Did you know brown eggs come from brown chickens and white eggs come from white chickens? Eggs are such a simple yet beautiful thing.
There are so many different types of eggs available, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Going direct to the farmer or exploring shops committed to farm-direct food can open a world of yolk-y possibilities though. Here’s a look at just a few!
DUCK EGGS
We love duck eggs for a few reasons. They’re has a much bigger than a typical chicken egg and have a much richer yolk. Farmers tend to love ducks because ducks prefer to eat bugs, snails, slugs, and other critters over plant matter, and chefs love them because that diet impacts the flavor of their eggs significantly. We love duck egg mayonnaise in particular — as does Steffen at Heirloom Food Truck, who whisks his up using King Cole Duck eggs for his famous Duck On A Truck sandwich.
QUAIL EGGS
Quail eggs just might be the most adorable food. They’re beloved around Asia and in Mexico and cook in a fraction of the time of your average eggs. We like them skewered with a pickle on top of a caesar!
OSTRICH EGG
These eggs are monstrous. Imagine a 12 egg omelette, but in one egg. At an average of 3.1 pounds, ostrich eggs are 20 times the weight of a chicken egg. They’re huge. In fact, an ostrich yolk is the world’s largest cell. Ostriches lay about 40 eggs each a year, so they’re pretty hard to come by.
TURKEY EGGS
Turkey eggs are spotted and contain about two chicken eggs worth of ‘egg’ per specimen. They’re not much different in taste from a chicken egg, yet we rarely see them. Well, it turns out there’s a reason for that. Turkeys lay eggs much less frequently than other birds; a chicken lays about one egg per day, but a turkey lays at most about two per week!
Looking for some egg-cellent recipes to adapt with these beauties? Here’s a few staff tested ones from our archives:
For more delicious ways you use Ontario eggs, check out Foodland Ontario’s roster of seasonal recipes! Tag your own creations with #loveONTfood to spread the local food love.
