Poll: Would you eat a fertilised but un-incubated egg?

Would you eat a fertilised but un-incubated egg?

  • Yes

  • No

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SatNavSaysStraightOn

SatNavSaysStraightOn

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Following on from another thread, I was surprised to hear from a meat eater that they would not eat an egg that had been fertilised.

Now there are all sorts of myths and rumours about fertilised eggs, but unless they are warmed to a very precise temperature for several hours, they never even have the potential to be a chick. The cells will not start to develop unless the egg is warmed to between around 21º to 24º C (70º to 75º F) within about seven days of laying and kept at that temperature for twenty-one days.

Now assuming that you collect the eggs every day and refrigerate them, the fertilised eggs are just that, normal in-incubated eggs that have no chance of developing into a chick unless you take them to that specific temperature and humidity level for a specific amount of time and 7 days after laying, they can't even do that.

Other myths include that a fertilised egg taste different, that the yolk is yellower, they are more nutritious, that they will have a blood spot in them.

None of these are true either, so I am curious, is an egg and egg to you whether it is fertilised or not and would you eat it knowing it had been fertilised but never incubated.
 
I just can't do it. We kept chickens when I was a kid and I was totally vegetarian. It was just the thought of it. My Dad had to get rid of the cockerel because I wouldn't eat the eggs! He promised it went to a good home... but I wonder now.:ohmy: To be honest, I think I could happily become vegetarian again (except for oysters). I love oysters. And when I say love, I mean real love. Possibly my favourite food in the whole world.
 
Filipinos eat fertilized and incubated duck eggs. Not I Gunga Din.
 
Yorky said:
The feathers would probably induce an asthma attack.
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In Vietnam too, there is this thing about eating embryo eggs. It is really quite unpleasant to Western eyes as the chick is totally formed in the egg. I saw Luke Nguyen's eat one on one of his (excellent) TV programmes. I will leave it for those curious and with strong stomachs to Google, rather than post a photo. And yes, they do have feathers.
 
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I worked in Manila and Batangas for a few months around 2001. I never saw them for sale I am pleased to report.
 
morning glory said:
In Vietnam too, there is this thing about eating embryo eggs. It is really quite unpleasant to Western eyes as the chick is totally formed in the egg. I saw Luke Nguyen's eat one on one of his (excellent) TV programmes. I will leave it for those curious and with strong stomachs to Google, rather than post a photo. And yes, they do have feathers.
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Would it be that much different to eating a very young chicken? I can remember as a child a family friend who regularly served up a specially named young chicken (French?) per person. I can not see who the thing could have been more than a few weeks old at the rate they grow. (my friend here in Australia had just raised some day old chicks that were hatched out at her kids school and I have seen how quickly they grow) @Berties will know what I'm going on about if you don't. Hopefully :whistling:
 
Yorky said:
The feathers would probably induce an asthma attack.
Click to expand...
One of the many first jobs, for the first up, on a relatives farm as a kid, was to let the hens and geese out.

Collecting any eggs there, bringing them back in towel. Often still warm to the touch, I'm still here.

As for an asthma attack, that'd be the least of my worries.
 
classic33 said:
One of the many first jobs, for the first up, on a relatives farm as a kid, was to let the hens and geese out.

Collecting any eggs there, bringing them back in towel. Often still warm to the touch, I'm still here.
Click to expand...

I'm surprised that you survived.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Would it be that much different to eating a very young chicken? I can remember as a child a family friend who regularly served up a specially named young chicken (French?) per person. I can not see who the thing could have been more than a few weeks old at the rate they grow. (my friend here in Australia had just raised some day old chicks that were hatched out at her kids school and I have seen how quickly they grow) @Berties will know what I'm going on about if you don't. Hopefully :whistling:
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Poussin. You can buy them here. But they are just like small chickens. The embryo chick is really quite something else. You have forced me to post and image :laugh:. This one is actually a duck embryo (Balut) a specialty in Vietnam. But you will get the idea. I'll post it as a spoiler.
hqdefault.jpg
and another
balut3.jpg
 
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morning glory said:
Poussin. You can buy them here. But they are just like small chickens. The embryo chick is really quite something else. You have forced me to post and image :laugh:. This one is actually a duck embryo (Balut) a specialty in Vietnam. But you will get the idea. I'll post it as a spoiler.
View attachment 3535
and another
View attachment 3536
Click to expand...
yep - that is quite vile... no I would not eat that.... I wouldn't eat an egg with an obvious chick developing either but with my chooks, the eggs albeit fertile now, have never been sat on to start to develop.

As an aside, I know with the survival courses both my OH and I have done, we have eaten what we needed to at the time. And at the end of the day, we decided that we would eat what was needed to survive in a survival situation if needed (though on our aborted RTW cycle tour we went hungry several times due to lack of food available, we never decided to trap anything, you need time and patience for that and we could cycle to shops far faster and with a greater chance of food at the end than trapping anything). It is all very well living to your principles, but mine are that I don't agree with current farming practices such as raising livestock to 11 weeks old only to kill it for food because that is when it tastes best... etc. I have no issues with picking my wits against some wild animal (or for that matter road kill, my principle there is that we should be a lot more careful driving, but accidents will happen and it is a waste if the meat goes to waste once the animal is dead, as it often does).though the chances are I would not catch much other than pheasants which I seem to be able to attract quite easily.

The Poussin my parent's friend served were not small chickens. They were a very definite 1 each served with much veg (luckily for me not eating the chicks). Looking it up, they are slaughtered before they are 28 days old and weigh 400-750g! which given I have a 2 year old bird that weighs less than that means they must also be not allowed much exercise and also being meat birds will have a tendency to put weight on fast. Chickens (both sexes here) can live for 8-10 years naturally, so killing something for food when it is less than 4 weeks old is inhumane to me. One of my birds is in her 6th laying season which means she could be anywhere upto 7 years old already (and she is still laying something like 3-4 eggs a week and it is only just the start of the season, so she may lay more frequently as the weather warms up - the whole of this last week has been frosty nights, so that slows them down again).
 
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