Just when I think I’ve seen it all, another weird and wonderful bit of exotica pops up.
Quail, chicken, or ostrich?
This wasn’t a question I was expecting when I visited a large supermarket in Tallinn, Estonia. With three types to choose from, at this store, the egg department really was a department. How did I choose? It all came down to the egg-conomics:
After finding a few eggs-perts on the internet, I discovered that:
6 quail eggs = 1 chicken egg
24 chicken eggs = 144 quail eggs = 1 ostrich egg
The price for one dozen quail eggs was $3, chicken eggs rang in at $4 per dozen, and one ostrich egg cost a wallet-walloping $50. And even though one ostrich egg is equivalent to 2 dozen chicken eggs, the math clearly favors the lowly chicken.
For years we had a couple of decorative ostrich eggshells from our years in Sudan. They sat on our bookshelf all those years, but until now, I’d never really thought of cooking and eating an ostrich egg. As you might expect, the internet has lots of resources, so check out this Youtube video on how to fry an ostrich egg.
Sorry for all the egg-centric puns. You can decide if they’re weird or wonderful.
Happy Trails,
James
Photo Credit:
2. Courtesy of Aretstruz Mallorca
GALLIVANCE 
I reckon I’ll stick with the good old chook eggs, thanks.
I hadn’t heard chook before Yvonne. Thanks for introducing a new word into my vocabulary. ~James
i couldn’t eat a whole ostrich egg….no way.
Thanks for the comment and for dropping by the blog. I’m with you on this one. One ostrich egg = 24 chicken eggs! That would be a whopper of a breakfast. ~James
$50?! I am with Yvonne in the chicken coop. 🙂
Sue, the price in the post was in Euros, and since you were just in Europe, you know how expensive things can be. In my roving around the internet, I found a video of a guy in NY who had bought an ostrich egg at a whole foods store in NYC, which cost $25. That’s a much better price, but still too much for me. ~James
Euros of course. Yikes! Well if I am looking for a ‘deal’ on ostrich eggs it will be off to NYC. 🙂
Wow.. thats really expensive for the Ostrich egg!
Thanks for the comment and for dropping by the blog. The price in the post was in Euros, but I found a video of a guy in NY who bought an ostrich egg at a whole foods store in NYC, which cost $25. That’s a much better price, but still too much for me. ~James
Wow looks like they are on sale in other parts of the world as well. It’s not common to find them here, in fact I have never seen ostrich egg being sold anywhere at all. Perhaps one day I have a chance to try it.
I’d be tempted to go exotic. 😉
Dawn if you decide to fry up an ostrich egg, please take a few photos. I’d love to see how it turns out. ~James
Probably haven’t got a frying pan big enough and scrambling it in the microwave might be messy!
Andrew, in the video the clever lady used two small skillets. She plopped the egg into one pan, then when it was ready to be turned, she put another skillet on top and just flipped it over. Pretty smart I thought. ~James
I use that technique when making a tortilla – usually with the same disastrous consequences! I wouldn’t try it over an open flame though I have to say!
$50 is pretty steep even for a family sized portion of egg. So many choices, but no duck eggs? For breakfast, I’ll stick with chicken, but you’d have to be an egghead not to use duck eggs in your baking!
I hadn’t thought of it Laura, but we didn’t see duck eggs in Europe. I’m not sure why. And I assume from your comment that duck eggs are good for baking – something else I didn’t know. How are they different from chicken eggs? ~James
Duck eggs are much richer than chicken eggs. They really make a huge difference in baked goods.
Eggs-crutiating James 🙂
Alison
Eggs-crutiating is right Alison. Eggs-specially when there are so many bad puns in one post. ~James
Lol 🙂
I would go venti if an opportunity pops up! ☺️Quail eggs are higher in cholesterol than chicken eggs, wonder if the ostrich ones are too…
According to livestrong.com: “Ostrich eggs are much lower in cholesterol than chicken eggs, and a little lower in saturated fat, making them a healthier choice. Unfortunately, serving one is problematic unless you are feeding a very large family or group of people.” ~James
We saw quail eggs sold many place in Ecuador but they seemed like a lot of work to make an omelet that tastes eggs-actly the same! Anita
Anita, in my online research I didn’t get the feel that there was a huge difference in taste. So unless you have a discriminating palate, it’s probably best to go with the least egg-spensive. ~James
Thanks very much for reblogging our post. ~James
The ostrich egg is tough enough for a human to stand on without breaking so it would double as a handy stool. They’re lower in cholesterol & saturated fats than a chicken egg and an eggs-cellent choice for a banquet!
You’re the only commenter so far who seems to have some egg-sperience with ostrich eggs. If so, I and our readers would love to hear a few details. ~James
I visited Outdshoorn, the ostrich capital of the world, on my trip to South Africa.
https://mistynites.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/south-african-odyssey/
We ate ostrich scrambled egg for breakfast in the morning, ate ostrich meat on the bbq for dinner and I have a photo of me standing on an ostrich egg to prove its strength (although I don’t know how to upload that photo on to this comment thread), and I got to sit on an ostrich too, as well as watch an ostrich race. It was a fabulous trip.
I’d say that you experienced the entirety of the ostrich ostrich universe on this trip. It sounds like a fun spot. I’d love to add the photo to this post, and if you’re interested, send it by email to: gallivance@gmail.com with info on how you want the photo credit to read. ~James
Too many eggs-cruciating decisions. I’ll stick with the chickens. I know egg-actly what to expect and the price is right. 😀
Had I known you’d be in Tallin, I would have asked you to visit a friend of mine. Drat. What a missed opportunity.
Tess, I knew I could count on you to get into the spirit of things. My philosophy is that if I’m going to use bad puns, it’s best to pile them on. We really enjoyed Tallinn. It’s old town is like a Medieval fairy tale. ~ James
It was a pleasant surprise to hear about Tallin. Thank you for sharing.
Have had duck and quail but never ostrich, wonder is they are “tough” or taste any different??? My local supplier of organic eggs feeds her chickens marshmallows and the eggs are all so large they barely fit in a standard carton!
Laura is from your neck of the woods and she mentioned duck eggs as well, particularly for baking. Funny story about the chickens fed on marshmallows. Does that change the flavor? I need to recheck the ingredients label on a bag of marshmallows. Maybe they’re more “organic” than I remember. Imagine how big the eggs would be if she fed them Twinkies. ~James
Wow, that ostrich packs a lot of egg!
Leslie
And I bet it hurts to pop one of those babies out. ~James
LIke Einstein says it’s all relative. The bird is pretty big. It’s a little too much for one person to eat.
Leslie
Your mention of ostrich eggs jogged my memory of a west coast trip my family & I took a couple of years ago where we stopped at a roadside attraction in Arizona called, “The Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch”…look it up sometime and read about this poor ostrich rancher’s tragic tale…but I digress, or should I say, “digregg” from the subject of ostrich eggs…they’re on my list of foods to try before I die – thanks for the interesting info!
I love these kinds of wacky attractions Kelly. It’s amazing to me that they can survive, but in this case, it appears to be a family labor of love. Also, I like it because Rooter Cogburn is one of my favorite movie characters of all time. I’ve seen True Grit so many times I can almost quote all of Rooster’s lines. ~James
Curses … now I have this irresistable urge to find an ostrich egg!
JoAnne, if you do, please let me know how it goes. I’d love to have some 1st person input for the post. The frittata sounds good – and 10-12 of your friends would love it. ~ James
Very interesting post! I have an immense craving for an egg right now…wow the ostrich egg is 24 chicken eggs? Cholesterol city!
That’s true Lia, but according to livestrong.com, it may not be as bad as you think. “Ostrich eggs are much lower in cholesterol than chicken eggs, and a little lower in saturated fat, making them a healthier choice.” So round up lots of friends and make a huge omelette. ~James
Oh! Good to know! I have a brunch this weekend and who knows, maybe an ostrich omelette will pop up on the menu;)
This post cracks me up!! – Ginette
Thanks Ginette for helping to carry on the pun. Very funny. ~James
Egging us on again, eh? 🙂 –Curt
Thanks Curt for taking the pun in a whole new dir-egg-tion. I see yours and raise you one. ~James
Egg-actly the right thing to do, James. –Curt
Your post made me hungry! 🙂
Hungry enough for a REALLY big omelette Juliann? ~James
Egg puns? They were eggselent!
Chris, I thought that egg puns were better than egg on my face. 😉 ~James
Sorry if I’ve kept egging you on!
I have been to Tallinn, Estonia but missed the store with the ostrich eggs. I guess an ostrich egg would come in handy if you are serving breakfast for 24.
My memory is that the market was in the basement of an upscale shopping mall outside the historic center. That may explain how the shoppers could afford to pay $50 for an egg. ~James
The question is, do they taste the same? Though I’d probably stick with the old hen, they look the prettiest…
Thanks for the comment Sophia and for dropping by the blog. From people on the net and a couple of youtube videos, it seems that most people think that ostrich eggs don’t taste as “eggy” and when scrambled are a bit more “spongy.” At $50 per egg, I’ll never know. ~James
eggs-traordinary 🙂
Eggs-actly! I agree 100%. ~James
That’s a whole lot of egg.
You’re right about that Marie. We saw ostrich eggs for sale in a couple of markets in Eastern Europe. Have you seen them for sale in the UK? ~James
I’ve never seen them for sale but I did see ostriches or maybe they were emus, on a farm in the Hampshire downs when I was walking the Itchen Navigation. They also had alpacas.
I knew the ostrich egg was a bit larger but had no idea just how large and how expensive.
The best I can tell is that in the US an ostrich egg costs about $25 – still, not cheap though. And it would take some careful planning to avoid making a mess of it while cooking. I’m thinking frittata. ~James
Your writing was fun. Your photo was egg-quisite.
I had no idea ostrich eggs were so eggs-pensive. I wonder if the Aussies have ever thought of egg-sporting them.
OMG – puns are eggscrutiating! – Mike
Egg-specially good puns Mike – a few I wish I’d thought of myself. I knew I could count on you to get in the spirit of things.
What an eggciting post!
Eggciting – very good. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that – darn! Thanks. ~James
Really interesting info! 🙂 Thanks for sharing. Bye. Kamila
Thanks Kamila. Don’t you love the internet for new, interesting info. ~James
Thanks very much for the link to our post, but I don’t think that delicious-looking recipe will work with ostrich eggs. ~James @ Gallivance.net