How to Peel a Quail Egg: an exploration of discovery & enterprise

I enjoy eating quail, those little auburn-fleshed game birds most people (who actually eat quail) find on their tables as a result of frozen gifts from their hunting friends. Here in Texas, there are lots of quail in the brush, so I have had lots of chances to enjoy them: fried, grilled, baked, sautéed with plenty of peppers and onions inside a flour tortilla. It’s all good.

But quail eggs? Not so much. In fact, I had never had a quail egg until a recent foray to a local Chinese restaurant, where they asked me if I would like to add a couple of quail eggs to my fried rice. In the spirit of exploration and discovery which often comes with each new year (and seems to end about late January) I replied, “Why the hell not?” echoing the immortal political slogan of singer and humorist Kinky Friedman, who ran for Governor of Texas in 2006 with one of the most uninspiring pitches of all time:

“Kinky for Governor, Why the Hell Not?”

I actually voted for Kinky that year (he lost), so it was a foregone conclusion that I was definitely going to try quail eggs atop my fried rice.

They were delicious!

When I saw a package of quail eggs in my local grocery store, right next to the chicken eggs, Kinky’s words rang true yet again. Why the hell not?

Okay, you might think this is the start of a bourgeois culinary exploration. Normal people don’t buy, or eat, quail eggs. Bourgeois? Not really. Abnormal? Yes. It is indeed abnormal to constantly want to try new stuff instead of just grabbing the chicken eggs and being done with it.

Hatching Entrepreneurial Enterprises

Did I mention that this essay is about starting new enterprises? While it is possible to build your unique sales proposition around chicken eggs, what if you were able to hatch something new and different, by changing it up a bit?

Question: Which came first, the quail or the quail egg?

The first order of this business is that the quail eggs cannot be significantly more expensive than the chicken eggs. This is where market forces come in. I am pretty sure that a few years ago you could not buy quail eggs in your grocery store. But then came farm-raised quail. Produced just like chicken and available, fresh, in the meat department, for people who did not hunt or know any hunters willing and able to share their bounty. Adopted initially by the adventurous, who often shared their quail dishes with the curious, sales of quail grew. More were produced, and then sold. Market forces brought the price of quail down to an acceptable level, increasing sales for a specialty product.

Answer: In this case the quail came first, and then the eggs.

Which leads me to another business principle. Unique opportunities are sometimes adjacencies to other growing businesses. Sales of quail were growing, so more quail had to be raised. Those little rascals apparently lay a lot of eggs. What to do with that increasingly abundant pile of eggs?

Just because whatever your neighbor/business person is producing throws off an excess of something else, it does not necessarily follow that the something else will create a new—or profitable— adjacent business. That spin-off also has to be useful, attractive, and good enough that people will like it, want it, need it.

It turns out quail eggs fit the bill, except for the “need” part. My Chinese restaurant waiter was a bit of a pusher.

“Here, try this quail egg—you will never go back to the chicken egg. Quick clucking around.”

This conversation is happening all over the country, because some egg company found a great source for quail eggs, and sees the opportunity to build unique demand around a quality product. If you are an entrepreneur, be on the lookout for "quail egg" type opportunities.

They may be itty bitty little things but they're packed with nutrition, with lots of protein and vitamins, while still lower in cholesterol than chicken eggs. Taste good, too. Just ask the millions of Chinese folks who enjoy their anchun dan on skewers with sesame paste and chili oil, or piping hot in a paper bag at the market in Hong Kong. The Vietnamese love ‘em salty, as a snack with a beer. Friends say they’ve seen them sold by the dozen in supermarkets in Valencia and Lisbon, and I’m fairly sure that the French use them for omelettes.

My point is that we’ve got lots and lots of quail right here in the USA, and with this kind of validation of the business case for harvesting and marketing those hardy little birds’ eggs? Can I get a few cheers for “supply and demand”?

Based on global consumption (and with a little wave to the fact that the price of chicken eggs in this country has risen by 50% since January 2024) I’d say the quail eggs idea is a win for those entrepreneurs clever enough to take advantage of it.

Maximizing a quail egg opportunity

So, I brought home a box from the store. 18 smallish eggs, packaged beautifully in a double topped container to protect what appeared to be rather delicate, brown speckled orbs. One cannot help but notice how beautiful these quail eggs are—far more attractive than most chicken eggs. My Inner Entrepreneur exclaims, this is nice, I like it! If you don't say that to yourself the first time, then don't expect anyone else to buy your harebrained venture.

But these quail eggs are not just to admire. I crave the same taste I experienced on my fried rice. How do I cook and peel these things? The egg entrepreneur had thought of this too, and included very simple instructions for how to boil and peel the eggs. This is not the elevator pitch. That pitch was at the restaurant as a complement to fried rice. Rather, these preparation instructions were the second stage, the so-called UX: user experience assistance. Entrepreneurs would do well to ask themselves if their customers will exclaim “That was easy, and a great experience!” after using their product or service. You should always include simple “boil and peel” instructions.

I prepared the eggs as instructed, but was still skeptical. So, I boiled four little eggs with the assumption that it was all a learning experience and I would probably mess up the first two or three. I carefully cracked the shell of the first and embarked on my quest. Per expectation, the first was a hassle. The shell broke into tiny, gritty little pieces which had to be removed with great care and effort. My risk/reward meter was in the red zone for such a small, boiled egg. Then I noticed the absolutely gorgeous light blue inside of the shell.

I am told that “quail egg blue” is an actual color: to see it, is to discover something unique in all the world. If your product, service, place, idea, is a destination worth the journey, then you’re on to something. I finally finished peeling this first egg. Like the one on my fried rice, it was absolutely delicious. I was on to something.

Discovery requires a willingness to iterate. On the second egg, I tried something new. I gently tapped the outside of the sphere so that the entire surface was slightly cracked. When I began peeling it, to my surprise, I discovered that the shell was held together by a membrane which made it possible to remove the entire shell in one piece, in about 1/100th of the time it took me to peel the first egg. Ease + same delightful taste as the first egg = I am on to something even better.

Learning how to peel my quail egg was not exactly cracking the code on innovation. But it did get me to thinking: how are new enterprises hatched? Curiosity about the slightly unfamiliar adjacency to your familiar situation is a good place to begin. Sometimes this feels like the simple act of taking a different street than usual, just to see what’s down there. I gotta admit, I’ve gotten lost so many times doing that; but a few times I discovered something wonderful, and a small handful of times I even made a profit from what I found and was able to build upon.

Starting anything may seem mysterious and delicate. Lovely but unfamiliar, like a quail egg. Go ahead, buy a box, learn to boil and peel those eggs, enjoy one on some fried rice. As Kinky Friedman says, “Why the hell not!”

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