Salt cured egg yolks are a traditional umami taste enhancer in many South Chinese dishes. It is the Chinese substitute for grated cheese in Western cuisine.
In the winter period when the weather in South China becomes less humid and more sunny, one can see the egg yolks, sprinkled with abundant salt drying in the sun. The dried and cured egg yolks become hard and then can be stored and grated to provide a nice rich taste to food.
the art of making salt cured egg yolks
Curing these egg yolks is a rather easy process. In South China traditional poultry farmers carefully separate the yolks from the whites of fresh duck or chicken eggs and then place these on a salt bed. They sprinkle abundantly sea salt over the egg yolks, thereby extracting water from the yolks. They place these trays of salted egg yolks in the sun during low humidity, sunny weather. Thus the yolks dry further quickly and become pretty hard. You can do the same at home. But to be more certain that the yolks do not contain salmonella, you can first place the egg yolks for a few days covered in salt in the fridge. Then, after a quick rinse and a drying step, place them in an oven to reach 70 C and further dry for several hours.
Special equipment
at minimum a plate or better a shallow basket
an oven will help to ensure the end product will be salmonella free
Ingredients
Method
- Measure salt and sugar and mix
- Cover a small dish's bottom with half of the salt/sugar mixture
- Make 4 indentations where the egg yolks will rest
- Separate yolks from whites in fresh chicken or duck eggs
- Place each yolk on the salt bed
- Cover egg yolks with remaining mixture evenly
- Cover with wrap and place in the fridge for 3 days
- After 3 days, take the egg yolks out and give them a quick rinse with water and dab them dry
- Place them on a rack in the oven at 160 F (70 C) and let them sit for 5 h. Ensure the moisture can escape, or now and then open the door for short while
- Follow step 1 through 5, but use a shallow basket so that the air circulation can come also from underneath
- Cover the egg yolks with the salt.sugar mixture, but do not burry them like method 1. You will not need all the salt sugar mixture
- Place the basket in the wind and sun at low humidity weather
- You will see that after 2-3 days the eggs have become hard and fully dried.
Notes
Food allergy & intolerance information: eggs
Remarks
1. The product can be stored for a month in the fridge or can be frozen en kept much longer.
2. Usually the product is grated on dishes or worked into dishes (including cookies!)
3. You can add herbs or spices to the salt and the egg yolks will absorb some of that flavor
4. To make a more sweeter / umami version, use a mixture of salt and sugar for the curing
5. For a faster process but a softer result, immerse fresh egg yolks completely in cold soy sauce or in fish sauce, that also contains some dissolved sugar. After a few hours, the egg yolks will have lost some water and have become a bit harder and can be used as a garnish on fish, meat or rice dishes
