Century Eggs
You've probably heard of hundred-year or thousand-year-old eggs and wanted to gag at the thought. But it's not nearly as nasty as it sounds. The eggs aren't really that old, they're only preserved. We westerners preserve eggs by pickling them. The Chinese use a mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice straw. Once they're ripe, the yolks turn a dark green color, the whites a dark brown, and they smell of sulphur and ammonia. So just don't breathe too deeply when you taste them!
The ancient method for preserving eggs started with infusing three pounds of tea in boiling water, to which was added three pounds of quicklime, nine pounds of sea salt and seven pounds of oak ash, to produce a paste. Each egg was coated with this (one had to wear gloves or the lime would take the skin off the hands), and then rolled in rice straw. The eggs would then be put into cloth covered jars or tightly woven baskets for about three months. When the mud dried and hardened into a crust, the eggs were ready to eat. This recipe would have been enough for about 150 eggs.
Today, though the ancient method is still used, modern improvements have simplified the process somewhat. Eggs can be soaked in salt and lye for ten days which speeds the aging process to only several weeks. Instead of the rice straw, plastic wrap is often used.
Once the eggs are ripe, they can be eaten as they are, or incorporated into various recipes. Century eggs are particularly good in tofu dishes.
Source
Century Egg-wikipedia
Image by irrational cat, adapted by Feiyan Zhou in accordance with the Creative Commons 2.0 License
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Posted Aug 9, 2008 - 10:44
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