Duck Eggs, major gross out

[pax]

I bought some duck eggs at a Farmer's Market on Saturday, a half dozen of them.

Sunday morning I went to scramble three of them and I noticed odd little dark spots in the albumin. The kitchen was dark and I was still not quite awake, so I whisked some more and realized they weren't whisking out, so I isolated what I'd been seeing out of the egg and it was a small bean shaped thing. In fact, it looked *exactly* like a full dog tick, minus the head and leggs, of course. I found one more in the bowl, and just to be sure, cracked a fourth egg and there enough, sure there was another one.

When I used a knife to cut it in cross section, it looked full of coagulated blood, just like a dried up dead tick, just lending to the illusion.

Also, they smelled kind of fishy.

Anyway, this is the first time I've ever used duck eggs. Was this normal? I tossed it all and gave them toasted cheese and squash blossoms for breakfast.

Edited July 28, 2008 by pax (log)

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

Sounds like you had fertile duck eggs there.

[pax]

Yes, I thought so too, and I maybe wouldn't have minded fishing out the "beans" and till using them but the fishy odour just put me off completely.

[C J Phillips]

Duck eggs do tend to have a fishy flavor because of their diet, I believe. But I like to brine them Chinese style since they have a lovely oil in their yolk that chicken eggs never seem have.

[pax]

Well now the fish thing makes sense. I'll experiment again, but maybe from another place. Thanks!

[djyee100]

I was recently cautioned that when buying duck eggs from Asian markets not buy "balut" (pronounced baloot) eggs that deliberately have duck fetuses in them. These eggs are considered a delicacy in the Philippines.

Apparently one shd be careful not buy penoy (fertilized undeveloped) eggs also.

http://www.expatfocus.com/expatriate-philippines-balut

[C J Phillips]

Oh man, balut are something else. I've watched people eat them, and that takes a whole 'nother concept of what constitutes food. But these folks were chowing down quite happily, feathers and all, so maybe they taste good if one can get past the gag factor.

Which I can't, so I think I'll stick to my salted duck eggs!

[abooja]

I just googled "balut" and now feel quite nauseated. The photos are horrific.

[pax]

I saw balut on Andrew Zimmer's show, before my automatic gag factor started kicking in every time I saw his smile and I had to stop watching.

This was not balut, but it was enough that I was worried, because I'd never used duck eggs before. My friends raise ducks on commercial feed, and in a field with running water but no fish. Also, no drake. I'll beg a few off them to try.

Thanks everybody!

Edited July 28, 2008 by pax (log)

[Ce'nedra]

Hahhaha! This reminds me of my experience when I was cracking eggs into my raspberry cake mix (store bought) and to my utter disgust, swimming in the mixture was blotches of a thick, dark red liquid.

"Blood! Blood!" I gasped and started frantically scooping out the goo. A few moments later, while reading the back of the cake box, it said something along the lines of: "The berrylicious colours do not appear until there is a reaction with liquid".

...Doh! I say.

It was a sad day when I came to realise that I've been extracting all the raspberry flavourings.

[sparrowgrass]

The little "beans" are technically called meat spots. They are bits of reproductive tract that break off while the egg is being formed in the oviduct.

They are not harmful, just not esthetically pleasing. Older hens and ducks are more likely to lay eggs with meat spots.

Fertilized eggs are hard to tell from unfertilized eggs. If they are incubated, it takes about 3 days for the blood vessels to form--before that, you have to look for a white donut shape on the egg yolk, a little smaller than the end of a pencil eraser.

[pax]

Ce'nedra, that's funny. I would have been freaked out too, since they weren't "there" until the eggs got mixed in.

sparrowgrass, thank you. Good to know. Like I said, my first time ever using them, I was being a little cautious.

Also, I was using my brand new kitchen for the first time, which honestly was as much as an adventure as the duck eggs, and maybe I should have stuck with one new thing at a time.

[Magictofu]

Duck eggs are among my favourite eggs because of they seem to be much more silky when cooked. Flavour varies greatly from one flock to the other depending on what they feed on. Try to get eggs from ducks that feed mostly on land instead of dirty ponds.

I have duck, chicken and turkey eggs in the fridge and will try to find the time for a more formal taste comparison and report back here.

Edited July 29, 2008 by Magictofu (log)

[DanConnor]

We have 7 ducks we keep on a pond in the back yard, and use them in place of chicken eggs for everything. Ours never taste fishy, and I'm not sure what would cause that.

Duck eggs are harder to crack than chicken, and the whites have an elastic quality that make it about impossible to avoid leaving a string of white across the counter on the way to the compost bucket.

Cooked, they taste just like big chicken eggs.

[laddx005]

I buy eggs from my university's organic farm and I've gotten those dark spots too, but didn't mind just picking them out. But I didn't notice any fishy smell. I was told their birds only eat grain and leafy greens. Maybe it's like catfish. Bottom feeders taste like mud, dry food feeders are more mild.