A salted duck egg is a Chinese preserved food product made by soaking duck eggs in brine, or packing each egg in damp, salted charcoal. Salted duck eggs are best served as a side dish with Congee or rice. It is also the fillings of moon cakes（月餅）, glutinous rice dumplings (粽子) and many Chinese Dimsum. It is very easy to make at home in brine, both duck egg or chicken egg can do.
Ingredients
- 15 Duck Egg ( or Chicken Egg )
- 60 ml Rice Wine ( 30 – 40 % Alcohol )
- 700 g Water
- 175 g Coarse Sea Salt ( The proportion of salt to water is about 1 : 4 )
Spice ( Optional )
- 2 Tsp Szechwan Peppercorns
- 4 – 5 Star Anise
- 1 Cinnamon Sticks
- 5 pcs Bay Leaf
- 1 Tsp Fennel Seeds
Preperation
1. Check every egg to make sure there are no cracks on it. Rinse the eggs and drain well.
2. Pour rice wine into a bowl, rinse the egg with rice wine thoroughly and carefully. Try not to knock and crack eggshell. Use a clean glass container, carefully arrange the eggs in the container. Before placing the eggs in the container, do make sure all the eggs are not broken or have any cracks.
3. Pour 700 g water into the saucepan, add salt, szechwan peppercorns, star anise, bay leaf and fennel seeds. Bring it to a boil. Once the salt completely dissolves, turn of the heat. Let cool completely. Pour salt water into the bottle, salt water should cover all the eggs. Because of high concentration of salt water, some eggs above will flow to the surface . Use large wide mouth bottle, put a small plate on top of the eggs to avoid bacterial infection.The basic idea is to get all eggs submerse completely in the brine. Label the start and finish dates on the container to remind yourself.
4. Tightly cover the container and place at room temperature. The brining process normally takes 30 to 40 days. After 30 days, take one egg out. Run the eggs under cold water then drain. Cook with rice in the rice cooker and see if its taste is salty enough. If you think the eggs are not yet ready, leave them in the brine for 4 to 6 more days.
5. The longer the eggs brine in salt water, the more salty taste. If you’re satisfied, drain all eggs out and wipe dry. Keep them in an egg carton and place in fridge. The salted eggs can be kept for a month in fridge.
Reminder
- Duck eggs are better than chicken eggs because duck eggs are more oily
- In the brining process, impurities of the salt water accumulated on the egg shells. Don’t worry this is normal.
- Don’t shake bottle during brining process.
- Use glass container for the brine. Salt water could be corrosive to metal container result eggs turn black or even smell. Therefore don’t use metal.
- The brining process depends on room temperature and the proportion of salt and water. Summer may only takes 15 ~ 20 days. Autumn around 30 days. Winter would takes around 30 ~ 40 days.
- The brine can be recycled 2 ~ 3 times , bring it to boil and cool down before the next use.
- If you love spicy, you can add diced chilli or chilli sauce, and substitute 1/10 water with rice wine. The brining process will take longer time depends on seasons.
- Salted eggs have high cholesterol may places at risk of cardiovascular and disease. Salted egg is not fit for Liver and kidney disease, hypertension , diabetes , obesity and pregnant women.
