Based in Manila, Philippines, Dessert Comes First is a chronicle of the food-obsessed food writer, Lori Baltazar. This website is all about desserts, restaurants, coffee, and the pleasures of homebaking. Read more about me Adventure with an Ostrich Egg
Mon, September 4th of 2006
10:25 am
biggest to smallest: ostrich egg, chicken egg, quail egg
As an avowed egg lover, it was inevitable that I would one day come across what is THE mother of all eggs, the ostrich egg. The largest egg in the world, it reaches weights of up to five pounds. (Excellent for doing bicep curls with.) It’s approximately 5-6 inches in diameter and 6-7 inches tall. Its shell is about 1/8th of an inch thick and is tough enough to sustain the weight of a 300-pound ostrich sitting on it.
pick on someone your own size
When I saw ostrich eggs in the chiller at Rustan’s Supermarket, I excitedly scooped one up and held it. I expected it to be heavy (which it was) but what I wasn’t prepared for was the sheer intricacy of its shell, beautiful and porcelain-like. At P685 each, it wasn’t the price that had me worried but how on earth would I open it?
size matters
A flurry of text messages I sent and received from my chef-friends yielded a whole host of answers:
“…get a hammer and whack the bejesus out of it.” (No! I want to save the shell for posterity.)
“…cut it horizontally with a sharp knife.” (Yeah right, and watch my knife break.)
And one silly answer: “At P685, open it very carefully. Hahahah!” (Oh yeah, you’re a big help.)
bow before me, o little ones
After an evening of research, I decide to open the egg by drilling a hole through it. Giddy with excitement, I tell my sisters about it and am met with dramatic eye-rolls. “Geez Lor, I’ve never heard anyone get so excited about buying an egg before,” one of them comments wryly.
Egg Day
Although made of pure calcium, the shell feels like fine ceramic. Very popular for crafts, the hard shell can be engraved or even painted on. Food wise, a single ostrich egg is equivalent to 24 (2 dozen) chicken eggs. It only takes one ostrich egg to fill up a 12-inch frying pan to the brim. Already, I’m having magnificent visions of a gigantic sunny-side up egg or a whopping plate of scrambled eggs good enough to serve ten people for Sunday brunch.
But first I have to get the egg open.
drilling away
I’ve always been proud that my Bin is handy with tools — I’ve never had to call a handyman when it comes to getting things fixed around the house. Bright and early on Sunday morning, he comes down to the kitchen armed with his Black & Decker electric drill and his mountain-biking gloves (?). Carefully laying the egg in the middle of a large bowl, he begins to drill, the grating noise piercing the stark silence of a Sunday.
“Papa, it’s so loud!” Boo shrieks, running from the kitchen, her hands covering her ears.
you can see the specks of eggshell “dust”
It takes some drilling before we’re even able to pierce the rock-hard exterior. Once a hole has been made, I excitedly grab the egg from my Bin and turn it upside down, shaking it all the while. A few feeble dribbles of egg white come out, but then the flow ceases after a few seconds. “I’ll have to drill a larger or another hole,” Bin surmises.
2 holes but still no egg
3 final holes
We end up having to drill three holes all in all before the yolk even begins to show itself, coming out in drips and one big glob. I’m desperate to keep the yolk intact so I suggest banging the poor egg with a hammer. But my Bin talks me out of it saying that an intact shell would allow me more bragging rights. Oh, ha.
finally!
out with thy yolk!
out of its shell
When all of the egg is out, it fills up my entire 2-quart mixing bowl. I have what appears to be two enormous yolks and a mass of egg white. Rubbing it gently between my fingers, the white doesn’t feel as slippery as a regular chicken egg does.
Get a pan that’s big enough
a massive ostrich egg sunny-side up
Because the egg didn’t come out whole (does it ever, I wonder?) dashed are my hopes of a magnificent sunny-side up. Making the best of what I have, I ladle most of the yolk onto a hot frying pan. Taking about eight minutes to cook on medium-low heat, I garnish the ostrich fried egg with a sprinkling of fine sea salt.
ostrich egg scrambled eggs
I scramble the remainder of the eggs, although it’s quite pale in color since I’ve robbed it of its yolk(s). Even without the addition of milk or cream, they cook up in about 12 minutes, creamy and smooth, little curds which I top off with salt and some butter. And yes, the largest pan I own, which is a 10-inch nonstick, is filled almost to the brim.
My Bin and I along with Boo, sit down to our Sunday brunch of ostrich egg done two ways – scrambled and sunny-side up, country bread, and a banana-dark chocolate chip baked pancake that I had whipped up earlier.
What does an ostrich egg taste like? Just like your regular chicken egg. But much bigger, of course. Next time I may just try soft-boiling an ostrich egg.
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I’ve seen ostrich meat in the grocery homegrown down south in Cagayan de Oro … wonder if these are local or not. At least the next time you need to separate two dozen yolks from whites for a huge batch of souffles or other baked goods, you only need to work your way through one of these monsters (proceeding with much caution). =)
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Comment by wysgal — September 4, 2006 @ 11:04 am
Never thought Ostrich egg can be bought locally…you sure are an eggventure person. With a size like that…I rather let it stay the way it is…and see if it can hatch with me sitting on it =)ha ha ha. Thanks for sharing…if ever I crave for such egg, now I know how to crack it.
malou
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Comment by babsie — September 4, 2006 @ 11:39 am
yay! egg open & scrambled…reminds me of the roadblock for the Amazing Race in Africa, where the contestants had to wolf down a whole scrambled ostrich egg. to get the whole yolk, i think you’d have to break the shell. and to soft boil the egg, maybe you’d need approx 30-45 mins? (heard somewhere it takes an hour to hard boil an ostrich egg)
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Comment by kaie — September 4, 2006 @ 11:40 am
Gigantic!
MEhhhhn…and it looked really soft and creamy too! Did it have any distinct taste that would set it apart from a chicken scrambled egg on a blindfolded taste test?
I’m getting hungry just looking at the pictures…and this is coming from someone who had to skip Monday breakfast or be late for work!
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Comment by Abster — September 4, 2006 @ 11:43 am
There are local ostrich farms in Mindanao. I hear ostrich meat is also a good low-fat low carb option.
I do wonder if the shell bits drilled into the holes don’t add a certain, um, grittiness, when cooking. I guess if you wanted a sunny side up ostrich egg, you’d have to give it a couple or more gentle whacks and forego the shell.
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Comment by Mila Tan — September 4, 2006 @ 2:02 pm
Monster ostrich eggs! Yikes. I remember watching on a TV show before (from waaaay back, remember Great Chefs of the World from Discovery Channel when Sky Cable first came out?)—that a man poured the egg into massive iron skillet, mixed with cream, some veggies (can’t remember which) and he slow roasted it over a pan. It kinda looked like how people traditionally cooked paella.
~Mahar
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Comment by Anonymous — September 4, 2006 @ 8:52 pm
I remember this scotch egg post in another blog.
http://www.blogjam.com/2005/05/15/scotch-ostrich-egg/
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Comment by wyatt — September 4, 2006 @ 9:14 pm
Ostrich meat is becoming increasingly popular in the UK – and incidentaly, tastes similar to beef. Due to this, I guess ostrich eggs are a feasible idea, however I’ve never seen any.
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Comment by Scott — September 4, 2006 @ 9:55 pm
Those eggs look great in the afternoon sun Lori! Why not try an ostrich egg benedict next time. =) hehe
I wonder how ostrich chicks get out of that hard shell without a drill to help them. Of course I know egg shells are easier to break from inside. It just looks so formidable, must be a third of an inch thick!
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Comment by Chris — September 5, 2006 @ 1:17 am
yummy!! will be waiting for your post on that soft boiled ostrich egg… i just love soft boiled eggs! wonder how many persons can really finish a whole ostrich egg??? did you and your bin and boo finish the whole batch in one sitting? “diba nakakalaki ng ulo yun?” hope your cholesterol didn’t shoot up!! great pics!!
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Comment by bytchgoddess — September 5, 2006 @ 3:54 am
I think that’s one of the coolest food-blog posts I’ve ever read! I have to admit I’ve never seen on in person. LOVE the pics!
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Comment by Abby — September 5, 2006 @ 9:53 am
i’m wondering if there will be a time when ostrich eggs will be as widely availabe that you’ll find them in one dozen boxes at the grocery. i think there was an episode of the amazing race or fear factor where they cracked/emptied a whole ostrich egg into a pitcher and a contestant had to down the whole thing. raw. i wanted to hurl. a local lifestyle store in greenbelt 3 has actually made a name for itself with their ostrich egg lamps. they drill holes at opposite ends of the eggs… somehow they manage to fix a lightbulb on the top part and they attach huge tassles at the bottom. ingenious!
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Comment by anonymous paul — September 5, 2006 @ 11:23 am
I wonder how much leche flan can you make with one ostrich egg?
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Comment by the Jazminator herself — September 5, 2006 @ 3:38 pm
This post is so precious! I was smiling the whole time while reading it and looking at the pictures! I had no idea ostrich eggs were available in supermarkets. How were they displayed? Surely not in those cardboard by-the-dozen boxes?!
The first picture’s my favorite; reminds me of a model of the solar system, albeit an incomplete one.
Jazminator: HAHAHA! With our recipe, 1 ostrich egg = 2 leche flans since we use a dozen yolks. The question is, as wysgal mentioned, HOW does one separate the yolk from the white?
I eagerly await your attempt to make a proper sunny-side-up or boiled ostrich egg. The pics would surely look awesome!
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Comment by Katrina — September 5, 2006 @ 4:12 pm
Wow! Leave it to you to come up with a post like this.
That looked like a ton of fun, I’m sure even Bin enjoyed it. And wow, I’m imagining you making an eggs benedict with that!
Yup, there must be lots of ostrich farms in Mindanao, my friend has one in Bukidnon. He is constantly nagged by my other friends for empty ostrich egg shells for decorative purposes.
What are you going to do with the shell now, Lor?
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Comment by christine — September 5, 2006 @ 9:04 pm
Had a great laugh with the text messages you received from your chef-friends..
Idol ka talaga! Great pix again.
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Comment by majesty — September 6, 2006 @ 12:49 pm
i know how much you love your eggs but that is one heck of an egg!!! aakkk. reminds me of an episode of amazing race–when they were in africa & 1 team member had to eat one whole egg and boy, were they so full of…egg.
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Comment by Anonymous — September 6, 2006 @ 4:20 pm
I enjoyed reading this entry. I actually was laughing while reading this. It’s one hell of a kitchen adventure, pang Amazing Kitchen
I saw ostrich eggs in Lung Center Sunday Market.
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Comment by Lani — September 6, 2006 @ 6:30 pm
It was the first time I chance visiting this site and had such fun reading while getting hungry on the site pictures from other blogs…
I was laughing to myself while reading your adventure with an ostrich egg… talk about king of the eggs!
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Comment by ron — November 22, 2006 @ 4:37 am
thats so cool !!!!
question : how many days did it take you to finish the whole thing ??
and how many people eat it before it was done ??
i’m doing a project on ostrich eggs and “googled” it think not much would turn up but there are thousands of pages some with paintings , carvings, even lamps made out of ostrich eggs! so i was just wondering because your the first site so far that has actually EATEN an ostrich egg
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Comment by Anonymous — January 31, 2007 @ 8:54 am
Anonymous: There are only 3 people in my family. We stopped eating after the 2nd day because let’s face it, one ostrich egg is equal to 22 eggs. Even I, the egg lover, couldn’t deal with eggs for that long.
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Comment by Lori — January 31, 2007 @ 9:11 am
I have empty ostrich eggs. I don’t know what to do with it .Yet.
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Comment by Colleen Teves — July 24, 2009 @ 7:27 pm