I once installed some duck incubation equipment in Caguyan De Oro years ago. I remember a chap would come periodically and collect duck eggs that had failed to hatch to sell as balut. Normally the duck eggs would be put in a large incubator for 25 days then transferred to a smaller machine called a hatcher to hatch in to plastic boxes for the final 3 days of the incubation period. At the transfer stage the eggs were candled (basically a light shone through the egg) to determine if the egg was fertile or not. The embryo can die during the incubation period for many different reasons that I wont go into. What I don't like about balut is that the duck could have died through disease etc. I suppose after a good boiling though they should be fit to eat, or in my case and most members, not fit to eat. Maybe one day we will see balut eating on I'm a celebrity get me out of here. I bet even Bear Grylls couldn't even eat it without yawning in technicolour
Personally I think that such a thing should be dyed blue and marked "Unfit for Human Consumption"................
I watched a program years ago, it mentioned that there were people (Japanese as I recall) who could sex eggs, they were eggsperts in their field apparently! I think my memory is failing me, it was chicks not eggs!
They are either wing sexed which goes on the length of the wing feathers whether they are male or female, or they are vent sexed (more accurate) which entails squeezing the chicks backside and a bubble appears and somehow they determine the sex. You are right about the Japanese, they are usual the ones doing the sexing because they are supposed to have very keen eyesight. They get lots of dosh for doing this but its a dirty job as you can imagine. They are sexed at a day old before they leave the hatchery and reared separately because they gain weight at different rates, that's the reason for sexing them. Some chicken hatcheries kill all the males because they deem it uneconomical to rear them. In duck rearing I believe they actually make as much money from the feathers as they do the meat as they use them for pillows, bedding and so on. The poultry business is very high tech nowadays, some hatcheries hatching over 2 million chicks a week, 7 weeks later they are in the supermarkets. Its good to see we cover all subjects here LOL
Yea that's what I remember, squeezing them momentarily and putting them in the male/female section. A very specialist job I think so I guess that's the reason for the high wages. Well my pillows are feather pillows, those hollow fibre pillows aren't a patch on them.
Attached is a picture of a few duck incubators I installed, ultimately where the infamous balut in part incubated.... Yuk
Not for the faint hearted, have you really eaten one, and if so were you inebriated at the time? Should be a parental guidance warning with that photo To be honest with you I used to dissect the un-hatched chicks on a breadboard and examine them to try and find out why and when they died in the incubation period.
I ate it - and I wasn't drunk either!! Although I did have a beer on standby to wash it down, and it did try to come back a couple of times!! I can't believe you never tried it - I always try everything once wherever I go
I nearly tried it once when I was working in the Philippines, came out of a bar drunk and I thought I would try one of the boiled eggs that the kids were selling outside soon to find what it really was, once bitten twice shy and all that LOL. Well done on eating it, put your name down for "I'm a celebrity get me out of here". I don't think many people could eat balot and keep it down.
lol - it was a close thing, after I ate it I did stand up and take a couple of steps towards the bathroom, then had a better idea and grabbed a bottle of San Mig - that wash enough to keep it down!
[QUOTE="stevepqr, I always try everything once wherever I go [/QUOTE] I used to try everything once wherever I went, that's why I was divorced
Well, I take my hat off to you, if you can keep balot down you can keep anything down, that's for sure.
I used to try everything once wherever I went, that's why I was divorced [/QUOTE] I had some things in China that were seriously bad - but I had no idea what it was - but balut was probably the worst!
I had some things in China that were seriously bad - but I had no idea what it was - but balut was probably the worst![/QUOTE] Balot has got to be pretty high up on the really bad things to eat list, it really has.
