How to cook quail eggs

Did you know that the quail egg is more nutritious than the chicken egg? Yes, it provides much more protein, iron and vitamin B1. In addition, it is considered a gourmet food, since it gives your meals a very sophisticated and original touch. For this reason, quail eggs are widely used for holidays and special meals. Who has not seen them at Christmas, served as appetizers or in the buffet of some great celebration?

But, precisely because they are different eggs, sometimes we hesitate to buy them because we don’t know how to prepare them. For this reason, this time, we tell you how to cook quail eggs and everything you need to prepare them correctly. A culinary pleasure that you deserve!

How to make hard boiled quail eggs?

If a chicken egg cooks in 10-12 minutes, a quail egg cooks in less than half that time. That means the cooking time for quail eggs is about 2 1/2 to 4 minutes. In this sense, the size counts a lot, because the smaller the egg, the less cooking time it will require.

If you want to enjoy some hard-boiled quail eggs, cooking time is the key. If you overdo it, you will get a grayish or even greenish looking yolk, smelling of sulfur and the white will look like a rubber. So if you want perfectly cooked hard boiled quail eggs, follow these easy steps:

1. Pour water into a small saucepan until it covers a little more than half of the container.  Put it on the fire and wait for it to boil.
2. Once the water is about to boil, add the quail eggs, help yourself with a spoon. Do not put more than 4 or 5 eggs at the same time.
3. Let the quail eggs cook for between 2 and a half minutes or 4 minutes. The time you use will determine its texture; therefore, it depends on your taste.

If you want to control the texture of your cooked quail eggs and their degree of doneness, follow this guide:

• 2 and a half minutes: you enjoy a cooked egg white but with a creamy yolk. This type of cooking is known as soft-boiled egg.
• 3 minutes: you get a cooked white with slightly soft yolk, but not creamy. An egg cooked in this way is called a
• 4 minutes: you will get a firm yolk. These are known as hard boiled eggs.

Tip: Avoid washing the eggs using soap and water, as their natural protection deteriorates.  Better clean they dry.

How to cook quail eggs so that they peel well?

If sometimes removing the shell from chicken eggs is a cumbersome task, can you imagine what it is like to remove it from a quail egg? It can be more complicated, since they are much smaller in size and it is more difficult to know how to peel quail eggs and keep them whole. However, like everything in the kitchen, peeling quail eggs has its tricks.

You only need to add 1 tablespoon of salt in the water where you will cook the eggs.  Thus, after cooking, you will be able to remove the skin easily and without mistreating them. This ensures much of the work, but not all, because the technique you use to peel them also matters. So, once cooked, you can apply the following tricks:

• Stop the cooking: fill a deep bowl with very cold water and ice. Put the eggs inside as soon as they finish their cooking time. This method slows down the cooking and also makes it easier to peel them. The sudden change in temperature favors the separation of the shell once cooled.
• Make them roll: wrap the egg inside a cloth and roll it on the counter pressing it a little, very gently. You will see how the shell comes out without any effort. Repeat the process with the rest of the eggs. You can also take them out of the water and crack them a little, put them on the counter and roll them with your hands, just like the first technique but without any cloth.
• Shake them: another effective method is to put several eggs (2 or 3) in a jar or a Tupperware. Pour cold water until they are covered. Close the jar or taper and shake for approximately 5 or 6 seconds. Uncover the container and you can easily peel the eggs.
• Put them in the fridge: Finally, you can also try this technique. After you take the eggs out of the cold water, put them in the fridge for 15 minutes. Take them out, crack them (on both ends), roll them (like a rolling pin, same as in the previous techniques) and peel them.

Tip: Do not eat eggs with cracked or fissured shells, because if there are bacteria, they will pass directly inside.

How to cook quail eggs without breaking them?

It has happened to all of us at some point. When we cook hard-boiled eggs, some of them break in the water. But, what can you do so that they do not break when cooking them?  Here we leave you some tricks so that it does not happen to you again:

• Use fresh eggs. At the bottom of the egg there is a pocket of air that expands with heat and can cause the shell to burst. The risk of bursting is increased in older eggs because they have a larger bag. For this reason, some people pierce the area of ​​the bag with a pin so that the air escapes during cooking and the shell does not break. However, it is best to use only fresh eggs.
• Use room temperature eggs. The temperature difference can crack the shell. To avoid this problem, take the eggs out of the fridge 1 hour before using them.
• Add salt and vinegar. Add a tablespoon of salt to the water and a splash of vinegar. This way, if any eggs crack, the white will immediately coagulate to seal the hole.
• Pour enough water into the pot. It is important that the water completely covers the eggs.
• Put the egg into the water just before it starts to boil. You should do this a few seconds (no more than 3-6 seconds) before the boiling process begins.
• Use a spoon to spoon the egg into the pot. Immerse it in the water very carefully; this way you avoid any cracks.

How to cook quail eggs in the microwave?

If you want an express method of cooking quail eggs, the microwave is the best. You may have heard that it is dangerous to cook them there, but that is because you have to do it correctly. For example, you should never put a whole shelled egg directly into the microwave, because it will explode.

That’s not to say you can’t microwave quail eggs. With some tips and tricks, you can prepare delicious poached eggs in the microwave:

1. Fill ¾ of a glass with water.
2. Add a pinch of salt and a drop of vinegar.
3. Heat the water for 2 and half minutes in the microwave, at maximum power.
4. Crack the egg and pour its content into another glass and set aside (it must remain whole).
5. Once the time has elapsed, take the glass of water out of the microwave, carefully hold it with a cloth so as not to burn you, and add the reserved egg. Let it sit there for 4 minutes.
6. Separately, have a deep bowl and a slotted spoon ready. After the necessary minutes, empty the glass over the slotted spoon with the bowl underneath to contain the excess water. The egg should be on the skimmer, drained.
7. Place the egg on a plate previously covered with blotting paper. Let it finish draining there and then serve.

This recipe for poached quail eggs is good for making just one egg, but if you want to make four at once, use a larger container and multiply the amount of water by 4.

If you were left with doubts about how to crack a quail egg, here we leave you three ways to do this work, easily and quickly:

• Crack the quail egg from the wide part, giving several soft blows. Once the shell is broken, give it a pinch to open it.
• Stick the point of a knife through the fat side of the egg, at a medium height. From the inside out, turn it with the tip of the knife until the egg is removed.
• Cut it with special scissors for quail eggs. Place the widest part of the egg on top, and the point on the bottom. Use the scissors with the circumference blade facing down and cut.