What's the Deal with...Thousand-Year-Old Eggs
You know that thing? That thing popping up on menus everywhere, but you don’t quite know what it is? And it sounds like something you should already know about, so you don’t really want to ask? Well, we know about it, and we’ll give you the intel. Welcome to What’s the Deal with.
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Peruse the shops of most any Chinatown and you’ll see them lurking: styrofoam packages of speckled duck eggs, emblazoned with the not-so-appetizing image of the brown-green thousand-year-old egg.
Relax, they’re not actually a thousand years old. Nor are they made with horse urine, a common myth. (Thank goodness.)
The delicacies also known as “century eggs,” “hundred-year eggs,” or “preserved eggs” have been cured with ingredients like mud, ash, and lye from anywhere between a few weeks to several months. And they’re not just pretty spotted duck eggs: they can be chicken or quail eggs, too. We talked to Ed Schoenfeld, owner of modern Chinese restaurant RedFarm, to find out the scoop.
What’s behind the name: “It’s an egg that has a poetic name, but it really means this egg will last a long time,” explained Schoenfeld. “There’s a chemical reaction… the yolk turns green and kind of smooth. And the outside becomes an amber jelly.”
What it tastes like: To the Western palate, the eggs have an odd flavor that can be difficult to stomach. “It’s a sulfurous kind of taste. A strong egg taste,” Schoenfeld said, adding that he’s not much a fan of the stuff himself. “This is something that I’ll taste and eat politely, but not something that I’ll have fun ordering.”
How to eat it: It’s good to think of it as a pungent condiment used in small quantities, not unlike briny pickle slices on a burger, Schoenfeld suggests.
If you’re willing to sample the eggs, know that they’re a common sight in Chinese dry goods shops or restaurants. In the latter, an egg is often cut into slices and served in a thick congee (a kind of rice-based porridge) or alongside crunchy strands of jellyfish.
So go ahead, try one. If you don’t like it you get a pass for the next thousand years.
