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Century egg Wikipedia

Image:Centuryegg1.JPG|thumb|Century egg in shell
Image:Centuryegg2.JPG|thumb|Century egg without shell
Image:Centuryeggwithpickledginger.jpg|thumb|Century eggs served with pickled ginger roots

The century egg (a.k.a. preserved egg, thousand-year egg, thousand-year-old egg; zh-cp|c=皮蛋|p=p??d??n or zh-cp|c=松花蛋|p=sōnghūad??n) is a Chinese delicacy made by preserving duck (or less commonly chicken) egg (biology)|eggs in a mixture of charcoal and Calcium oxide|lime for around only 100 days, despite the name. It is greenish in color and has a creamy cheese-like flavor and a strong aroma.

A common method of creating century eggs is to place the eggs in a mixture of clay and water; the clay hardens around the eggs and is said to preserve them well for a considerable time. But another and much more elaborate method is also commonly practiced. An infusion of three pounds of tea is made in boiling water, and to this are added three pounds of quicklime (or seven pounds when the operation is performed in winter), nine pounds of sea-salt, and seven pounds of ashes of burnt oak finely powdered. This is all well mixed together into a smooth paste by means of a wooden spatula, and then each egg is covered with it by hand, gloves being worn to prevent the corrosive action of the lime on the hands. When the eggs are all covered with the mixture, they are rolled in a mass of straw ashes, and then placed in baskets with balls of rice - presumably boiled - to keep the eggs from touching each other. About 100 to 150 eggs are placed in one basket. In about three months the whole becomes hardened into a crust, and then the eggs are ready to eat.

According to a persistent myth, century eggs are or once were prepared by soaking eggs in horse urine. This is not true since urine is usually acidic or very weakly alkaline, and the myth may arise from ammonia smell created during some production processes.

A typical way of eating the preserved egg is with rice congee, as in lean pork and preserved egg rice congee (zh-cp|p=pídàn shòuròu zhōu|c=皮蛋瘦肉粥). It is cut into quarters or eighths, and the seasoned marinated lean sliced pork is boiled with the eggs until the meat is cooked in the rice congee. Fried bread known as youtiao is commonly eaten with congee. As a hors d'??uvre, the Cantonese wrap chunks of this egg with slices of pickled ginger|ginger root, whereas the Shanghaiese mingled chopped century eggs with chilled tofu. They can be also eaten alone as a side order. They are also used in a dish called old-and-fresh eggs, where chopped preserved eggs are combined with (or used to top) an omelette made with fresh eggs.

On special events, like wedding banquets or birthday parties, a first course platter of sliced Char siu|barbequed pork, pickled baby leeks, sliced Abalone, pickled julienned carrots, pickled julienned daikon radish, seasoned julienned jellyfish, sliced pork head cheese and the quartered century eggs. This is called a lahng-poon in Cantonese (linguistics)|Cantonese, or a cold dish.

Last Modified:   2005-11-07