duck eggs

Chicken or Duck? Which egg for what?

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chickenduck-main-1000Turns out, there are pros and cons to the duck egg/chicken egg debate. A lot of it has to do with how you want to cook them. Duck eggs actually have less water and more albumen than chicken eggs. This makes them amazing for baking and pastry work, since that magic combo will make cakes fluffier and egg breads even more delicious than your standard chicken egg. They are richer than chicken eggs, with twice the fat. This means custards made with duck eggs are creamier and they would be glorious for scrambled eggs, omelets, quiches, and the like. A sabayon made with duck eggs is supposedly even more ethereal. And some pastry chefs swear that meringues made with duck eggs get better volume and are more stable.

But that lack of water makes other types of cooking, where the whites and yolks retain their independent nature, problematic. Any type of fried egg, hard- or soft-boiled, or poached, the whites can get very rubbery.

From a nutrition standpoint, they are also different. A large chicken egg is about 50 grams, and a duck egg about 70. But despite only a 20-gram difference in weight, a duck egg is twice the calories, twice the fat, and three times the cholesterol of a chicken egg, albeit the good kind of cholesterol.

As with chicken eggs, if you are being careful about your diet you can make scrambles and omelets with one whole egg and an added white or two for bulk. Duck eggs have more Omega-3s, and stay fresher longer due to a thicker shell. They are also much more expensive, often as much as $1-$2 per egg, depending on your source. The flavor and how different it is or isn’t from a chicken egg is entirely dependent on the diet of the duck, so if you want to use duck eggs in a cooking application where the flavor is egg-forward, you might want to do a test scramble of one egg to see if they are more intense than you might prefer.

If you have a good source for duck eggs near you, they are worth seeking out, especially for desserts. Whether the juice is worth the squeeze, price-wise, for your regular breakfast is very much up to you. But you can bet that now that I know all the benefits of duck-egg baking there is a duck-themed dinner party in my future.

The only minus point that duck eggs have is the considerably higher cholesterol content, compared to chicken eggs. 100 gm of duck eggs will contain 884 mg of cholesterol, compared to 425 mg in chicken eggs.

Another thing to note, is that many people who are allergic to chicken eggs can tolerate duck eggs. But be sure to talk to your doctor before giving that a try.

As an added bonus? Eggs are loaded with antioxidants, which some research suggests could even reduce the risk for cancer. So in general, there are plenty of good reasons to be poaching, scrambling, boiling, and sunny-side-upping.

Chicken or Duck? Which egg for what?

Rhubarb Custard Pie

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My Rhubarb plant was taking over my raised bed gardens, and the beets were hidden in the shade, so I thought I had better harvest to save the beets.  I love the look of the rhubarb plant and would add a photo, if it were not so drizzly and wet and ugly outside, but I am not a huge rhubarb fan.  My husband told me he loves rhubarb pie, so I thought at seven last night, after dinner I should bake him a pie.

Most rhubarb pies are combined with strawberries to add a little more sweetness, but I did not have any strawberries and did not want to run to the store (again).  So I looked online for an America’s Test Kitchen recipe and found one that looked good.

Rhubarb Custard Pie

From Cook’s Country | April​/May 2011
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:

We used a double crust for our Rhubarb Custard Pie dough, but we found that a lattice top crust worked just as well. Cooling the pie completely ensured that the juices didn’t leach out when we cut into it.

SERVES 8

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. 3. Bake until juices are bubbling and crust is golden brown, about 50 minutes. Cool completely on wire rack, about 4 hours. Serve.

    Notes:

    1. Duck eggs worked great for this recipe, as they are bigger, so less chance of soggy filling.

    2. I cut the rhubarb into about two inch chunks and put in my Breville Food Processor.  Made the process a lot faster and it was in nice small pieces.

    3. Add a little tad extra sugar and don’t forget the salt, as it enhances the flavor.

    Double-Crust Pie Dough

    From Cook’s Country | October/November 2011

    WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:

    For our Double-Crust Pie Dough recipe, we wanted the best of two worlds: The rich flavor of a butter crust and the flakiness of a shortening crust. Combining the two fats gave our pie dough optimum flavor and texture. To quickly cut the fats into the flour, we turned to our food processor, but… read more

    MAKES ENOUGH FOR ONE 9-INCH PIE

    INGREDIENTS

    • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out the dough
    • 2 tablespoons sugar
    • 1 teaspoon table salt
    • 8 tablespoons vegetable shortening, cut into 1/4-inch pieces and chilled
    • 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), cut into 1/4-inch pieces and chilled
    • 6 – 8 tablespoons ice water

    INSTRUCTIONS

    1. 1. Process the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined. Scatter the shortening over the top and process until the mixture has the texture of coarse sand, about 10 seconds (see related Tip). Scatter the butter pieces over the top and, using short pulses, process the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs, about 10 pulses. Transfer to a bowl.

      2. Sprinkle 6 tablespoons of the ice water over the mixture. Stir and press the dough together, using a stiff rubber spatula until the dough sticks together. If the dough does not come together, stir in the remaining water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it does.

      3. Divide the dough into two even pieces and flatten each into a 4-inch disk. Wrap the disks tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Let the chilled dough soften slightly at room temperature before rolling it out and fitting it into a pie plate.

      To Make Ahead

      The dough can be refrigerated, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 2 months. Let the frozen dough thaw on the countertop until malleable before rolling.

      Notes:

      1. This is a very tender pie crust and a bit sticky, so after leaving in the refrigerator for an hour ( I got away with 30 minutes) roll it out between two pieces of parchment paper.  Put a little flour on the each side of the paper or the dough will stick to the paper.

      2. When you cut the extra off the edge of the crust when you add the top layer, blend it into the edge of pie, so you don’t have waste and so the edges are a little thicker.  I like to double my edges like my grandmother did.

      And now enjoy!  IMG_5189

      And I think he liked it for breakfast!

      You can view my artwork at http://www.dianakingsley.net

Rhubarb Custard Pie