Raising Ducks
Basics
Duckling diary
Management
Housing
Eggs
Links/Resources
Movies
and please note:
Duck eggs: a primer
Never eaten duck eggs? Most people haven't. The differences between chicken and duck eggs, while slight, are noticeable by people who aren't used to the latter. Most of the people I know who have tried them prefer duck eggs, but not everyone likes them. In this primer I'll set out the differences between the two, but you really will just have to try them for yourself.
Fresh, free-range eggs
Very fresh eggs from free-range, healthy, well-fed chickens have deep
orange yolks and a rich, complex flavor that few Americans have ever learned
to associate with eggs. I had no idea what eggs were supposed to taste
like until I was in my mid-20s, despite having grown up in the "Garden
Spot of America."
I, like almost everyone else I know, was
raised on supermarket eggs, sad pasty things laid by miserable overbred
birds crammed into tiny wire cages and forced by hormones and underfeeding
to overproduce eggs that are stored until what little flavor they once
had is long gone: supermarket eggs may be months old by the time
you eat them. This makes me sad, both for the chickens forced to lay the
eggs and for the humans stuck eating them. It also makes me angry, furious
actually, at the miserable humans who thought this sort of "agriculture"
was ever a good idea.
And this, at bottom, is why Kathy and I
raise ducks: the world needs more people doing this right, and
the eggs are damn good. But enough preaching.
Very fresh, free-range duck eggs are similar to very fresh free-range
chicken eggs, in both appearance and flavor. The yolks are deep
orange; the flavor is rich; and fresh eggs "stand up"
when cracked into a pan, because their structure hasn't had time to break
down yet.
You will, however, notice more variation
in appearance and flavor of free-range eggs, because the ducks or chickens
haven't eaten as consistent a diet. When the grazing is good or we supplement
the ducks' feed with extra greens, the yolks of their eggs are deeper
orange; in winter weeks when they eat only their bagged feed, they are
paler and yellow.
Nutrition and structure
Duck eggs have a slightly higher fat content and somewhat more cholesterol than chicken eggs. Unless you intend to survive exclusively on eggs, I don't see this as a nutritional problem. It may, in fact, be offset by the possible health benefits of free-range eggs: at least two studies have found that free-range eggs are significantly higher in omega-3 fatty acids than eggs from birds raised in confinement.
Duck eggs also have more albumen (the protein in the
white) than chicken eggs, which gives them more structure when cooked.
For this reason, many people prefer duck eggs for baking: the extra protein
creates additional loft in cakes. Some pastry chefs warn against
using duck eggs for this reason, but I have not found it to be a problem.
When fried, duck eggs set up firmer than
chicken eggs (especially if they are very fresh). Many people call the
result "rubbery" and recommend steam-frying them, but I think
this is an exaggeration. I have actually grown to prefer the firm texture;
the last time I had fried chicken eggs they felt a bit mushy.
The shells of duck eggs are thicker than those of chicken eggs and just a bit rubbery, which makes them harder to crack. I was used to cracking eggs on the flat counter to prevent bits of shell getting into the egg, but I've gone back to using the edge of a bowl.
A complete nutritional analysis comparing duck eggs to chicken eggs is available from duckeggs.com.
Appearance and flavor
Eggs from Khaki Campbells, our ducks, are white, not brown. They look
just like chicken eggs, except for the occasional mutant egg. (We once
found one that was almost perfectly round; when we cracked it, we found
it was all yolk. Very strange. But this happened only once, when the ducks
had first started laying.)
Duck eggs come in a wide range of sizes—as
do chicken eggs, but you only get the one size from the store. At seven
months old, our ducks lay eggs that average in size between large and
extra large chicken eggs (large is the standard for supermarket eggs and
in recipes). The sizes have grown steadily more consistent and somewhat
larger since they began laying three months ago.
The flavor of duck eggs is a little different from that
of chicken eggs, but only a little. Very fresh, free-range chicken eggs,
especially the yolks, have a faint flavor of chicken meat—a fact
that shouldn't be surprising, since these eggs are designed to turn into
chickens one day, but it was a bit of a surprise the first time I noticed
it.
Duck eggs, logically enough, have a faint
flavor of duck meat. Duck is rich and (if not cooked well) greasy, and
I suspect that this, combined with the higher fat content, is why some
people describe duck eggs as tasting oily. I don't find them oily at all,
but they are rich, and their flavor is a bit darker than that of chicken
eggs. That's the best I can describe it, other than to say that they are
delicious. I think that they are superior to chicken eggs, although apparently
not everyone agrees with me.
Salmonella
I don't generally worry about salmonella in fresh, properly stored eggs
from healthy birds, but it can occur in duck eggs as well as chicken eggs.
I have found conflicting research; it seems likely that ducks are less
susceptible to salmonella than chickens, but that because the shells of
duck eggs are more porous than those of chicken eggs, the eggs of an infected
bird are more likely to be infected.
I am confident that our ducks are healthy
and that our eggs have been stored properly, and so I simply don't worry
about salmonella at home. Nevertheless, the usual caveats apply: very
young children, the elderly, pregnant women, and anyone whose immune system
has been compromised should cook eggs thoroughly to be safe. Simply treat
duck eggs as you would chicken eggs. If you incline toward the "safe
side," cook them thoroughly; if you think that the "food nazis"
should stay the heck out of your kitchen, eat your eggs overeasy and don't
worry about it.
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