If you are lucky enough to find quail eggs in your local grocery store, then give me the address!
Quails are a Japanese bird initially kept as pets due to their beautiful song. They are still primarily reared in Asian countries but in the 1950s European countries began to breed these tiny songbirds for their tender meat and delicate eggs.
Quick on the heels of this booming success, China began to farm the quails themselves. Now over 80% of the quail meat and eggs come from the 1.4 billion quails cultivated in China.
Despite the 70 years of farm life, the United State of American hasn’t joined in with the mass farming which is why finding these delicious eggs can feel like such a treat!
Because quail eggs are so tiny, cooking them to perfection is very different from boiling a chicken egg.
Before we jump to pickling your quail eggs you’ll need to know how to hard boil and peel them first!
This might seem like baby steps, but trust me you’ll be thankful for the lesson!
How To Hard Boil Quail Eggs
Hard boiling is technically the first step to pickling your eggs, so feel free to begin your cooking journey here. There are three main methods that you can follow: Boiling Water, Warm Water and Cold Water.
Boiling Water
Boiling water is the obvious method. You simply bring a small pot of water to the boil on your stove, and then using a slotted spoon you delicately place the quail eggs into the water.
You then turn the temperature down, so the water is simmering and you leave them to cook for 4 minutes.
Lastly you take the eggs out again and let them rest in cold water.
This is a very quick and easy method which resembles how you would hard boil a chicken egg, but because quail eggs are so delicate, placing them into the boiling water will likely crack the shell.
This means the white will leak out into the water, creating an ugly mess.
Warm Water
To avoid the egg’s shell cracking, you can move the eggs from the refrigerator to a warm bowl of water and then transfer them to the boiling water.
You may still get a couple of cracks, but the warm water should have toughened up the shell’s membrane, so the white doesn’t leak.
Cold Water
The cold water method is foolproof, but it does take longer. The idea is that you place the quail eggs into cold water and then turn the stove on, letting the water slowly come to a boil.
Once the water has just started boiling, turn the heat off and put a lid over the pot.
Wait for 6 minutes, and then remove the eggs from the hot water and transfer them into a cold water bowl.
This slower method should stop any cracks from forming.
How To Peel A Quail Egg
With all the faff which came with boiling a quail egg, it will shock you to learn that peeling them is easy!
From the boiling process alone, you will have learned that quail shells are fragile, but this is what you want to hear when it comes to peeling the shell away. Because of this, the problem you might find won’t come from the shell itself but the membrane around it.
Quail Farmers have actually invented tiny scissors to cut the top off of quail eggs, simply because puncturing the membrane can be so tricky!
What you need to so, is tap the boiled quail egg against a countertop. This should break the shell. Next, you want to carefully pinch the membrane and delicately pull it away from the egg.
The membrane should pull off in a spiral formation around the egg, leaving no damage whatsoever!
How To Make Pickled Quail Eggs
Now let’s get to the main event. You have boiled your quail eggs, you have peeled your quail eggs, you can bet that it’s time to pickle your quail eggs!
The process of pickling a quail egg is very similar to pickling a chicken egg, but the flavors will come out differently. This is because the eggs are so small that the same favor will be intensified.
Ingredients
- Quail Eggs – 12 – Hard boiled and peeled – See above for directions
- White Vinegar – 1 Cup
- Salt – 1 Tsp
- Garlic Cloves – 2 – Peeled
- Whole Peppercorns – 5
- Whole Allspice Berries – 4
- Whole Cloves – 2
- Mustard Seeds – ½ tsp
I have used white vinegar in this recipe because it has a neutral flavor to bring out the original taste of the quail egg, but if you wanted a different flavor, here are some other choices you could use:
- For a rustic flavor, use apple cider vinegar.
- For a sweet and warm flavor, use balsamic vinegar.
- For a less vinegary flavor, use dry white wine.
Method:
- Place the hard-boiled and peeled quail eggs into a suitably sized jar.
For reference, a standard mason jar can fit around 18 quail eggs.
- Put all the other ingredients into a saucepan and bring the contents to a boil.
- Boil for 1 minute and stir until the salt has dissolved.
- Pour this hot mixture into the jar filled with quail eggs. Don’t sieve out the spices.
- Seal the lid tightly.
- Store in the refrigerator for at least 1 week.
- Enjoy!
After the week of cooling, your jar of Pickled Quail Eggs can last for several months!
