Recipe - Preserved Duck Eggs (Thousand Year Old Eggs)

2 cup Tea, very strong black
1/3 cup Salt
2 cup Ashes of pine wood
2 cup Ashes of charcoal
2 cup Fireplace ashes
1 cup Lime*
12 Duck egg, fresh

*Available in garden stores and nurseries.

Combine tea, salt, ashes and lime. Using about One half cup per egg, thickly
coat each egg completely with this claylike mixture. Line a large crock
with garden soil and carefully lay coated eggs on top. Cover with more soil
and place crock in a cool dark place. Allow to cure for 100 days. To remove
coating, scrape eggs and rinse under running water to clean thoroughly.
Crack lightly and remove shells. The white of the egg will appear a
grayish, translucent color and have a gelatinous texture. The yolk, when
cut or sliced up , will be a grayishgreen color.

To serve, cut into wedges and serve with:

Sweet pickled scallions or any sweet pickled vegetable

Sauce of 2 tablespoons each vinegar, soy sauce and rice wine and 1
tablespoon minced ginger root.

Preserved Ancient Eggs

These are often called thousandyear eggs, even though the preserving
process lasts only 100 days. They may be purchased individually in Oriental
markets.

The description of the whites turning grayish isn't quite accurate from
the ones I've seen. They're more a dark blackish amber color quite
attractive actually.

From "The Regional Cooking of China" by Margret Gin and Alfred E.
Castle, 101 Productions, San Francisco, 1975.

Incidentally, this is an excellent book. It's written by Maggie Gin of
commercial Chinese sauce fame. If you can find an early edition, get it.
The later editions have been integrated into her marketing strategies and
may not be as complete as this one is. They also call for whatever the
sauce ingredients are or "Maggie Gin's Such and Such Sauce".
per Stephen Ceideburg Submitted By SAM WARING
SAM.WARING@3829112.IMA.INFOMAIL.COM On MON, 20 NOV 1995 145845 GMT

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini