Hundreds of years ago, a savory idea—called the century egg—was hatched in rural China. As the story goes, a farmer found naturally preserved duck eggs in a muddy pool of water and slaked lime. After surviving a tasting, he set out to replicate them manually, resulting in a that would endure for centuries as a comfort food in Hong Kong, China and parts of Southeast Asia.
Though details of the century egg’s discovery are undocumented, scientists estimate that it more than 500 years to the Ming Dynasty. And aside from some techniques used for large-scale production today, the egg preservation process has remained relatively .
To make the eggs, a vat is typically filled with a combination of strong black tea, lime, salt and freshly burned wood ashes, and left to cool overnight. The next day, duck, quail, or chicken eggs are added to the . Then they soak anywhere from seven weeks to five months—not for a century as the name .
The century egg also many other names, such as hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg, or millennium egg. But no matter what it’s called, this common snack has a rather uncommon taste and is often grouped by travelers with other Asian foods such as chicken feet or snake soup. Getting beyond the egg’s appearance is the first . Instead of being white with a bright orange yolk, the jelly-like egg takes on a less dark brown and swampy green hue. There’s also a pungent ammonia-like odor to contend with, which has earned the snack yet another nickname: the “horse urine egg.”
While the century egg draws a following from older generations and curious travelers, it is falling out of with the younger set, who are weary of China’s preserved and fermented foods. The future of the humble snack is uncertain, but chefs in Chinese restaurants are still trying to preserve this nostalgic bite of culinary heritage.
