If they weren’t loud, stupid, smelly, and dirty, ducks would be the perfect farm animal. They don’t mind the cold, we didn’t lose a one during the snows this winter, and the ducks don’t even have to have a house. The chickens, with their insulated gypsy wagons, still managed to die in astounding numbers, but the ducks weren’t put off their daily routine of quacking wildly at every single thing that came near their pen and pooping.
And now that it’s Spring, we are getting 21 duck eggs a day (with only 20 female ducks – someone is overachieving). There is a small, but fiercely loyal, group of regular duck egg customers. These are either folks who are allergic to chicken eggs (and most are NOT allergic to duck eggs) or fanatics like Nick who think chicken eggs are pale imitations of the bigger, yolkier, robuster duck egg. The latter treat the arrival of duck eggs like white truffles straight off the plane from Italy. The other group of customers is the curious and culinary adventurous. And it was from one of these, a new CSA member, I got a good duck egg tip.
I had passed on to him my baking rule for duck eggs – 1 duck egg = 1.5 chicken eggs. He tested that on soft boiling, cooking a chicken egg for 4 minutes and a duck egg for 6. Perfect in both cases!
OK, I know this is not really a recipe, but as we get into the season of fresh everything, I realize that recipes are oh so not important. Really, you want to cook that fabulous 1 day out of the ground asparagus INTO something – to what? Mask its flavor with cheese (normally something I applaud, by the way)? Why cook it at all? Eat it raw and on the way home from buying it. Come to the farm and eat it out of the ground. No, this is the time of year when you don’t need a cooking channel. You need a “eat everything as fresh and unprocessed as possible channel.
And now that it’s Spring, we are getting 21 duck eggs a day (with only 20 female ducks – someone is overachieving). There is a small, but fiercely loyal, group of regular duck egg customers. These are either folks who are allergic to chicken eggs (and most are NOT allergic to duck eggs) or fanatics like Nick who think chicken eggs are pale imitations of the bigger, yolkier, robuster duck egg. The latter treat the arrival of duck eggs like white truffles straight off the plane from Italy. The other group of customers is the curious and culinary adventurous. And it was from one of these, a new CSA member, I got a good duck egg tip.
I had passed on to him my baking rule for duck eggs – 1 duck egg = 1.5 chicken eggs. He tested that on soft boiling, cooking a chicken egg for 4 minutes and a duck egg for 6. Perfect in both cases!
OK, I know this is not really a recipe, but as we get into the season of fresh everything, I realize that recipes are oh so not important. Really, you want to cook that fabulous 1 day out of the ground asparagus INTO something – to what? Mask its flavor with cheese (normally something I applaud, by the way)? Why cook it at all? Eat it raw and on the way home from buying it. Come to the farm and eat it out of the ground. No, this is the time of year when you don’t need a cooking channel. You need a “eat everything as fresh and unprocessed as possible channel.
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