A Dozen Eggs: Food + Cooking : gourmet.com

Hen Eggs

Hens have been domesticated and used for egg production since at least the early Roman era; today hen eggs are big business, with about 240 million laying hens in the U.S. producing 66 billion eggs every year. But not all of those ova are created equal: Many chefs and foodies contend that eggs from small farms and pasture-raised hens taste far better than those laid by their industrially-farmed counterparts, and that pastured eggs work better in baking, too. And research has shown that hens fed a natural diet lay eggs that are much richer in healthy omega-3 fats and other important vitamins, like beta-carotene (which helps explain the vibrant orange-yellow color of their egg yolks). —Christy Harrison

Photograph by Kevin Demaria

Turkey Eggs

Although turkey is the protein of choice at many an American holiday, the birds’ eggs hardly ever appear at the table. With a more pronounced flavor and thicker shells than chicken eggs, turkey eggs are also more expensive to produce: The average turkey weighs about five times more than a chicken, so roosting turkeys take up valuable space in a coop. Also, chickens lay about 300 eggs per year, while turkeys only make about 100. These few eggs tend to be kept and raised solely for their meat. —Jessica Su

Photograph by Eric Futran/Jupiter Images

Seagull Eggs

About twice the size of chicken eggs, with mottled light-green shells and dark-amber yolks, seagull eggs are visually stunning—and they have a strong flavor to match, nutty and slightly fishy. In northern Norway, gulls’ eggs are a traditional spring delicacy, served hard-boiled in the shell (alongside glasses of beer). Native American cooks typically scramble or fry the eggs; and London’s St. John restaurant serves them hard-boiled with celery salt. Just don’t eat too many: Seagull eggs have been found to contain high levels of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), widespread environmental pollutants. —C.H.

Photograph by Sami Sarkis/Getty

Sea Turtle Eggs

Resembling soft, white ping-pong balls, the eggs of leatherback, Oliver Ridley, and other marine turtles are prized as a delicacy and an aphrodisiac in many parts of the world including China, Mexico, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean. But with six of the seven existing sea turtle species at the precipice of ecological collapse, sea turtle eggs are also possibly the most protected eggs in the world. Environmentalists and law enforcement officials patrol beaches around the globe to guard the eggs, while continued demand has created a market for poachers and traffickers. —Adam Houghtaling

Photograph by Photograph by AVA/epa/Corbis

Iguana Eggs

Iguana meat is popular in Central America, South America, Indonesia, and parts of the Caribbean. It is in Colombia, however, where hunters use probably the strangest method for harvesting the rich, spherical eggs: With a slingshot, the hunters knock pregnant iguanas out of trees, then cut open the lizards’ abdomens, remove the eggs, rub ash into the wounds, and sew the animals back up. The iguanas scurry away. Colombians enjoy the eggs as a snack to accompany local white rum. —J.S.

Photograph by Michael Freeman/Corbis

Ostrich Eggs

Of all the world’s extant bird species, the ostrich produces the largest egg: One of these bad boys yields the equivalent of two-dozen chicken eggs and, impressively, can keep refrigerated for up to a full year thanks to its substantial shell (roughly 1/8-inch thick). Ostrich eggs taste very similar to hen eggs but have a lower water content and a high yolk-to-white ratio, prized by some bakers. Start-to-finish time for hard-boiling an ostrich egg: roughly an hour and a half. —A.H.

Photograph by Renee Comet/Jupiter Images

Emu Eggs

The emu is the national bird of Australia, but farms across the United States have made emu meat and eggs available to the American market. The eye-catching dark-teal eggs are extremely popular among artists known as “eggers,” who carve intricate designs in the shells or use them in jewelry making. Slightly smaller than an ostrich egg, an emu egg provides the equivalent of 10 chicken eggs; an emu egg yolk can be very pale compared to the usual rich yellow of many yolks. The eggs can be found in some specialty markets and can keep, refrigerated, for up to two months. —A.H.

Photograph by Dorling Kindersley/Getty

Quail Eggs

With their diminutive size, quail eggs make excellent hors d’oeuvres—they often appear in deviled eggs, Scotch eggs (meat-egg fritters), and egg-topped blini. In Asia, raw quail yolks are used in sushi, while Colombians dress hot dogs with hard-boiled quail eggs (in addition to pineapple jam and potato chips). In some Latin American countries, quail eggs are considered an aphrodisiac. Brazilians eat more than half a million of them every day. —J.S.

Photograph by Kevin Demaria

Dove Eggs

Doves and their close cousins, pigeons, have commonly been eaten in Egypt, China, and Europe. In the 16th century, the French considered doves more valuable than beef, veal, and pork. These days, you’d be hard-pressed to find dove eggs, for the birds only lay two per clutch. If both eggs are taken, doves in captivity may stop laying altogether. —J.S.

Photograph by Gary W. Carter/Corbis

Fish Eggs

Some people insist that only properly processed eggs from Caspian or Black Sea sturgeon (sieved to remove the egg sacs, leaving only the eggs) merit being called caviar. We’re willing to cast our nets wider, as it were, to include salted and sieved eggs from salmon, trout, flying fish, and paddlefish, among other sea creatures (and even land animals—French snail farmers introduced escargot caviar in 2007). Unsieved shad eggs, on the other hand, are a delicacy typically referred to as roe; sea urchin “roe” (or uni) is actually a euphemism for gonads. —Zanne Stewart

Photograph by Purestock/Getty

Duck Eggs

Almost unbearably rich, duck eggs taste “eggier” than hen eggs, but their texture is not nearly as tender. When you think about the differences between chicken and duck meat, the eggs make sense—duck is much richer and fattier in general. In parts of Asia, fertilized duck eggs with tiny, developing birds inside (known as balut) are served boiled and are highly prized for the various textures they offer. —Z.S.

Photograph by Robert Pickett/Corbis

Chocolate Eggs

The use of painted and decorated Easter eggs was first recorded in the 13th century, but chocolate eggs didn’t come on the scene until the early 1800s in France and Germany, after manufacturers developed a way to make solid eating chocolate (until then, cocoa had just been a beverage). The first hollow eggs were a very labor-intensive treat, as the cocoa paste had to be handpainted layer by layer onto the moulds. Today, chocolate eggs account for roughly 8 percent of all annual chocolate sales, and people buy more chocolate candy for Easter than for any other holiday except Valentine’s Day. —C.H.

Photograph by Kevin Demaria

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Hen Eggs

Turkey Eggs

Seagull Eggs

Sea Turtle Eggs

Iguana Eggs

Ostrich Eggs

Emu Eggs

Quail Eggs

Dove Eggs

Fish Eggs

Duck Eggs

Chocolate Eggs