emulsifier for mayonnaise and Caesar dressings. They can be scrambled, devilled, poached, boiled, fried and their yolks can even be cured. At the risk of sounding like Bubba from Forrest Gump, I will refrain from mentioning meringues.
Not only are eggs critical in creating flavor, structure and texture to some favorite foods, they are also packed with nutrition. A good source of protein, eggs promote balanced blood sugar for steady energy throughout the day and are loaded with essential vitamins and nutrients such as choline and vitamin D, yet they are so simple to cook that almost anyone can do it. Eggs are one of the first things I learned to cook. My mom recalls picking me up from preschool before lunch, and how, upon arriving home, I would push a kitchen chair to the stove, heat some butter in a pan, then crack an egg and fry it while my mom tended to my younger sister. It was a perfect lunch that I enjoyed then and I still do. Although now I’m prone to frying the egg in olive oil so the edges get crispy. I then spoon some labneh onto a plate, top it with the fried egg, maybe add some shatta – a Middle Eastern chili sauce – and finish with some greens. It’s delicious; everyone should try it.
When one thinks of the incredible egg, it’s likely a chicken egg comes to mind first. They are typically available at any grocery store, most convenience markets, farm stands and large markets. You may even have a neighbor with a chicken coop in their yard. I suggest sharing some cookies with them and maybe you’ll be gifted some beautiful robin’s egg blue or lovely latte colored eggs in return.
While the chicken egg is rather ubiquitous, there are a few other hen offerings that are also fantastic for cooking and baking. Two that I often seek are those of the duck and the quail. While they both also have shells, an albumen (the white part) and a yolk, they each have their own unique qualities worthy of exploring.
A duck egg has a harder, thicker shell, a clearer albumen and a prize of a yolk. You can use the duck egg just like a chicken egg, but for my money, I focus on ways that highlight the richness of the yolk. A simple scramble is always nice. When cooked slowly in butter over low heat, duck eggs become creamy and luscious, a decadent treat of a breakfast.
A quiche is another fantastic dish for substituting with duck eggs and always makes for a lovely breakfast or lunch. Blended with a few other simple ingredients – a good fat like cottage cheese or ricotta, a bit of cream, salt and white pepper – the result is a gorgeous egg dish, almost custard-like in texture.
Switching up chicken eggs for duck eggs in baking gives you a fluffier cake or a pleasantly denser muffin but extra care should be given when making these substitutions. While a 1:1 chicken to duck egg substitution ratio works in cooking, for baking you will need to adjust that ratio, as well as the cooking time, to account for their higher protein content. If you’re just getting started baking with duck eggs, I recommend using specific recipes that call for them.
Quail eggs, on the other hand, are about ⅓ the size of a chicken’s egg and they offer more iron and protein for their size, comparatively. Their fragile, sometimes difficult to cleanly crack, shell is a mottled cream and brown and their yolk is a bright, sunny yellow, which makes for a pleasing presentation. You can use the quail egg just like a chicken egg, but given that their shells can prove to be tedious, I usually reserve them for dishes that complement their size, like a small bite, amuse bouche or smaller appetizer.
One of my favorite ways to serve them is softly boiled and peeled. You can serve them simply like this or play with them further. Perhaps the easiest, yet still fun, way I have served a quail egg was to fry them sunny-side up and serve on top of blinis or little toasts that have been dolloped with a creamy sauce. I’ve also made them fancier by staining them with beet juice to give them a punchy pink color, then dipping them in mayonnaise and breadcrumbs with herbs. It’s a joy to get creative with a quail hen’s little treasures.
Eggs are incomparable. If you have them in your fridge, you have a meal. No matter how you crack it, it’s fun to switch up your kitchen repertoire with different ingredients and recipes, and spring is a good time to try something new. An added bonus is that here in Minnesota, we are lucky to have local eggs available to us. Local chicken, duck, and quail farmers have their products in our co-ops and some mainstream grocery stores, as well as at farmers markets, making them accessible for everyone to look beyond the chicken for their eggs.
And now, about that meringue…
Becca Camacho is a lover of family, food, and travel; preferably all at once. She is a chef, recipe developer, instructor, and kitchen consultant. Becca is happiest when feeding someone she loves.
