In Russia, quail hunting was one of the most favorite types of hunting. Today, the wild quail population has dropped dramatically. This happened because a man won in the struggle for land: he ravaged it, planted agricultural crops there, and began to treat them with chemicals. But it turned out that quails reproduce well in captivity. Thanks to their industrial breeding, we can enjoy this delicious and tender meat.
What is quail
Quail, or common quail, is a small bird of the Fazanov family. It has a small (up to 20 cm) body and weight up to 150 g. The plumage of the bird is reddish-brown, differs in males and females. Males give off a brighter color.
Their habitat covers Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Favorite places are fields, woodlands, mountainous terrain. Quails feed on seeds, buds, shoots, small insects. They nest on the ground, in clutch of up to 20 eggs. Incubation takes 15-17 days. After the harvest of cereals has matured, quails gain weight quickly. In late summer – early autumn, quails fly off to winter in Africa and Southwest Asia.
Composition of the product
Home-grown quail meat differs slightly from the composition of wild quail meat. Quail meat is rich in proteins, contains little fat and has almost no carbohydrates. It contains a lot of vitamins and minerals.
Quail meat refers to products in which purine bases are contained in moderate quantities (50-100 mg / 100 g), so it can be used for gout. Quail meat proteins contain all essential (essential) amino acids that are not produced in the human body on their own, but are very important for building complete proteins.
Nutritional value of quail meat
Name
Content in 100 g, grams
Proteins 21,8 Fats 14,5-17,5 Carbohydrates 0,4
Essential amino acids of quail meat proteins
Name
Content in 100 g, grams
Аргинин
1,08
Валин
0,96
Гистидин
0,33
Изолейцин
0,87
Лейцин
1,62
Лизин
1,49
Метионин
0,52
Треонин
0,71
Фенилаланин
0,84
The meat of these birds contains more fat than chicken and less than duck. A feature of these fats is that they contain 2-3 times more unsaturated fatty acids than refractory saturated ones. Plus, quail meat is low in cholesterol.
Quail meat is dark red in color and, like any red meat, is rich in iron. But its content in a quail is “off scale”: 100 g of its meat contains 1/3 of the daily iron requirement for men and older children. In addition to iron, it also contains many other useful minerals (macro- and microelements).
Trace element composition of quail meat
Name
Content per 100 g, micrograms
Железо
3700,0
Цинк
2400,0
Медь
394,0
Кобальт
25,0
Марганец
20,0
Хром
20,0
Селен
17,4
Фтор
10,0
Молибден
2,0
Quail meat contains many vitamins, which, together with minerals, play an important role in the metabolic processes of the human body.
Vitamin composition of quail meat
Name
Content in 100 g, milligrams
Vitamin A 0,12 Vitamin B1, 1 Vitamin B2 0,28 Vitamin B4 150,0 Vitamin B5 0,79 Vitamin B6 0,53 Vitamin B9 0,007 Vitamin B12 0,47 Vitamin PP 8,3 Vitamin C 7,2 Vitamin D 7,8 , XNUMX
Quail meat is considered dietary: its calorie content is 134-170 kcal.
Useful Properties
Quail meat is often used in all kinds of diet menus (medical, children’s, for weight loss, after an illness). It has such popularity for a reason. Due to its rich nutritional and vitamin-mineral composition, quail meat has many beneficial properties:
- ensures the intake of essential amino acids and fatty acids into the body;
- cleans the walls of blood vessels from cholesterol deposits due to a large amount of unsaturated fatty acids, which reduce its concentration in the blood;
- improves heart function;
- helps to reduce blood pressure;
- makes blood vessels elastic (thanks to polyunsaturated fatty acids);
- has a tonic effect, which is irreplaceable after long-term illnesses;
- increases immunity;
- increases the number of red blood cells and the concentration of hemoglobin in the blood;
- improves liver function;
- easily digested, therefore does not cause tension in the digestive system;
- helps to normalize weight;
- improves vision;
- prevents the deposition of uric acid salts in the joints and kidneys;
- normalizes cerebral circulation and stimulates the activity of the brain;
- improves metabolism;
- helps to strengthen bones and teeth;
- prevents the occurrence of rickets in children and osteoporosis / osteomalacia in adults;
- normalizes blood glucose levels;
- helps to restore damaged tissue;
- increases male strength;
- has an antitumor effect.
In addition to these useful properties, quail meat has another indisputable advantage over other types of meat, including poultry – the absence of allergens. This allows it to be consumed even by people with severe food allergies.
But, the most important useful property of quail meat is that babies really like its taste. Considering all its benefits and safety for children’s health, quail meat is an ideal meat product for the first feeding.
Application in medicine
The versatility of the positive influence of quail meat on different organs and systems of the body allows it to be introduced without any restrictions into the diet of every person, from babies to elderly people. It is very useful to include it in the diet (at least once a week) for certain physiological conditions:
- during pregnancy;
- while breastfeeding;
- children;
- elderly and elderly people.
Doctors appreciate quail meat and recommend using it for various diseases and pathologies:
- cardiovascular system (arrhythmias, coronary heart disease, atherosclerosis, arterial hypertension, microangiopathies);
- organs of the digestive system (gastritis, peptic ulcer, colitis, liver and pancreas pathologies);
- respiratory system (bronchitis, pharyngitis, pneumonia, bronchial asthma);
- metabolic disorders (diabetes mellitus, gout, thyroid pathologies);
- exhaustion;
- anemia;
- hypovitaminosis;
- mineral deficiency;
- male sexual weakness;
- stress, nervous strain;
- after serious illness;
- in the postoperative period;
- for the prevention and treatment of rickets and osteoporosis.
It is recommended to use dishes made from quail for cancer patients, since they help to restore the body’s strength and have some anti-cancer effect.
Hazardous properties
Quality quail meat has no dangerous properties. Individual intolerance very rarely develops to it.
But under certain conditions it can also become harmful. It’s all about the conditions of keeping and growing these birds. Unscrupulous producers can feed the birds with antibiotics, growth hormones, all kinds of feed additives that accelerate the growth of chicks and contribute to their weight gain. These substances can accumulate in meat and subsequently cause intoxication in people who eat it.
Conscientious quail breeders feed their birds only permitted feed, additives, vitamin and mineral complexes. Official enterprises for growing quails are under constant veterinary control, and the quality of their products is regularly checked for contamination with contaminants of various natures (radionuclides, heavy metal salts, pesticides, pathogenic and opportunistic microorganisms).
To be sure of the quality and safety of the purchased quail, it is necessary to demand from the seller documents that confirm the absence of substances or microbes harmful to the human body in it.
How to choose
Purchasing quail meat is not a problem today. You can buy it at the market, in butcher shops, in supermarkets. When buying quail meat, you need to adhere to some rules for the competent choice of this product:
- Give preference to those sellers who keep the trading place clean and keep the carcasses in the refrigerator (or freezer). Never buy quail in spontaneous markets: there meat does not pass a sanitary and veterinary examination.
- Ask the seller to provide documents confirming the quality and safety of the product.
- If you buy a chilled product, be sure to appreciate its appearance and smell. The appearance of quail carcasses should be attractive, the surface of the skin should be dry, and when pressing on the carcass, the dent should quickly disappear. There should be no foreign, unpleasant, sour or putrid smell from the carcass.
- When purchasing a frozen carcass, read the label carefully and inspect the packaging. The label should contain information about the manufacturer, slaughter time, nutritional value. The packaging must be intact, and the meat in it must not be covered with an ice crust (this is evidence of repeated freezing of the product).
The shelf life of chilled quail carcasses is 2-3 days, and frozen ones – 2-3 months. You can store fresh quail at temperatures from + 2 ° C to + 6 ° C, that is, in the refrigerator. Frozen quails should be stored at temperatures from -12 ° C to -18 ° C, that is, in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator.
How to cook
Before you start cooking quail, you need to dip it in boiling salted water for a few minutes. After boiling, the broth must be drained, and the carcass must be rinsed. This can protect yourself from possible bacterial contamination of the carcass.
After initial processing and disinfection, the quail is ready for cooking. You can cook quail in different ways:
- steamed (the most dietary way);
- boiling;
- extinguishing;
- baking;
- hot;
- Grilled.
Quail is often stuffed before frying or baking. As a filling you can use:
As a side dish for quails are served:
The exquisite delicate taste of fried quails is emphasized by spicy sauces:
- berry (grape, currant, cranberry);
- tomato;
- mushroom;
- sour cream;
- wine;
- garlic.
There are a lot of recipes according to which quail dishes are prepared in different cuisines of the world:
- in France, quails are stuffed with mushrooms and vegetables;
- in Italy broth and soups are made from this bird;
- in Greece, fried quail is served with olives, lemon and salad;
- in the countries of the Middle East, pilaf and couscous are prepared from this bird.
Quail meat is very tender and it is easy to dry it out. This must be taken into account when preparing, especially for the first time. Fried quail is very tasty, has a crispy crust, but with this method of preparation, few useful substances are retained in the meat. The most healthy and dietary quail dishes are those that are steamed.
Steamed quail with vegetables
To prepare this dish, you will need quail, young potatoes, young cabbage, vegetable oil, salt and spices to taste. Quail should be rubbed with coarse salt, while the remaining salt should be shaken off so that the meat does not turn out to be salty. Then grease the surface of the carcass with vegetable oil and spices to taste and leave to marinate in the refrigerator. After a few hours, put the quail in a shallow bowl in a double boiler, put coarsely chopped young vegetables next to it in a flat bowl. Cover the steamer with a lid and cook for 1-1,5 hours. You can make a sauce from the broth that comes out of the quail.
Hunting roasted quail
For this dish, they take quail, grape leaves and butter. Salt the carcasses, grease with butter and wrap with grape leaves. To prevent the leaves from unfolding, it is necessary to strengthen them with threads. For marinating, you need to leave the prepared carcasses for 30-40 minutes. Fry in a preheated pan in butter for 7-10 minutes on each side.
Interesting Facts
For the first time, the flight of quails to winter in warm countries, in particular to Egypt, was depicted by the ancient Egyptians. Today, slabs with such designs are exhibited at the Louvre in France.
Quails are space birds. Four adult birds, together with the cosmonauts, flew in 1990, and on March 22 of this year, their first chick hatched on board the Mir space station.
In ancient Egypt, there was a hieroglyph that depicted a young quail, and this hieroglyph meant the letter “y” or “v”.
Conclusion
Quail meat is a healthy and affordable product. Nutritional and vitamin-mineral value of this meat makes it possible to use it for preparing a variety of delicious dishes, including dietary ones.
The high content of unsaturated fatty acids in quail fat is rare for animal products, which makes this meat not only tasty, but also useful for almost everyone.
Due to the absence of allergens and good digestibility of proteins, quail meat can be used as the first complementary food for children.
In order for the quail to have only useful properties, it is necessary to treat its purchase with caution and be sure to check the documents confirming its quality and safety. When preparing quail dishes, it is worth giving preference to those of them in which the maximum amount of nutrients is preserved.
