Emu Egg Breakfast
- 2nd Apr 2018
Last week the Team here at Heligan were treated to an unusual breakfast, not the sort of breakfast they are used to but a special one for Heligan. They were treated to an emu egg breakfast!
The livestock team collected the eggs and brought them to the kitchen for the chefs to prepare. The emus are quite feisty at the best of times, especially the female during the laying period, so collecting the eggs was a strategically planned mission executed by the livestock team. The queen lays the eggs and the male sits on them, doing the emus share of the caring until the eggs hatch. Queenie lays from November through to March and she lays approximately an egg a day. Whilst the male is brooding he goes into a trance whilst sitting on the eggs, so the team had their opportunity. They headed into the pen whilst the female wasn’t watching and slowly assisted the male aside to remove the eggs. Once enough eggs were collected, it was time to call the emu egg breakfast on!
The kitchen team decided to cook the eggs in a variety of ways, to best showcase the qualities and textures of the eggs. One was boiled, which took approximately an hour, one was fried, some were made into omelettes and some were made into tasty frittatas.
Once all was ready to be served, those in the team who were brave enough to give emu egg tasting a go, stepped up. As each member of the team came and tasted this delicious and unusually nutritious breaky, they started with an apprehensive expression which quickly morphed into a pleasantly surprised expression. The emu egg breakfast was a hit, some even said it was truly ‘eggcelent’!
“Trying the emu eggs was definitely a first for most of the team and an experience that we all enjoyed. The eggs are really tasty, they are light but have a great flavour. I would happily have emu egg omelette again for breakfast!” Laura- Livestock Experience Co-ordinator
We thought we would share a few images with you, in case you have ever been wondering, you can see exactly what an emu egg looks like on the inside and what it would look like when cooked!
