Quail eggs are small and bite sized when hard boiled making them our favorite travel snack.

They have a similar nutritional profile to chicken eggs in a smaller package. By weight, they have higher protein, fat, iron, riboflavin and B12 than chicken eggs. The taste is very similar to our fresh chicken eggs.

To hard boil: my best solution is to bake them. I bake them on a pyrex dish whenever I’m already heating the oven for something else. Usually 350F for 20min. This seems to make the eggs shrink slightly making the eggshell peeling much easier. Start by cracking them on the round end of the shell (the air pocket) and that gives a great starting point to peel the rest of the egg.

The other option is to boil them for 4 to 4.5 (four and a half) minutes with a splash of vinegar in the water to soften the shell. Submerge them in an ice bath immediately and this can help make shelling them easier.

As a hard boiled egg they are fun:

• as is (with a little salt and pepper)
• pickled: can be as easy as leaving them to marinate in your left over pickle juice
• marinated: multiple asian inspired marinate recipes (usually soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, sesame seeds & chili crisp)

We have also tried them as Turkish or Shakshuka eggs, which are super cute and a delightful surprise when served.

Another option would be trying a Scotch Egg, but I haven’t been brave enough to try that one yet.

Eggs in General

Eggs in general are high in choline and in so are fabulous for brain health¹. Interestingly one study went so far to say that children’s IQ improved with a daily protein breakfast (eggs)². Choline is also important in liver and heart health.

Many of us have been taught to limit our egg use based on the reasoning that it will increase our cholesterol levels. I’ve never had an issue with it and then this guy came across on my social media: Nick Norwitz. He is a medical student who experimented and ate 720 eggs in 30 days and his LDL cholesterol actually went down. Looking into it, Harvard agrees: eggs do not increase your cholesterol or compromise your heart health; they actually do the opposite³.

References

1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002231662400289X?via%3Dihub ↩︎
2. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8234310/pdf/nutrients-13-02080.pdf ↩︎
3. https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/are-eggs-risky-for-heart-health ↩︎