Trouble peeling hard boiled duck eggs

[boondocker]

We have put an Udon soup inspired dish on our menu recently and are putting half of a hard boiled duck egg in the broth. Unfortunately we are having a hard time finding a cooking process that makes them easy to peel. We've started adding a tiny amount of white vinegar to the cooking water and that has helped some, but the skin still sticks and rips up the egg when you peel it.

Has anybody found a foolproof way to cook and peel a duck egg?

[runwestierun]

I've never hard boiled a duck egg, I save them for their magical properties in baked goods, but a pinch of baking soda in the water makes chicken egg shells slide off without peeling. You might try it on a duck egg to see if it works and that the soda doesn't leave any taste in the egg. You can taste the soda in the chicken eggs if you use more than half a tsp, but the duck eggs have much thicker shells, I think it might work.

[Pam Brunning]

You may not like to do this ,you will find the staler the egg the easier it will peel.Duck eggs kept in waterglass for a few months peel easy :

[sparrowgrass]

What Pam said.

Commercial eggs are washed, which removes a protective coating from the eggs, which allows the egg to dehydrate enough to make them easy to peel. Your eggs are probably really fresh, and probably haven't been washed.

Wash your duck eggs, in warmish water with a spot of dishsoap, rinse well and dry. Put them either in a cardboard egg carton or a loosely covered container, in the fridge. Give them at least 2 weeks in the fridge--three is better.

I have my own chickens, and 3 weeks is better than two.

Also, when I have stubborn eggs, slipping a spoon under the shell makes for slightly more attractive eggs, but you still lose a little eggwhite.

Edited December 17, 2010 by sparrowgrass (log)

[xxchef]

You may not like to do this ,you will find the staler the egg the easier it will peel.

This is very true. I'm not sure I'd use the word "stale" but the longer out of the bird an egg is, the more moisture it has given up through its porous shell = larger air sack and a loosening of the albumen from the shell. If you are sourcing your eggs from a local farm, too-fresh could be part of the problem. Try keeping a dozen in the fridge a week and try them again. At a week old certainly will not be "stale".

If you have the option you might also try a different breed of ducks for your eggs. In chickens, for example, Aracona eggs (the shells have a blue or green tint) will peel well when boiled right out of the bird, but not so much other breeds. We've had Pekin and "golden hybrid" ducks before and their eggs have been uniformly hard to peel fresh. We have a bunch of Muscovies now who should start laying in a few months so it will be interesting to see how theirs are.

[Chris Amirault]

Is this is a duck thing, particularly? Are duck eggs harder to peel bc thicker than chicken eggs?

[IndyRob]

I don't know about duck eggs, but a tip that helped me is to peel the eggs under running water. Once the water runs between the egg and the membrane it will help to separate them.

[Special K]

Duck eggs (and quail eggs!) are more difficult to peel, especially if they're very fresh. I drain the hot water, shake the pan around so that the eggs are cracked all over, then drop them in iced water and leave them for about a half-hour. Then they're a bit less difficult to peel.

Edited December 17, 2010 by Special K (log)

[andiesenji]

I occasionally get duck eggs from my egg man. He suggested that I add baking soda to the water in which I cooked them if hard boiling.

He also said that it would be better to hold them for a week prior to boiling, either hard or soft and I should pierce BOTH ends of the egg.

He has American Saxony and Orpington or "Buff" ducks for eggs and meat and some crested ducks for show.

I usually do something other than boil them but when I have, and I followed his advice, the eggs peeled okay.

The eggs I have a problem with are guinea fowl eggs. Apparently they don't like to be peeled and the membrane is very tough, no matter how long they have been held.

[Kay]

I'm afraid that I have no experience with duck eggs, however I discovered by accident that possibly steamed chicken eggs are easier to peel than boiled. For some reason years ago, I started putting eggs in one of those electric steamer appliances, for hard boiled. I did it for years just because I could plug it in, set a timer for 30 minutes, and walk away. They always came out perfectly. Recently, for no particular reason, I went back to boiling and kept having trouble with the peeling. I finally made the connection, and decided to revisit the steaming again to see if it would make a difference. That batch peeled like a dream.

[boondocker]

Thank you all for the replies. I soft boiled a couple on the fly during service tonight for a vegetarian. I did them like we had been doing them before, but this time I tried it with a teaspoon of baking soda in the water. Easiest eggs I have ever peeled.

[Chris Amirault]

Any noticeable taste?

[boondocker]

no, it did no out affect the rate of if the egg any

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