Quail Egg Questions

[Eggs on Toast]

Hi all,

I have a few questions on quail eggs. I've never eaten, cooked or collected them before, I usually just throw them away. But this year my new Japanese quails have been laying a lot of eggs and I thought I would make something with them but I have a few questions:

1. How would you store eggs? In a fridge, cupboard, etc. Right now my quail eggs are sitting on the counter in an egg holder.

2. When do they go bad/rotten? I want to wait until I have enough eggs to make a meal out of but I don't want to wait until the last minute and they're all rotten.

3. Should I wash the eggs when I collect them? I currently wash them so is that okay? The colour seems to become brighter when they're rinsed under warm water.

4. What are some meals I can make out of the eggs? I heard you can pickle them so I wanted to try that.

Thanks for all who reply

 

[ameliadanielle]

1) Storage for me is according to whether I wash them or not. If I wash eggs, they go in the fridge. I don't know about quail eggs, but I've been fine using chicken eggs that were unwashed and sat on my counter for almost two weeks.

2) I generally account for the incubation period. A chicken egg has to incubate for 21 days, so that protective coating if you don't wash it off should protect them for that long as long as they are in a cool, dry place. I think most quail eggs incubate at 17 or 19 days. I probably wouldn't leave them sitting out for more than 2 weeks unwashed. Still we try to use up our eggs before they have been sitting for a week. Any longer than a week and we normally wash and refrigerate.

3) Washing is up to you. If you want washed eggs, I would put them in the fridge as soon as you dry them off. Eggs have a coating on them that block bacteria, because the shells are porous. If you wash that coating off, they will be able to better absorb bacteria and they will go bad much faster than unwashed.

4) I haven't had quail eggs. I really want to though, but at the buying price of $0.50 each or more... it's too pricey for a snack in my opinion. My husband and I have been talking about getting some quail just for eggs. He thinks they would make the absolute cutest deviled eggs. I'm sure any dish you normally make with chicken eggs you could make with quail eggs... accounting for size. I've never eaten any so I don't know their flavor. First I'd just want to try out plain old scrambled to get an idea.

Sorry I can't help more. All my hands on experience has been with chickens so far. We're just now researching quail and I saw your post. So someone may come along and correct me.

 

[gilpinguy]

Quote: I store mine in the fridge until I need to use them.

Quote: I don't know how long it would take for eggs in the fridge to go bad. I've eaten eggs that were a month old that were in the fridge and they were fine.

Quote: I don't wash them until I use them. In other words, I collect them, put them in the fridge, and wash them right before I use them.

Quote: I use quail eggs just like chicken eggs. Mostly for fried or scrambled eggs in the morning, and for baking. I've done brownies, cakes and cornbread and they all turned out great.

Pickling is something I have not tried yet, but I will one of these days.

 

[dc3085]

In the winter when the house stays cool i leave quail eggs on the counter. Theyll keep for between 30-40 days without being refrigerated. A lot of europe doesnt wash or refrigerate any type of egg and they seem to be doing fine over there.

Keep in mind quail eggs are twice as nutritous as a chicken egg and eating too many at once severely upsets some peoples stomachs. Id try a few at a time until youre sure you arent one of those people.