Pheasant Eggs

Most of the road kill pheasants I collect are males for some strange reason but about a third are hens.  At this time of year, there is an additional perk to picking up a hen and that is because they are usually carrying an egg.  At about 5 cm in length, they are a lot bigger than a quail's egg but only half the size of a hens egg.  What they lack in size they certainly make up for in flavour.  Now I have never tasted quail's eggs but I have frequently eaten duck and obviously hens eggs, both supermarket bought and freshly laid by neighbours birds, and I can honestly say I have never tasted any eggs that compare to the flavour of a pheasant's egg.

Despite being small they still seem to need 3 minutes to soft boil although if you are concerned about the possibility of salmonella, important if you are pregnant or have a weakened immune system, then you should hard boil these beauties.   Peeling them is a bit fiddly as the inner membrane is much tougher than it is on a chicken egg but if you have a teaspoon with a rounded end on the handle, you can use this to slide between the shell membrane and the egg to release it.  When you break into it the yolk is a rich golden yellow.  These are excellent served as an appetiser with fresh asparagus or on blinis.  Oh, and in case you are wondering, no, I didn't collect all these from road kill pheasants, these were given to me by a local gamekeeper.  Apparently, they don't like hatching any eggs unless the shells are brown, so all the green or bluish ones get thrown away.  What a shame you can't buy them in supermarkets.  I only get the odd egg from roadkill but they are a real treat when I do.