The Egg of the Century
Jake, Michael and took part in a century egg taste test this weekend. I say taste test because ‘eating’ is not the proper word. We did manage to get our respective eggs in our mouths but they didn’t make it much further. I believe that the combination of the strong smell of ammonia, the sickly looking egg color and unfamiliar flavor caused our troubles with eating these. I think I’ll try these again in the future, see what comes up. Until then my next egg-based strange food will be tea eggs. Bring it!
Century egg, also known as preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg and thousand-year-old egg is a Chinese cuisine ingredient made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. After the process is completed, the yolk becomes a dark green, cream-like substance with a strong odor of sulfur and ammonia, while the white becomes a dark brown, transparent jelly with little flavor or taste. The transforming agent in century egg is its alkaline material, which gradually raises the pH of egg from around 9 to 12 or more.[1] This chemical process causes an “inorganic version” of fermentation, which breaks down some of the complex, flavorless proteins and fats into simpler, flavorful ones.
Here is a video of Mike (not Michael from the above tale) being a greater man than all three of us combined. Then he washes it down with The Dew. Beastly.
February 26th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Thank you for not calling me this weekend. Damn that’s nasty.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Have fun trying them again. I think I will have to pass. I might be up for Tea Eggs though, we shall see.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Tea eggs don’t sound too shabby.