Lightly salted eggs are a savory alternative to “hundred-year-old eggs”

Many people have heard about the popular Chinese snack “hundred-year-old eggs,” but few dared to try them. You need to be a very brave gourmet to taste such exotic food. But this is not entirely exotic. Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers made a similar snack, but they simply called it “lightly salted eggs.”

Ingredients: vodka, salt, spices, vinegar, eggs
Time to bookmark: Whole year

Traditionally, large duck or turkey eggs are used for salting, but chicken or quail eggs are also suitable.

To prevent eggs from going rotten, you must maintain sterility. Sterilize the jar and lid before salting.

Rinse the eggs in cool water, inspect for cracks, and very carefully place in a glass jar. There is no need to boil them. Another appetizer is made from boiled eggs - “pickled eggs”, and this is a completely different dish.

For pickling you need to prepare a strong brine:

5-7 eggs;
250 g part salt;
1 liter of water;
1 tbsp. l. wine vinegar;
1 tbsp. l strong alcohol (vodka, whiskey, cognac);
spices.

Pour water into the pan, add salt and spices. Bring the brine to a boil and turn it off immediately. Add vodka, vinegar and let it cool. The brine should be slightly warm, but not hot.

Pour the brine over the eggs until they are completely covered. To prevent the eggs from floating, fill a regular bag with water, tie it and place it on top of the eggs.

Place the jar of eggs in a warm, dark place and forget about them for 4 weeks.This is provided that the eggs are duck, but if you have quail or chicken eggs, the salting time can be reduced. In the case of chicken, it takes 3 weeks, and quail will be salted in 2 weeks.

Checking the doneness of eggs is easy. Remove one egg from the brine and crack it onto a plate. The white should be cloudy and runny, the yolk should be denser, firmer and bright orange. In Asia, only raw yolks of lightly salted eggs are eaten, but the white is also edible if cooked correctly.

If the eggs are already salted, drain the brine, place the eggs in a saucepan and cook as you would regular eggs. After the eggs boil, reduce the heat on the stove and let them simmer gently for 12-15 minutes.