Duck eggs - HELP!

[5winchestermule]

Hi to all you duck owners. My Pekin ducks - which we were going to butcher but are finding them more valuable to keeping the Japanese beetle population down rather than eating them - are now laying their eggs. This is their second week in doing so. The first one that was laid I scrambled for my husband. He did not like the taste nor the grittiness of the texture. Now, I am getting very large eggs. Could the taste and grittiness be from the egg being the first laid by that specific duck? Can anyone give me ideas of how best to cook - fry, scramble, etc. - these eggs? I hate for them to go to waste but, if we can't eat them, we will toss. Can't find anyone interested in eating duck eggs. By the way, we live on a 38 acre farm in far southwestern Missouri. All chickens, turkeys, and ducks free-range all day and go anywhere they want. They are not fenced in in any way and go to their respective coops/trees (turkeys) at night. Ducks have their own duck house to which they go every night. Cool! Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Miss Lydia]

My dh doesn't like the taste of duck eggs either says they are stronger tasting than chicken eggs so I use them for baking[ if you ever use ducks eggs for baking you'll never use a chicken egg again]
I also steam them for my dogs who love them. And I have a few friends from church who will eat them.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi, welcome to BYC!

My ducks aren't yet laying, so I don't know if my experience will be the same. But I will say... all the extra eggs we have get fed back to the animals before they go bad. And I haven't had a single pet complain about the taste or the grittiness!

 

[cheezenkwackers]

I wonder if it has to do with what they are eating as I have friends begging for extras. Miss Lydia is so right -duck eggs are great for baking. We like them poached or fried at a little lower temperature than chicken eggs. I know some people who mix duck and chicken eggs in scrambled eggs, quiches etc. to reduce the slightly more eggy taste and improve the texture. You can always scramble the eggs and feed them back to the ducks (a little mixed in their feed until they get used to it).

 

[TLWR]

I bake with my duck eggs.

If I'm going to do breakfast with duck eggs, I use chicken eggs for the yolks and just add the duck egg whites. I don't like yolk much and find the duck egg yolk to be much stronger in flavor (and bigger). I don't find them gritty though.
When we make scrambled eggs, I use 2 duck egg whites to 1 complete chicken egg.