Century Eggs (皮蛋) | Ingredients | Food

Century eggs, or 100-year egg, or 1000-year egg, is a Chinese preserved egg call 皮蛋 (PiDan). It can be eaten just like that or used in a number of Chinese cuisine and recipes. Although in theory it can be made from any kind of egg, it is usually made with chicken, duck or quail eggs. I would love to see one made with ostrich egg, that would be something.

These particular century eggs have the whitish pine tree patterns on the skin, which is traditionally an indication of higher quality and appropriately named 松花皮蛋 (Song Hua Pi Dan) or Pine-Flower-Patterned Century Egg. It has a name on its own to indicate high quality and to differentiate it from the regular translucent dark egg without pattern.

There’s two kind of yolk for the century egg, the harder texture kind that’s just like the yolk of a hard boil egg and the soft moist paste like kind as in the picture. This is simply due to preserve time, the less time the egg is in preserve, the softer the yolk is. As far as which is better, it is simply preference, some people prefer it softer, and some people prefer it harder.

As far as taste go, since I grew up with it, so to me, it tastes great, it’s a kind of comfort food for me, but I would imagine for most people who are not use to it, it would be an acquire taste, to say the least. Through the preserving process, the chemical reaction produces ammonia like odor, so for spectators who are not used to it, this will be the first thing they have to get pass.

The texture of the white, which is in translucent black now, to me, is just like a hard boil egg, and the yolk are no different as well. The real distinction, other than the mutated look from a regular hard boil egg, of course is the taste, which is very hard to explain. To forcefully put it into words, I would say it taste chemical-ish and heavy metal-ish, but in the weirdest way possible, I, as well as a lot of East Asians who grow up with it, find it tasty and considered a delicacy. You really have to try it your self to find out.

I would recommend for first timer, go for century eggs prepared in a dish first instead of going head first into the egg in its purest form. Let me know about your experience with century eggs and how and if you like it in the comment section~

~Lumaca~