Tuesday 17 May 2022

Vile and Stinky : Century Eggs

If evil had a smell (which I am sure it does), it would probably smell like century eggs. 

Vile and stinky aside, it is black and jelly-like, and might seem hideous and disgusting to the uninitiated. But ..... century egg has many fans who would happily and greedily chow down on this smelly delicacy.


Recently I bought century eggs. I love century eggs. I have loved them since I was a kid.


During my childhood, the only type of century eggs available were chicken eggs. But now we have duck century eggs. In fact there is also quail century eggs.

So, let's have a look. 

The most common century egg is made with chicken eggs.


This particular century chicken eggs, distributed by Lau Kon Hing Eggs Dealer Sdn Bhd (LKH), is already cleaned and wrapped in paper. Century eggs are usually sold still coated in rice husks.


LKH also distributes duck century eggs. I had already consumed two earlier heh...heh....


I also bought another batch distributed by Ladang Ternakan Prudence Sdn Bhd (LTP). As you can see, both the LKH and LTP duck century eggs are still coated in rice husks and are each wrapped in plastic.


The chicken century eggs which are already clean (and dipped in wax) makes it a lot easier because you just need to peel it and not have to struggle with the rice husk coating.


Century eggs are made by preserving eggs in a mixture of salt, lime and ash and then wrapped in rice husks. You have to remove the coating and it is quite difficult because the coating is quite firm and hard (like hardened mud). It is a very messy process because the rice husks and muddy mixture tends to drop everywhere.

I do it under running water (with a bowl to catch the drippings because I don't have a garbage disposal unit under my sink) and remove the coating as much as I can.

Many years ago I came across another brand of century eggs where the coating is dry and flaky and comes off very easily. I am still looking for it.


To peel the century egg, tap gently because the egg is very fragile (it is like jelly but slightly firmer) and carefully remove the shell. I find that it is helpful if my hands are wet because the egg tends to stick to my hands when they are dry.

If you want a neat slice (with minimal sticking of the yolks to the blade), wet your knife before you slice the egg.


I notice that century duck eggs are more fragile and I could not peel them as neatly as the century chicken eggs.


Between chicken and duck, I prefer duck century eggs. Why?


See that? There is more yolk content and the consistency is richer, ooey gooey soft and custard-like (because duck yolks have higher fat content).


Oh yeah ........ it is, to me, far superior to chicken century egg.


So these days, I don't even bother with chicken century eggs. But I bought these just to show you (and remind myself) the difference.


Now I am comparing the duck century eggs between LTP and LKH. The LKH one has a yellow segment at the edge, maybe due to the length of preservation time or composition of the ingredients used for preservation.

Both are good.


So there you have it. One of the smelly foods that I love hah..hah..hah...

21 comments:

  1. Thanks for the review on the century eggs. I love eating them since young. My mother only bought duck century eggs so I didn't know there are chicken century eggs until this year when I was asked to buy century eggs and to make sure they are duck eggs and not chicken eggs. Salted eggs also must go for the duck eggs. Yums! Yummy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now I even buy the regular duck eggs for consumption rather than chicken eggs. The duck egg yolks are so golden orange and taste better than chicken's.

      Delete
  2. I love century eggs and I love the smell...but not if they have a strong ammonia smell like urine. They say in China, they use horse's urine to make, dunno true or not.LOL!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yes, back in the good old days, horse urine was used. **shudders** LOL!

      Delete
  3. this post if one of a kind, don't think there's another blogger who dived into century eggs like this. If there's a gastronomic sin, century eggs is it. I also love eating century eggs and try not to think about the cholesterol while chowing them down.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL! I thought that I dedicate a post to my favorite eggs. I don't worry about cholesterol because all the scare in the past was due to bad and incorrect information.

      Delete
    2. I did blog about century eggs once...or more than once. I think I also blogged about the snowflake design on the egg - somebody was telling me that good quality century eggs would have that!
      https://suituapui.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/a-hundred-years/

      Delete
  4. Never tasted century egg till in recent year. Not crazy. The colour turns me off. Lol. But after tasted it, I am still not a fan. I only know chicken century egg and duck salted egg. I also started to acquire to salted egg not long ago. Used not to touch it as a kid.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like salted duck egg but I only like the yolks. LOL!

      Delete
  5. am not a fan of century egg....i prefer salted duck egg.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OK, some people simply don't like those black eggs hah..hah...

      Delete
  6. My hubby is a great fan of century eggs like you. I learned to eat century eggs from him. I usually buy century eggs for cooking. So if any century eggs go missing I know who is the culprit. Lol!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL! Sometimes I just peel the egg over the sink and eat just like that.

      Delete
  7. I love century eggs too...but developed the liking not too long ago only. Judging from the photos of your chicken vs duck century eggs, I think the one I had was duck egg too coz it didn't come already cleaned, was encased in rice husk and surely didn't look at all like your chicken one here. I buy mine from my dry goods seller at the wet market where they are sold "loose" like salted eggs (meaning you can buy how many you want), so there wasn't any indication if it was duck or chicken since there was no packaging already. I think (in general) most salted and century eggs would usually be made with duck eggs, so I still think the quality (as in gooey centre) still depends on the quality of the egg we buy. Perhaps the gooey centre becomes firmer (less gooey) if it's been preserved longer (as in not as fresh). This would go very well with your homemade vinegared ginger.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I see! I wonder which distributor your dry goods seller gets it from. Quite true that the yolk is less gooey (drier) if it is preserved longer. So I take it that if we buy it loose, we won't have any idea when is the expiry date.

      Delete
  8. A good sharing on century egg! Now only I know it is called telur padi in BM :P I'm okay with century egg, but not a die-hard fan though. I discovered that Sam can accept CE recently as I saw her eat the egg in her porridge (& will order century egg + meat porridge too), she used to don't like it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's good that your daughter can accept century eggs. I love a lot!

      Delete
  9. Wow... you know so much about century eggs! I just buy them to boil porridge mostly, but eating them with preserved ginger is very very yummy too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My favorite way is to eat with ginger but if no ginger, also no problem. I can eat it plain!

      Delete
  10. I love century eggs! I would pour some kicap, add cili padi and a squeeze of calamansi. savoury, spicy, sour all in one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I see there is another way of enjoying century eggs! I must try your method :)

      Delete