Blown quail's eggs

On Saturday, I decided to do something with the growing collection of quail eggs we were accumulating. We had been storing them in a glass kept in the refrigerator, and it was getting full.

My thoughts are to dye them and decorate them, turning them into cute little Easter ornaments. But before the fun of decorating could come, I first had to do something about the insides.

This is why I spent an hour Saturday morning doing this.

I blew 26 quail eggs in about an hour or so. The first few went pretty slowly as I got my technique down. Do you want to know how, just in case you have a bunch of quail eggs in your refrigerator?

1. Acquire a syringe with a little tube on the end instead of a needle. This is where having children who need surgery every so often comes in handy. K. was sent home with 2 such syringes, for him to wash out along his gum line while the incision was healing. He only used one, and when I saw them, I thought that this could be just what I needed, so I took possession of the extra.
2. Using a large needle, carefully poke a hole in either end of the egg. I found it easier if I did the pointy end first and then the rounded end. Otherwise, the shell wanted to crack a little bit. Make the hole in the pointy end just a little bigger than the hole in the rounded end. While the needle is in the egg, move it around to scramble the yolk a bit, otherwise it will be very difficult to get the yolk out.
3. Take your syringe and carefully insert the end into the rounded end hole first, to be sure the membrane is completely open, then remove it and insert it into the pointy end. If you have made the hole correctly, it should just split. Make sure to pull out the plunger before you do this.
4. While holding the end of the syringe in the hold, push down the plunger to blow out the insides of the egg. Do I need to mention you should be doing this over a bowl? Also, do not put your face too close to the egg as the contents also tend to escape up as well.
5. Repeat step four until the egg is empty. On easy eggs, it took just three or four times. Other eggs took a lot more effort.
6. Rinse the egg under cold water, giving a good shake to make sure it is empty. Set aside to dry.

When you blow 26 quail eggs, you end up with the equivalent of about 3 hen eggs.

Here they all are, sitting and drying. I put out a hen's egg in the second picture for size comparison.

Step one in the decorating process done. Of course, Q. laid another egg yesterday. I think when we've collected enough of these, I'll hard boil them and figure out how to make Vietnamese steamed buns, which feature a quail's egg inside.