Quail Eggs: Hard Boiled to Perfection

Quail eggs are super small. Many of our first time buyers are shocked at their petite size. They weigh on average 0.5 ounces. Compare that to a large chicken egg at 2.0 ounces or a duck egg around 2.8 ounces! So if you made a traditional 3 egg omelet with quail eggs, your would need to use 12 quail eggs! However, there are many other ways to enjoy these little delightful morsels: hard boiled! Yep, they are small and a bit time consuming to peel but they don’t take long to cook up.

We are traditional with cooking hard boiled eggs and do it over the stove. You can steam them as well. For a simple snack, start a pot of water boiling on the stove and another bowl of ice cold water in the sink. We ever so slightly crack the egg just a bit. This is to help with ease of peeling. If you can crack one side and not so much that the membrane is damaged, the water can seep in between the shell and the egg to help with peeling. If not, just use older eggs that will be easier to peel.

Once the water is boiling, add in the quail eggs and cook for 4 minutes. If you are looking for a soft boil egg, cut the time down to 2.5 minutes. Once the timer is up, transfer the eggs with a slotted spoon to the ice water bath and let them cool. Don’t rush the cooling part, give them a good 5 or more minutes.

Next up is peeling. Overall, I find quail eggs to be pretty easy to peel. You can do the traditional method of cracking the shell and peeling under running water. On the farm we make lots of eggs so I have a small little container designed to help peel. The premise is to add the eggs with a little water and shake them up. The shaking cracks the shell slightly all over without breaking the inner membrane. The water then enters beneath the shell to help with the shell coming off. Sometimes the shell will even come off completely while shaking. Most of the time it still requires some manual effort to peel off the membrane and shell.

Now you can enjoy! We use these tasty treats on salads, pickled, or small deviled egg appetizer. What is your favorite way to eat hard boiled eggs?