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Eggs, Turkey's, to Dress
Choose those of the young bird for cooking in the shell. They may be known by their pale, almost white colour. The larger ones are excellent for poaching, and to serve in the composition of any dishes where eggs are required. Time, six minutes to boil, four to poach.
This is a short reference note rather than a full recipe, but it carries the two things that matter: how to choose turkey eggs and how long to cook them. A few adjustments for modern birds and modern shopping.
- Size, and what it does to the timingsA turkey egg runs roughly 75-90 g against 50-65 g for a large hen egg, depending on the grading system, with a proportionally larger yolk. Six minutes from boiling should leave the white set and the centre still liquid; a fully hard-set egg will need longer, perhaps 10-12 minutes.
- Poaching in four minutesFour minutes suits the larger eggs the entry recommends for poaching, since the extra volume of white needs the time. Keep the water at a bare shiver rather than a rolling boil or the generous white will shred.
- "Pale, almost white colour"Modern turkey eggs are usually cream to buff and lightly speckled with brown. The book takes pale, almost white shells as the mark of a young bird; in any case shell colour is a rough guide to the bird, not to freshness or quality.
- The shell is the real differenceTurkey shells and inner membranes are notably thicker and tougher than hen eggs. Crack them on a firm edge rather than the rim of a bowl, and expect to break the membrane deliberately when poaching.
- Substituting in other dishesFor "any dishes where eggs are required," reckon one turkey egg for roughly one and a half large hen eggs by weight. Weigh rather than count when baking, since the higher yolk-to-white ratio enriches custards and cakes noticeably.
- Where to find themTurkey eggs are rarely sold in supermarkets. Smallholders, farm shops and farmers' markets are the likelier source in spring and early summer, when the birds are laying.
- YieldOne turkey egg per person is a substantial serving, roughly the equivalent of one and a half hen eggs.
Cassell's treats turkey eggs as an ordinary market commodity, which tells you something about how food reached British kitchens in the 1870s and after: households bought from poulterers and farmers who sold whatever the yard produced, so eggs other than the hen's — goose, duck, guinea-fowl, turkey — could turn up alongside them. Turkey eggs never became a commercial product because turkey hens lay sparsely and seasonally, and every egg kept for eating is a bird not raised for the Christmas table; the arithmetic has always favoured meat. The advice to reserve the young bird's eggs for cooking in the shell reflects a period conviction that eggs from young hens were finer and more delicate in flavour, while the larger eggs of older birds were better absorbed into made dishes. Bespeaking eggs from a farm in spring was also a matter of practicality, as this is when the hens lay and when a poultry keeper might have a surplus to sell.