I tasted chicken, pheasant, goose, duck, quail, turkey and ostrich. Most I fried and boiled, the turkey I could only fry, the goose only boil (due to limited supplies) and the ostrich only scramble, because it would be madness to do anything else. However: apart from turkey, I've tasted them all before, so this draws on experience as well as a single taste test.
Chicken (gallus - common as pigeons, but look like dinosaurs)
Shell: Light brown in this case, almost pinky. Fairly easy to crack with a careful tap
White: Firm, springy, very consistent
Yolk: Creamy, neutral
Tasting notes: A super all-rounder. There's nothing in the taste that jars or would fail to complement another flavour. Its lack of pungent 'egginess' means it is also suitable for baking.
Quail (coturnix - impossibly cute and spherical)
Shell: Quite hard to crack - perhaps because of its dumpiness. These
aren't really meant for frying anyway, so this won't usually be a
problem.
White: Firm-ish, pure white
Yolk: Almost sweet, very fresh-tasting
Tasting notes: One of my favourites. It looks cute, and it tastes fresh and luxurious.
Duck (anatidae - look amiable enough but with disturbing sex lives)
Shell: Incredibly pure white. This is what they mean when your paint is called 'eggshell'.
White: Firmer than a hen's egg
Yolk: Huge and very rich, and in a boiled egg turns out almost sticky. There was a slight bitter note that could dominate.
Tasting notes: This has a bit more flavour than a hen's egg, and would do best accompanied, perhaps by a vinegary sauce to cut through the richness.
Goose (anatidae as well - ducks with the heart of a football hooligan)
Shell: Like a duck's but smoother and therefore shinier. It also looks
thinner, as if you can almost see the contents under the surface.
White: Firmer than a hen's, loads of it in ratio to the yolk. Extremely springy to the point of rubbery.
Yolk: Huge, orange and wildly sticky. Again, that slight bitterness of the duck egg, but more.
Tasting notes: Too rich and unwieldy for everyday use - I wouldn't use them unless you're curious or have them free to hand.
Pheasant (phasianinae - flamboyant but idiotic imposters to our shores)
Shell: A fascinating bluey greeney grey.
White: Surprisingly soft compared to the yolk. Hard to separate from the shell, and can fragment like so much wet blotting paper.
Yolk: A healthy yellow, much like a hen's egg though maybe less rich.
Tasting notes: The unusual comparative firmness of the yolk and white (harder yolk, soft white) would make this difficult to use in most of the traditional egg dishes, but the taste is refined.
Turkey (meleagris - bloated chickens with bits of lizard on their faces)
Shell: Very pretty indeed. Large cream-coloured eggs, with a speckling of broken brown, like mini eggs. Very hard compared to a hen's egg. Someone pointed out this may be because turkeys are huge and they may otherwise crush their eggs.
White: As a hen's egg.
Yolk: Large, not appreciably different from a hen's egg, though maybe slightly sweeter and richer.
Tasting notes: A very plausible alternative to hen's.
Ostrich (struthio camelus - bad-tempered but spectacularly stupid African bird that can kill you)
Shell: Huge and creamy white. Because of the scale, the little bump and indentations are very clear. Can only penetrate with a drill or something sharp hammered into it - then make a hole on the other side and blow the contents out into a bowl.
White/yolk combined: Tonnes of it - 24 x a hen's egg. It's rich but light - when scrambled, tastes as if it's been mixed with single cream - lighter in colour and richer in flavour than most eggs.
Tasting notes: Really good - one of the best - but loads of it so make sure you have people around when you open one.
Centre: chicken. Bottom right: goose. Bottom left: quail. Top right and left: duck. Centre left: pheasant.
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