Century egg

All too often, century eggs top online polls for “weirdest food ever eaten” or “most pungent delicacy”. It isn't difficult to see why: the egg “white” is black and gelatinous, and the yolk — a dubious shade of grey — is surrounded by a faint, acrid pong. Commonly held myths, too, do little to whet appetites, such as the notion that it is made by steeping in horse urine, or that it’s aged for a hundred years.

Century egg, also known as preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg and millennium egg, is a Chinese cuisine ingredient made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime, and rice hulls for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing.  Through the process, the yolk becomes a dark green to grey colour, with a creamy consistency and an odor of sulphur and ammonia, while the white becomes a dark brown, translucent jelly with little flavor. The transforming agent in the century egg is its alkaline material, which gradually raises the pH of the egg to around 9, 12, or more during the curing process. This chemical process breaks down some of the complex, flavorless proteins and fats, which produces a variety of smaller flavorful compounds.  Some eggs have patterns near the surface of the egg white that are likened to pine branches, and that gives rise to one of its Chinese names, the pine-patterned egg.

Hong Kongers enjoy century eggs in a variety of ways. Pei dan juk (century egg congee), is a common breakfast, while century egg with pickled ginger, which helps clear the palate, makes for a good starter. Another way to appreciate them, suggests Andrew Dembina, food and wine editor of Baccarat Magazine, is to serve them with silky tofu, drizzled with soy sauce and topped with chopped spring onions and pork floss.

Century eggs also can be eaten without further preparation, on their own or as a side dish. In Taiwan, it is popular to eat century eggs on top of cold tofu with katsuobushi, soy sauce, and sesame oil in a style similar to Japanese hiyayakko. A variation of this recipe common in northern China is to slice century eggs over chilled silken (soft) tofu, adding liberal quantities of shredded young ginger and chopped spring onions as a topping, and then drizzling light soy sauce and sesame oil over the dish, to taste. They are also used in a dish called old-and-fresh eggs, where chopped century eggs are combined with (or used to top) an omelet made with fresh eggs.