Vessel Exploring food through cooking, at home in Nova Scotia

Since my roommate is dating the quail man himself I’ve been meaning to be pickling the abundance of quail eggs we have rolling around here. I finally got to it last night. You have to let the pickled eggs sit for a few days to develop flavour and I’m also hoping these babies will develop some color, but regardless I know that they will be delicious. Before you enter a quail egg pickling mission, you must ensure that your nerve are calm and you are mentally prepared for the strain of peeling dozens of quail eggs. I literally had to take breaks from peeling, to prevent me from mangling the last few eggs in frustration.

Have you ever wondered why peeling some hard boiled eggs (quail or otherwise) is super easy and the shells slide right off and others flake and destroy your perfectly boiled egg? The older the egg, the more difficult it is to peel. New eggs slide right out of the shell but it is older eggs that flake and come apart as you try to peel them. One tactic for making the peeling process easier is to crack the egg shell of the boiled egg, and let it sit in some cold water. The water slips in under the shell and helps the shell come off easier.

Sweet Pickled Quail Eggs

As you will notice this recipe has a lot more sugar in it then the next one does. Therefore it will be a more sweet pickle. The beet turns the liquid a pretty pink color and will tint the eggs.

Adapted from Gourmet April 2004

Ingredients

1 purple beet, peeled and sliced into 1/2″ strips

1 c. cider vinegar

1/2 c. sugar

1 tsp pickling salt

2 bay leaves

5 whole cloves

24 quail eggs

Hard Boil the Quail Eggs

Place the eggs in a large saucepan and cover with 1″ of cold water.

Bring the pot to boil, once boiling, remove from heat, and set aside for two minutes.

Strain the eggs, replace the warm water with cold water and put the eggs back into the pot to cool.

Its ok to be rough with the eggs at this point so that the shells crack slightly – see above.

After a few minutes, peel the eggs and place them in a clean lidded jar.

Make the Pickle Juice

Combine the vinegar, sugar, salt, bay leaves, and cloves in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and set aside until cool. About 45 minutes.

Pour the pickle juice over the eggs including the spices. Make sure the eggs are entirely covered and there is a 1/2″ space between the top of the juice and the lid. Keep refrigerated.

So I have to admit that I wasn’t always the best cook. I LOVE pickled eggs, and I tried to make them for the first time about 8 years ago. I bought a giant jar (like the ones you see on old bars) and two dozen chicken eggs. I made a huge batch of pickle juice, boiled and peeled all of the eggs. Had everything all set to go but the jar was super hot from putting hot juice into it. Super excited, I ran the jar under cold water, only to be immediately heart broken by the giant crack that went through my jar. I instantly thought of grade 7 science class and was devastated. This is the next attempt at eggs since then, and I will always remember that mistake. For every success their has to be a failure in order to learn things, and no one is exempt from it!

Golden Pickled Quail Eggs

Adapted from MotherEarthNews.com

Ingredients

1-1/2 c. cider vinegar

1/2 c. water

2 tsp brown sugar or honey

2 tsp. pickling salt

1 tsp ground tumeric

2 tsp peppercorns

1 tsp whole cloves

1/4 tsp celery seeds

1 cinnamon stick

Instructions

Hard Boil the Quail Eggs

So a different method for boiling the quail eggs, possibly more difficult in my opinion but gives you the same result.

Bring the water to a boil, once boiling, add the quail eggs into the boiling water. (This being the difficult part).

Boil the eggs for 3 minutes and 15 seconds, remove the eggs from the boiling water and dunk into an ice bath to stop them from cooking. Strain the eggs and jostle the eggs so the crack slightly off each other and cover with cold water.

Peel the eggs and place them in a jar with a lid.

Make the Pickle Juice

(Same as above)

Combine the vinegar, water, sugar, salt, and spices in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and set aside until cool. About 45 minutes.

Pour the pickle juice over the eggs including the spices. Make sure the eggs are entirely covered and there is a 1/2″ space between the top of the juice and the lid. Keep refrigerated.

**UPDATE

The eggs turned out awesome. The flavour is more mild in the golden eggs and the color of the sweeter eggs makes the egg whites turn pink after 5 or 6 days.