Duck Eggs in France

(Ronald Weaver) #1

Here in the west of France I just can’t find Duck Eggs . I can buy Duck Breast, Duck legs and various other bits but no eggs !
Do ducks in France come out of test tubes or something ?
It’s the same with lamb. There are loads of sheep in France ! So why does the occasional bit of lamb in the supermarket come from New Zealand ? And what about mutton ? Ever tried to buy mutton in France ? They used to eat it, I’ve got lots of fine old recipes that use mouton.
So what’s happened here ? Brexit ? War in Ukraine ? Covid ? Strikes ?
Hell, I might take up rustling .

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #2

Apparently, duck eggs are not widely sold in France. They are available in farm stores, fine food stores, whole food stores, and farmers’ markets. Expect to pay 6-12 euros per dozen. This all according to diffusonslascience.fr.

#3

I never have found duck eggs in my own country (Hungary) either, they are just not sold. Duck meat and liver is easy to get, of course.
It’s normal. For many animals, you can get certain parts and not others.
I never saw blood either and it’s such a great food… I fondly remember it from my childhood.

(Ronald Weaver) #4

Strange, isn’t it ?

(Ronald Weaver) #5

Blood ?? what on earth for ? The only things I can think of are black puddings and … oh ! I can’t mention it !!

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #6

It might be chiefly an upper-class thing, I suppose. But you’d think that farmers who keep ducks would want to sell at least some of the eggs. They can’t let them all hatch, can they?

(Bob M) #7

I have rarely seen duck eggs in the US, either. Can find ducks (many are raised in NY), but not eggs. Oddly, can find quail eggs, but those things are tiny.

But I’d also like to see more other meats, like goat. Not much of that either.

(Doug) #8

My opinion - most stores aren’t going to bother with duck eggs because they don’t think there’s enough demand. Eggs don’t spoil as fast as meat, for example, but they don’t last for months, either.

Sentiment and movements toward “buy local,” and get fresher stuff might shift things a little. Lamb is still the fourth most eaten meat in the world, but you wouldn’t know it in many places. In the U.S. the number of sheep is barely 10% of what it used to be. Perhaps people have just gotten out of the habit of eating lamb/mutton?

I would gladly buy duck eggs. A couple of those would fill a person up pretty well.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #9

It may have something to do with the fact that we can get lamb chops from New Zealand at a much lower price per pound than the price of steak—at Costco here in Connecticut, anyway. I don’t know how they can fly it all that distance and still make it cheaper than home-grown beef. 'Tis a puzzlement. There’s quite a good farm near us that sells beef. I’ll have to see if they have lamb or mutton, as well.

(Doug) #10

Sheep are thrifty creatures, and for lambs they get born, mess around a while drinking mother’s milk, maybe eat a little grass, don’t need to be fed grain, and there you go.

The flying thing, though, yeah… amazing. Some lamb parts/meat is frozen and goes out in refrigerated shipping containers on ships, but lots goes by plane, too. We had a few sheep when I was a kid, great animals.

#11

Fried blood is wonderful. With onions. Or without I suppose but I always ate it with onions. It’s super tasty…

#12

They are cute and popular, many recipes use them so yep, they are around. I could buy it easily too. But no duck eggs. Or what interests me more, guinea fowl… People keep them but don’t sell the eggs. They say they have proportionally huge yolks…

Goat is hard to find here too. But lamb/mutton is the same. And beef requires going to some bigger town… We have chicken and pork, sometimes something from a duck or turkey (I think I only saw duck frames here), some way too expensive fish (1-2 species) and that’s it. But considering there is ONE kind of normal, block cheese…
That’s why I go to the city to shop.

(Ronald Weaver) #13

Fascinating, never heard of that before. Mind you, my ancestors were cattle drovers and they survived on blood from cattle mixed with ground oats. I believe Masai herdsmen in Africa did something similar .

#14

We only had fried blood whenever my Grandma butchered a chicken (not particularly often) but as so many people kept chicken and one ends up with a bunch of blood when they kill one, it was a very logical thing to eat the precious and tasty substance. Reminds me of Rocky Mountain oysters, there were all those testicles and one shouldn’t waste things… :smiley: I personally find blood more tempting but the testicle eater in the carni thread said it’s good and I am not squeamish so I would try that too. Not raw though, I have my limits and I barely ever eat raw meat (or skin or fat), I am super choosy about it.

(Bob M) #15

I personally don’t get it. Goats, for instance, are one of the best animals because you can get milk. I’ve seen places where they buy women goats because this provides them with food and potentially income, and you don’t need a lot of range to feed a goat. I have neighbors with goats (and chickens, and one had a cow that got away and appeared in my front lawn). If I had more time, I’d get goats and use them to cut my grass.

Edit: forgot to put this in. This is one of the farms where I get meat, 1/2 pig so far:

They have veal, but it doesn’t look like they sell part animals.

The pig meat is great, particularly the fat. The fat is wonderful.

When I drove there, I saw their cows and they don’t look like what I envision most cows to look like. I may try buying part of a cow, but 1/2 a cow is a lot of meat.

I have to splurge when I buy from here, because it’s so expensive.

#16

Not sure which part of France you live in, but I have seen them for sale in the markets in Aix and in Cannes. There is a ban on serving duck eggs in commercial establishments in France and Spain -restaurants, schools and hospitals. This is because duck eggs are frequently contaminated by feces, thus by salmonella. The cost to raise ducks is also more expensive than chickens. They require more water and higher protein food. Simple demand and supply issue. Plus, they taste funny IMHO.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #17

That’s a matter of exposure, of course. I grew up as a city boy, and I liked both the store-bought eggs my mother served, and the fresh eggs at my cousins’ farms, but my country cousins couldn’t stand the taste of the city eggs. They also disliked the taste of homogenised and pasteurised milk. On the other hand, my lover visited the farm cousins with me once, and he couldn’t eat the fresh eggs. Go figure!

I learned to love broccoli and liver in adulthood, but I never learned to tolerate beets and okra, despite trying. And a steak and kidney pie with improperly cleaned kidneys that I had years ago put me off kidneys for life. Also, I had oktopodaki at a Greek restaurant once that also had not been properly cleaned, and the effect of the sand on my digestive tract has put me off octopus for life, as well.

Not to mention that a recent experience with improperly processed cheap cashews was so unpleasant that I’ll probably never have another piece of cashew in my life, despite the fact that I love cashews. (Unprocessed cashews are full of urushiol, which is the same chemical found in poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac that causes all the trouble. Determining where I got the blisters and itching is an exercise left to the student, lol!)

#18

Once I had a coworker who LOVED the UHT flavor in UHT milk… I was baffled. UHT milk was undrinkably horrible to me. (I strongly preferred fatty raw milk but was very used to the normal pasteurized milk, only 2.8% fat and liked that too.)
I still can’t bring myself to buy UHT milk despite its cheapness (it has a price cap).
But I got used to UHT cream. The flavor bothered me in the beginning and surely some non-UHT would be better (even the less common UHT with a way shorter shelf life) but I am quite fine with the most common one. It’s IMPOSSIBLE to find non-UHT cream. I can buy raw milk just fine but not some decent cream. And it’s 30% or less here. I wish we had a greater cream variety… But I can live with what I have.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #19

I used to feel that way, but they improved the technique over the years so it was no longer disgusting. I forget why I had to try some, and it wasn’t horrible. Not real fresh-tasting, but not the disgusting stuff it used to be.

(Bob M) #20

@PaulL For me, Okra has to be cooked exactly correctly, otherwise it’s nasty. Sorry to hear about those cashews. Roasted and salted, I could eat a few day’s worth of food with those. (Which is why I don’t buy them.) Probably my favorite nut.

As you know, I’ve been trying raw milk. I really liked the one from all Jersey cows better than the one I’m drinking now (two types of cows). I don’t know enough to know whether it’s cows or processing, (or both?) though.