Quail diary – 46. A bit of a pickle
Quail eggs dissolving in vinegar - with freckles lifting off
Take 25 quail eggs, not too fresh, boil for 3 minutes and leave for 10, drain and add to a bowl of vinegar (white). Now stand back. Within seconds your eggs will begin to bubble and twist as in torment. Disturbingly, the distinctive quail freckles will simply lift off and float away and in 12 hours’ time the acetic acid will have stripped away all the calcium, leaving 25 rubbery egg-shaped blobs. Added fun can be achieved by giving all your eggs little faces first – in nice, not-tested-on-animals eyeliner. By morning the faces are all that’s left. Spooky.
Of course, all the above nursery school science is simply to avoid the faff of peeling tiny eggs in industrial quantities. A serious aficionado will now boil a pickling mixture and sterilise jars. Go on, Google yourself a receipe. The internet’s full of ‘em. Pickled eggs keep for years. Knock yourself out.
(The egg rack is now empty and Pottingshedder’s on holiday.)
