I hope this isn't old news for everyone here...if so, forgive me.

Years ago I read in a survival book how to cook eggs without a pan (or flat rock). It works well and you can cook them from a poached state all the way through hard-boiled. My daughter and I have been practicing this alot lately (Why? I really don;t know. It's pretty cool and maybe sometime it'll be useful).

You build a small fire about the size of the palm of your hand and keep feeding it to build a small coal bed...or... pull some coals away from a larger fire. Using the tip of a knife or sharp rock, gently crack the top of the egg to make a small hole - about 1/8" to 3/16" diameter. The top of the egg is the smaller diameter end... or the more pointed end of the egg.

Just set the egg in the coals and turn it every few minutes. You can pull in a few more small coals as time goes by. Depending on the fire or coal heat, it takes approximately 15 to twenty minutes to cook. We're still experimenting with cooking time so we can more-or-less judge the cooking time to get poached, soft-boiled, medium-boiled, or whatever.

Ok. I'm excited to be here and just wanted to type that for whatever it's worth. Now I'm second-guessing this post and thinking maybe it doesn;t belong in this particular forum. Well, let me know if it doesn;t.

Foraging for eggs in a survival situation is a classic tactic. But nobody has ever discussed cooking the things. Having partaken in a filipino balut without understanding what was inside this is good to know.

Welcome to the group. I, for one, never have come across this trick. But I will give it a try soon. Thanks for the tip.

Some of you might be wondering what balut is. Wonder no longer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut

<img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Ye flipping gods! I'll never complain about McDonalds again.

-Blast

Thank you Chris and Cedfire for the info on "balut". Funny thing is, we have 11 ducks! (Used to be 15, but Dad got hungry and put some in the freezer.) My little girl loves duck eggs but we haven't taken any out to try in the fire. And we certainly haven't waited for them to become "balut"!

I'm pretty sure I could eat one though....maybe with a little Tabasco. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Best consumed with large quantities of San Miguel Green...

Balut = BLEECH!!!

Have you ever noticed that when anything is extremely yucky or intensely destructive, they call it an aphrodesiac?

Sue

And If balut isn't your cup of tea, here are a couple of others:

Lumpia (like a spring roll) and Pancit (noodle dish) are two of my favorites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumpia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancit

While the balut is certainly not as appetizing, to me anyway, I bet it is healthier!

But I pass.

Pancit and lumpia on the other hand...