Century Egg: Origin, Taste, Benefits & Preparation
Century egg (or hundred-year egg) is a Chinese delicacy of preserved duck, chicken or quail eggs. They become black in appearance with a dark green yolk after being processed for weeks or months in a clay, ash, quicklime mixture along with salt. There is a common misconception that century eggs are hundreds or thousands of years old. They are more commonly just a few months old after preservation. Century egg has an intense taste, interesting serving traditions and fascinating origins. Here’s everything you need to know about Century Egg.
Where Did Century Egg Originate? Century eggs are said to have originated in Hunan, China during the Ming dynasty some six centuries ago. The most popular story goes that a man discovered them during the construction of his home, when he saw duck eggs that had been lying in the slaked lime for two months. He ate them and enjoyed the taste, so he added salt to improve the flavour. Another, more romantic story, is of a man who left eggs in the garden of a woman he wanted to court, however she didn’t discover them until she cleaned the ash pit half a month later. Thus, leading to the creation of the century egg.
Despite a batch of fascinating monikers such as Century egg, Millennium egg, 100-Year egg and so on, the so-called ‘Century’ egg is, at most, a few months or usually weeks old. It’s also called the ‘pine-patterned egg’ because some of them have pine branch-like patterns on the egg white. This Chinese dish is not only famous in China, but throughout East Asia where they have their own names for it. Most likely, this dish was created during the need to preserve eggs in the past, so they were coated in alkaline clay which led to the creation of century eggs.
Century egg
Century egg, preserved egg of Chinese origin. To some a century egg might look as if it belongs in a museum rather than on a plate. The egg’s “white” ranges from golden amber to an unusual translucent black; its yolk contains merging rings of soft green, yellow, and gray; and the centre is soft, dark, and oozing.
People unused to these preserved eggs tend to perceive their odd colouring and odour with horrified fascination and can be hesitant to try them. In fact, most mass-produced century eggs take less than a fortnight to “cure,” whereas the more traditional ones are cured under a coating of ash, tea, slaked lime, salt, and often earth for about three months. Sometimes commercially produced eggs are cured in lye or, if from China, zinc or lead oxide, the last of which is poisonous and should thus be avoided. Duck, chicken, and other poultry eggs are used.
A century egg is usually eaten peeled but uncooked, often with pickled spring ginger. It may also be simmered with congee (rice porridge) and salted dried pork or steamed with spinach, garlic, and another type of Chinese preserved eggs (salted eggs). A century egg tastes rich, complex, and pungent, like ripe blue cheese with a very faint hint of ammonia. (A spoiled century egg has a strong ammonia scent.) The texture of its white (which the treatment turns amber or black) is gelatinous, and its yolk is soft.
What Is A Century Egg And How Should You Eat It?
You might know this distinctive ingredient as a "century egg" or "thousand-year-old egg." You might even know it by its Chinese name — "pidan" (pronounced pee-tan). No matter how you refer to it, though, you're not likely to forget a century egg if you've been served one, simply because it neither looks nor tastes like any egg you might have consumed before.
Contrary to popular folklore, century eggs don't need a hundred years — never mind a thousand — to end up looking, tasting, and smelling the way they do. Food52 says the process of turning a run-of-the-mill duck, chicken, or quail egg into a century egg takes just three months of sitting in quicklime, salt, and ash under a blanket of rice chaff to become one of the best-loved ingredients in Asian cuisine. Once they're ready to go, a peeled century egg will reveal a former egg white gone dark and gelatinous, while what was once the egg yolk is now a dark green with a squishy consistency, similar to a half hard-boiled egg. The eggs can also have a sulfuric smell, which is likely why they (undeservedly?) occupy a place in the Disgusting Food Museum.
Century eggs have been around a while. Travel Food Atlas says they were probably discovered during the Ming Dynasty, about 600 years ago, but legends vary as to how they were first discovered. One food origin story says they were discovered by a man who, while he was building a new home, had discovered a cache of duck eggs lying in lime for some time. Another story has them as the offering of a man who had left them in the garden of a woman he had been courting, but the eggs were not discovered until weeks later.
What is Century Egg
Century Egg (Simplified Chinese: 皮蛋 or 松花蛋; Traditional Chinese: 皮蛋 or 松花蛋.; Pinyin: pí dàn or sōng huā dàn), Century Egg (pí dàn) is a traditional Chinese egg product that tastes delicious, refreshing and salty, and boasts unique color and fragrance. Its main raw material can be duck or chicken eggs. Century Egg is not only popular among domestic consumers but also enjoys a high reputation in the international market. After particular processing, the eggs will turn dark and bright, with white pattern and a special smell all over. It is one of the favorite foods of the masses.
Century Eggs may have evolved from the salted duck eggs recorded in Important Arts for the People’s Welfare(《齐民要术》) in the Northern Wei Dynasty. Century Egg was first recorded explicitly in Miscellany of Bamboo-island Workshop 竹屿山房杂部 completed in 1504, also the 17th year during the reign of Emperor Hongzhi of Ming. Nowadays, Century Eggs have become common food in civil life and banquets and are also exported overseas. In the past, a certain amount of Huangdan powder (lead oxide) was added to produce Century Eggs, and the high lead content is harmful to human health. However, China has already invented low-lead and lead-free Century Eggs since the 1980s.
Weishan Lake Century Egg, according to the records, has a history of more than 500 years since the early Ming Dynasty, and Weishan Lake is also an important producing area of Century Eggs. Weishan Lake Century Eggs have been developing itself while being served all over the country. In the 1920s, Jin Zaixing, a native of the town, started to run a salted colored egg store called Jiuchang to produce and sell two kinds of Century Eggs, “Hucai” and “Jincai”, among which the latter turned out to be more distinctive. “Jincai” eggs are not only nice in color, but also taste refreshing, smooth and non-spicy. As a delicacy that goes well with wine and porridge, this kind of Century Eggs sells well in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, and has even been exported to Southeast Asia.
What Are Century Eggs?
A century egg, also known as a hundred-year egg, is a Chinese delicacy. A century egg is made by preserving an egg, usually, from a duck, such that the shell becomes speckled, the white becomes a dark brown gelatinous material, and the yolk becomes deep green and creamy. The surface of the egg white may be covered with beautiful crystalline frost or pine-tree patterns. The white supposedly doesn't have much flavor, but the yolk smells strongly of ammonia and sulfur and is said to have a complex earthy flavor.
Ideally, century eggs are made by storing raw eggs for a few months in a mixture of wood ash, salt, lime, and maybe tea with rice straw or clay. The alkaline chemicals raise the pH of the egg to 9–12 or even higher and break down some of the proteins and fats in the egg into flavorful molecules. The ingredients listed above are not typically the ingredients listed on the eggs sold in stores. Those eggs are made from duck eggs, lye or sodium hydroxide, and salt. That sounds scary, but it's probably OK to eat. A problem does arise with some century eggs because the curing process is sometimes accelerated by adding another ingredient to the eggs: lead oxide. Lead oxide, like any other lead compound, is poisonous. This hidden ingredient is most likely going to be found in eggs from China, where the faster method of preserving the eggs is more common. Sometimes zinc oxide is used instead of lead oxide. Though zinc oxide is an essential nutrient, too much of it can lead to a copper deficiency, so it's not really something you want to eat either.
How do you avoid poisonous century eggs? Look for packages that explicitly state that the eggs were made without lead oxide. Don't assume the eggs are lead-free just because lead isn't listed as an ingredient. It might be best to avoid eggs from China, no matter how they are packaged, because there is still a big problem with inaccurate labeling.
CENTURY EGGS, THE MYTHS AND RECIPE (PI DAN, 皮蛋)
Although a delicacy loved by Chinese for hundreds of years, century eggs, for those who aren’t familiar with them, is considered a mysterious, questionable food item that takes some courage to try. Before talking about today’s century egg salad recipe, let me first explain some of the facts that you might find interesting.
Although called century egg, hundred-year egg or thousand-year egg in English, its Chinese names, such as Pi Dan (皮蛋), Bian Dan (变蛋), Song Hua Dan (松花蛋), etc., don’t indicate time, year or age. I have no idea where those English names come from, but they’re surely responsible for the misconception of century eggs being exceptionally old. In fact, it takes only a few weeks to produce them from scratch. The most common type of century eggs are made from duck eggs. However, other types, such as chicken eggs, goose eggs and quail eggs can be preserved the same way.
The traditional method involves the following procedure (I used to watch my mum preparing them when I was a child):
- Mixture clay, ash, salt, quicklime and water.
- Apply a thick layer of the mixture to cover raw eggs completely.
- Roll the eggs in grain husks to prevent them from sticking to each other.
- Store in an airtight container. Leave to preserve in a dark, dry place for several weeks until the egg white and yolk solidifies.
What do century eggs taste like?
It seems that no two people describe the flavor of century eggs the same way. This Quora thread on the subject has many responses from both century egg-lovers and haters. Some people report that century eggs have a very strong, pungent flavor. A couple of tasters compared it to funky cheese, while others noticed an iron-y edge or some bitterness. Others said that century eggs mostly just taste like eggs, perhaps with some extra richness. Respondents were just as divided about the smell of the eggs, with some noticing sulfurous or ammonia odors, while others claimed that fresh, properly made century eggs shouldn't have a smell.
The century eggs we've sampled didn't have any strong or unpleasant flavors. The whites tasted mostly like egg white and the yolks tasted mostly like raw egg yolk. The flavor was much less dramatic than you would expect based on how the eggs look. When seasoned and served as part of a complete dish, the flavor differences between regular eggs and century eggs are not that noticeable. The texture was the most unfamiliar part, with the whites being pretty gelatinous and firm and the yolks being creamy or custardy.
You can find century eggs made with quail or chicken eggs, but most of the ones on the market are preserved duck eggs. Don't confuse them with salted duck eggs, though, which look very different and are cured in a different way (per Fine Dining Lovers). If you don't live near an Asian market, you can buy them from online sources. Amazon sells a six-pack for almost $2 per egg, but you can get them for a more reasonable price from specialty online grocers like Asian Veggies.
10 FACTS ABOUT CENTURY EGGS YOU MUST KNOW TO IMPRESS YOUR RELATIVES THIS CNY
Most Singaporeans and Malaysians know about century eggs, commonly known as 皮蛋. Some people would vomit at the sight of it (okay, a little too exaggerated, but you get the idea), while some like it so much that they’ve listed it as a trending food.
So, what’s so special about this egg that just looks…different? Here’re ten facts so that you can impress your grandparents during this CNY:
- It goes by many names - While locally we often just call it 皮蛋, many people overseas have different names for it, from 1000-year egg to preserved egg.
- It’s just a preserved egg - Some people think that it’s duck egg—well, no, no! It can be chicken eggs as well. A century egg is basically just an egg that is preserved with rice hulls, quicklime, salt, ash and clay.
- It’s not preserved for 100 years - Despite its fancy name, it’s not preserved for 100 years. It’s usually preserved for a few days to, maximum, a few months.
- It was discovered by accident - Rumours have it that 600 years ago, a man found an egg that has been preserved in slaked lime pool during the construction of his house. He then added salt to improve the taste, liked it and ta-da: that’s the birth of the century egg.
- You don’t need to cook it to eat it - So essentially, you’re eating raw eggs that are preserved. Hmm…
- Some people thought that it’s prepared by soaking eggs in horse urine - Of course, this is a myth. The misconception is due to the strong flavour of the eggs that some likened it to horse urine.
- In Thai and Laos, century eggs are known as horse urine eggs - That’s not because they’re made with horse urine, but because it smells like one.
- Some modern century eggs contain toxic compounds to speed up the process of preserving it - Some unethical manufacturers, in order to create the eggs faster (since the usual preservation period is a few weeks), added lead monoxide to produce the eggs. Therefore, get your century eggs from reputable stores!
- It’s essentially a Chinese cuisine - So no, you won’t find it in a western stall.
- The eggs turned colour because of chemical reactions - The egg white will turn brownish translucent while the egg yolk will turn dark green – all due to chemical reactions and not artificial colourings.
Century egg
Century eggs (Chinese: 皮蛋; pinyin: pídàn; Jyutping: pei4 daan2), also known as alkalized or preserved egg, are a Chinese egg-based culinary dish 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 processing method.
Through the process, the yolk becomes a dark green to grey color, with a creamy consistency and strong flavor due to the hydrogen sulfide and ammonia present, while the white becomes a dark brown, translucent jelly with a salty flavor. The transforming agent in the century egg is an alkaline salt, which gradually raises the pH of the egg to around 9–12, during the curing process. This chemical process breaks down some of the complex, flavorless proteins and fats, which produces a variety of smaller flavorsome compounds.
Some eggs have patterns near the surface of the egg white which are likened to pine branches. These patterned eggs are regarded as having better quality than the normal century eggs and are called Songhua eggs (Chinese: 松花蛋), variously translated as pine flower eggs or pine-patterned eggs
