Dear The Kitchen,
My husband and I just returned from a wonderful weekend trip to Jeffersonville, NY. The owners of the B&B where we stayed gave us some duck eggs from their farm. Is there a fabulous way to prepare them that is different from chicken eggs?
Best,
Amees
Compared to chicken eggs, the yolks of duck eggs have more fat and the whites more protein. Duck eggs are more fragile in composition, so more care should be taken when cooking. You can cook duck eggs as you would regular chicken eggs (scrambled, fried, boiled, etc.) but there are some other traditional ways of preparing them that might be interesting to try.
According to Seasonal Chef, Chinese cuisine, in particular, pays close attention to Duck Eggs. "Tea eggs," for example, ask you to simmer the duck eggs for 8 or 10 minutes until hard-boiled, then carefully crack the shell without peeling it off and simmer them in tea for an hour. The result is a beautiful hard-cooked egg with a spider web design on the exterior.
You can play with the simmering solution further: try about a quart of water, one-half cup soy sauce, a tablespoon of honey, a piece of tangerine peel, a leek stalk, a couple of cloves of garlic and a pinch of salt for 2 hours.
If you really want to get adventurous, try Thousand Year Old Eggs, which preserves the eggs in a few ingredients you might not immediately find in your kitchen.
Of course, you can't go wrong by hard-cooking a duck egg and sprinkling it with some fleur-de-sel. Place them in a pot, cover them with cold water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, immediately remove the pot from the heat and let stand 12 minutes for large eggs. (A minute less for medium eggs.) Drain the eggs and shake the pan vigorously to crack the shells; this lets them cool faster and prevents overcooking. Cover with cold water and allow to cool. Once cool, you can peel them, slice them in halves or wedges, and sprinkle with a tasting salt such as fleur-de-sel. If you don't eat them immediately, store them in a bowl in the refrigerator, covered with water.
(photo: Luv-a-Duck)
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Oooh - thousand year eggs! I have to say, they are one of the few food items that still kind of scare me. The process is fascinating, though. You can see pictures of them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousand_year_eggs
Duck egg carbonara is a better use than hard-boiling them
One of my favorite preparations of duck eggs I ever had was at a friend's restaurant in Cambridge, MA. He would separate the yolks and use a single whole yolk as the filling for fresh ravoli. He would cook those through until just tender and then serve with a sage infused duck consomme.
I'll tell you, absolutely perfect. The yolk would still be soft and liquidy by the time it hit the plate. It's all I can do to keep from licking the bowl whenever he made that.
I confess I've never made them. The difference in taste - how would you describe it?
DrewB: What restaurant was this?
Duck eggs are really good cooked in nearly any way that you enjoy other poultry eggs. Sometimes, since we're a half-Asian house, we just eat them over rice after they've been fried in peanut oil and sprinkled with soya and white pepper. The perfect accompaniment is some sort of brassicae, like stir-fried gai lan or yu choy.
They taste richer and more "eggy" then chicken eggs.
A lot of the classic french supper egg dishes are good with duck eggs, like Oeufs en Meurette or the "Eggs en cocotte" that Delia Smith offers.
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/eggs-en-cocotte-with-morel-or-porcini-mushrooms,765,RC.html
regards,
trillium
Salts
It's on Main Street, right by the Tootsie Roll factory. (http://www.saltsrestaurant.com/)
My friend was sous there until he moved to be exec at some little bistro in Brooklyn.
Oh, and if you're a custard sort of person, they do lovely things to a baked or steamed custard.
I had pet ducks and used eggs in cake baking. I think they seemed richer.
I've never thought about eating duck eggs. THis makes me wnat them!
Where do you get duck eggs if you're not around ducks?
Ducks are great pets. Maybe I should start selling duck eggs so I could have a reason to have alot of ducks. I've never seen eggs for sale but obviously, people would be interested in using them.
You can find duck eggs at nearly any Asian grocery store, make sure you're buying fresh, not salted or preserved. But the best kind are from people who have ducks that get to run around and eat wild things. Usually you can find someone at a farmer's market who will sell you duck eggs, that's where we buy ours.
regards,
trillium
I hear ya, Faith. I'm scared of Thousand-Year-Old eggs and my background is Chinese! My mom and sister love them. Me and my dad can't be in the same room when they're being consumed.
Was this the Fifth Floor Farm B&B?
They sell their duck eggs at the farmers market in Union Square (NYC)!
it WAS the Fifth Floor Farm! they told us they sold baked goods at Union Square Market (which, by the way, are really delicious and interesting), but i didn't realize they sold the duck eggs there. it standa to reason, though. anyhow, thank you all for sharing your knowledge!
what day is Fifth Floor Farm at Union Sq Greenmarket, and whereabouts are they usually? I've never seen duck eggs at the market, but I never looked....
and is that great barn/junk market still in Jeffersonville?
: )
guido, they are there on sundays. say "hi" to fred for me! and yes, that barn/antiques store is there!!
actually, if you do hit an Asian foodstore, the salted ducks eggs are not bad with blander foods (chinese eat it with porridge)
really salty, the whites make a nice garnishing when diced finely and tossed with salad in place of bacon bits. the yolk is nice and crumbly too, so you can break it up and toss it in. a quarter of a duck's egg is more than enough for a one-serve salad.
goes great with pasta too! yumz!
about duck eggs. they, like other poultry. are seasonal, if raised in a natural way. longer days mean more eggs. the yolk is determined by diet. when free range they may eat lots of greens and the yolks are almost orange. but if the ducks are chasing crayfish and other aquatic delights the yolks might be paler but richer in protein. at the union square green market on saturdays we have eggs in season. each of our birds (regular chicken, silky chicken, duck, goose, guinea)eggs have s different flavor. but subtle.
we are and union square,nyc, saturdays with eggs and things made with them. things made with them can also be had at our b&b in the catskills.