Doesn't that look absolutely delicious? It's an open face egg sandwich. Fried for a few minutes on each side so the yolk isn't entirely set, still a little oozy, but not fully drippingly so. A slice of Metropolitan Bakery's French table bread (my favorite base bread). A dab of El Yucateco habanero sauce for a little burn. Now what if I told you that was a goose egg?! Yep, that's a tiny sliver, the last 2 bites, of a gigantic goose egg from Pecan Meadows Farm out in Newburg, PA.
I picked up two of these beauties at Fair Food in RTM last week. We got them in on Thursday and they're $3 a pop. The eggs are 4.5" from end to end (3" tall) and 7.5" around the waist. I don't have a scale handy, but it's roughly 0.5lbs or so, maybe a little more 0.40lbs. It's a little heavier than 3 chicken eggs in my unscientific kitchen test. The color of the eggs range from stark white to a scratchy light brown like in the photo above. I don't know exactly what kind of goose the eggs are from, but I'll find out and update the post.
Here's a chicken egg (from Natural Meadows Farm as previously posted about) in front of the goose egg.
After cracking a chicken egg and a goose egg, I compared the shells. The goose egg shell on the left is the bottom piece so the top piece is the narrower, longer part. Without a micrometer handy, I'd say the goose egg was fully twice as thick as the chicken egg and that chicken egg is pretty thick. When I hit the egg on the side of the bowl for the first time, it basically laughed at me. And this is coming from a guy who's now very very used to cracking an egg pretty hard from these much thicker shelled farm fresh eggs. A couple more clangs and I had it.
So here they are side by side. Yes, I know, they're not perfect comparison vessels, but I think many people are familiar with those small, glass prep bowls (4" wide) and your basic cereal bowl (6" wide). The goose egg's yolk is about the size of the whole chicken egg. The albumen of the goose egg was so remarkably clear. After seeing how cloudy an emu egg was [see here], I expected this egg to be closer to that. But it was just as clear, if not clearer, than a chicken egg. Based on how it tasted and the texture, I'd say it had more water content in the albumen, but didn't taste watered down.
A glory shot of the French table bread.
So here's your average Lodge Pro-Logic 10" cast iron skillet; my favorite cooking vessel. It takes up about 80% of the pan.
I broke the yolk and flipped it. The yolk bled out a little bit and took up even more of the remaining 20% of the pan.
Here's your basic egg sandwich I made for Messy. A fried egg with some cheddar and Oldwick Shepherd (mold ripened sheep's milk, cave-aged 3-4 months from Valley Shepherd Creamery). Note, her sandwich is on Metropolitan's multi-grain loaf which is a tad bigger than the French table bread, but basically the same size.
Here's the fried egg on your average plate (not a full sized dinner plate), with 2 smallish slices of bread. This sucker was huge. But how did it taste? It wasn't different from a chicken egg to me. If anything, it wasn't quite as tasty as the Natural Meadows eggs. I'm just spoiled by them really. I'm told that goose eggs are richer than your average egg, more sulfury, but the Natural Meadows eggs are just unreal. But that's not to say that the goose egg wasn't tasty – it was delicious. The albumen turned a very white white and fluffed up nicely. I have one more goose egg to try out (Messy vehemently refused to eat a goose egg) so I'll be scrambling one up soon. I hit this fried egg with a sprinkle of sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to bring out the flavors. Then I dabbed a couple drops of El Yucateco for a little tingle on the lips which is how I love my eggs.
We got a bunch in on Thursday, but I have no idea how many are left for the next week. Call the farmstand to see if there are any for you: 215.627.2029.
Wow! What gorgeous photos. I missed the emu egg post when you first did it – those look nuts and I MUST HAVE ONE.
I frequently see goose eggs at the farm markets in the Lancaster area. I have always been a bit afraid to try one. Next time I am there, I am going to give it a try. Thanks for this post.
Must get goose egg…..
my goose just started laying so i tried the egg on my husband and he cant tell the difference.i scramble one goose egg.otherwise 4 small eggs.I cant eat one yet.found out geese are mean.i have 3 males 1 female i bought when they were little.they grew up.
I picked up two from a recently (within 48 hours) abandoned nest. They were great. I used a little creole seasoning on mine. Fantastic! Cracking the shell was a pain though. U can't just tap them.