Homemade salted egg

Making your own salted eggs is really easy peasy. Really! From the ingredients to the preparation, everything is so simple, so much that it can almost never go wrong. The most ‘difficult’ part would have to be when…when you’re waiting for the eggs to be cured :)) because you have to wait for at least 3 weeks. Usuallt duck eggs are used to make salted eggs, but I cannot find any here in Paris (except baloot lol), so I used chicken eggs instead.

Successful salted eggs should have a very liquidy egg white, and a firm egg yolk that is bright orange in color. When baked, steamed or boiled, the egg yolk will turn an opaque yellow and have a grainy mouthfeel, with a slight saltiness and richness to it, very delicious. There are a lot of dishes that can be made using slated eggs;.  Quick search on Google would give you tons of choices such as fried tofu with salted egg sauce, boiled salted eggs serve with plain white porridge, stir-fried rice with salted eggs, etc. I was not really into the taste of salted eggs before, but I warmed up to it much more after tasting fried tofu with salted egg sauce, and when I moved to France for my study I suddenly crave for it big time. I guess distance is alo one of the factors that can change one’s taste preference :p

The most basic method to make salted eggs is the brine method, using basically water and salt. The ratio is 200g of salt to 1 liter of water. Some people I know don’t really use a ratio, they just take an amount of water that would cover the eggs, and add salt to it until the solution is saturated (there is usually a thin layer of salt formed on top of the water). Beside salt and water, you can also add some ‘hot’ spices to speed up the curing process and to deepen the color of the yolk. According to chinasichuanfood, there are 5 ways in total to make salted eggs, and there are also the dry methods. However after doing some reading, I found that the dry methods are often pretty complicated and requires some tending everyday,  so for someone who is constantly going out like me I would still prefer the brine method 😀

(You can read more about the dry method here:

http://www.chinasichuanfood.com/salted-duck-egg/

http://www.khiewchanta.com/archives/ingredients/meats-fish-eggs/dry-salted-duck-eggs-kai-kame.html)

Công thức tiếng Việt: Trứng muối

* Ingredients:

• 10 eggs
• 1 liter of water
• 250g salt
• 1 star anise
• 1 small piece of cinnamon (around 1cm)
• 1 tablespoon sugar

 Note: beside all the listed spices you can also add sliced ginger, cardamom to help speed up the curing process, and a tablespoon of white wine to deepen the color of the yolk. You don’t have to have all of the spices, just 1 or 2 would do, and it’s also ok to not have any.

* Directions:

1. Clean and dry the eggs and the container(from what I know if the eggs are wet or dirty it can become smelly, and it can infect the salted solution, ruining the brine process, so better safe than sorry )

10 eggs

2. Clean the star anise and cinnamon and boil with the water. When the water is boiled, turn the heat to medium and let it sit for another 3-5 minutes. Mix in the salt and sugar and let cool.

1 liter of water; 1 star anise; 1 piece of cinnamon; 250g salt; 1 tablespoon sugar

 If you use white wine, mix it in after the solution has cooled down.

3. Carefully arrange the eggs into the container, be careful not the crack the egg. Pour in the salted water with all the spices. Use a small wooden spoon or a small dish to put on top so that all the eggs are submerged in the salted water (I use a small plastic bag filled with water to do this). Cover and store in a dry, cool place. After 3-4 weeks, the eggs will be cured.

You can store the salted eggs in the fridge for 10 days. If you’re consuming them every day then you can leave them in the salted water for 1 week. I usually crack them open and take out the yolk, brush with a bit of sesame oil and bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 150°C, then put them in a plastic bag and store in the freezer. Whenever I want to I just have to take them out and defrost, then use them in any dish I want, very convenient