Salted duck egg

Œuf de cane salé

What it is

Twenty to forty days in strong brine does something to the yolk alone: salt breaks the low-density lipoproteins that held its fat emulsified, so the fat pools and the yolk sets firm and orange while the white stays raw and fiercely salty. A bead of oil in the cut yolk is the mark of one properly cured.

In the kitchen

Kitchens buy them for the yolk and throw most of the white away. Steam the raw yolks ten minutes with a splash of rice wine to drive off any eggy smell, then mash them into butter or crumble them over fried food — they are a fat and a seasoning, not an egg.

Goes with

Rice Pork belly Pumpkin Silken tofu (kinugoshi) Shrimp Corn Butter

Same species

Mallard Pekin duck Century egg (pidan) Duck heart Duck confit Stuffed duck neck

Also used with

Lotus seed paste

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