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Century Eggs Recipe – Homemade Method

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Shares Without Lead
Tiana Matson • May 3, 2018

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Century Eggs are a legendary Chinese food that, after a special

processing method, become jelly-like and often patterned. They also
have a special aroma, making them one of China’s favorite foods. Categories

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Century Eggs and Salted Duck Eggs have become the most popular
flavored eggs in China, and the custom of eating these two kinds of
eggs gradually developed from the Dragon Boat Festival.

Every time the Dragon Boat Festival arrives, they don’t just have
the traditional sticky rice dumplings, but also eat the Salted Duck Eggs
and Century Eggs, which are used as gifts for relatives and friends!

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Is it possible to make your own eggs?

The answer is yes, and it’s actually very easy. Even if you don’t do it
yourself, at least after reading this article, you’ll know how to buy
Century Eggs.

When processing the traditional Chinese Century Egg, quicklime

(CaO) is generally used, as well as soda ash (Na2CO3), grass ash
(K2CO3), lead oxide (PbO2) and salt.

The entire chemical reaction can be simplified into:

CaO+H2O=Ca(OH)2

Ca(OH)2+Na2CO3=CaCO3+2NaOH

Ca(OH)2+K2CO3= CaCO3+2KOH

From the above equation, you can see that the key ingredients for
making Century Eggs are sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide.

These two strong bases slowly penetrate through the

porous eggshells and react with proteins in the egg white and yolk to
denature, coagulate and decompose, releasing a small amount of
hydrogen sulfide gas and ammonia. Strong bases and protein-
constituting amino acids produce salt crystals, which fan out over the
surface of the egg resembling beautiful snowflake-like patterns.

Hydrogen sulfide and the metal elements in the egg white and yolk
produce various sulphides that discolor the egg white and yolk.

Salt and alkali can kill microorganisms in the Century Eggs, which can
achieve a long-term anti-corrosion effect. So, keeping the
eggs preserved for a long time will not do any harm. Salt not only
increases the taste of Century Eggs, but it also makes them easier to
peel.

So, why the addition of lead oxide? According to the secret of the
electron microscope, lead oxide can seal the pores on the shell (if there
are black dots on the inner side of the shell, they contain lead or other
heavy metals).

There will be no black dots if no metals are added. Lead oxide closes the
pores on the eggshell, which prevents oxygen from entering the
Century Egg. Oxygen oxidizes the eggs and turns them yellow.

Another purpose it is used for is to prevent the coagulated protein from

being hydrolyzed by the action of strong bases.

Is it possible to make homemade century eggs without lead oxide? The

answer is yes!

The comparison experiment is shown below. Half of these homemade

Century Eggs were vacuum-packed, and the other half were not
vacuum-packed.

The nonvacuum-packed eggs are on the left and the vacuum-packed

eggs are on the right. The inside and outside of the vacuum-packed
eggs are black and look more appealing. Because of this, they are
typically made and sold using this method.

The nonvacuum-packed eggs are oxidized and so have turned yellow.

This doesn’t affect the taste, but because the black ones look better,
that is how they’re usually made. If you don’t have any vacuum
packaging, you can use melted wax, which also seals the pores. But if
you are eating these in your own home and you don’t care about the
color of the eggs, you will not have to use either of these methods!

Having said so much, how can unleaded Century Eggs be made? Below
is my recipe on how to make them. Everything, from composition to
operation, is incredibly simple!

Ingredients:

1L water
50g edible sodium hydroxide
50g salt
fresh duck eggs (you can also use chicken eggs or quail eggs)

large plastic containers (never use glass containers)

disposable plastic gloves

Method:

1. Place the water, salt, and sodium hydroxide in a large plastic

container. Sodium hydroxide is a strong base, so be sure to wear
plastic gloves and be careful not to splash it on your skin, eyes or
clothes. Also, you must make sure you do not put the sodium
hydroxide solution in a glass container.
2. Carefully place the fresh eggs in the sodium hydroxide solution.
You can put 20-25 duck eggs in without any problems.
3. Seal, and let the eggs sit for three weeks at room temperature,
while the egg whites solidify. After three weeks, open the
container and check the progress by tapping one egg to see how
much it has firmed up. If the egg white is solid, remove it and
rinse it, then place it back in the container with the others for one
more week.

If the egg white has not firmed up, extend the preservation time.

My homemade Century Eggs have been made several times using quail
eggs. Preserving the quail eggs does not take as long as duck eggs
(usually only about two weeks).

After you have successfully made these eggs several times, it is possible
to add flavors such as tea to the solution that the eggs are preserved in.

This method is simple and reliable. The following figure shows a few
Century Eggs I have made. I opened the container in the middle of the
three weeks preservation time and gently tapped the eggs to check
whether they had solidified.

This gradual process forms lovely snowflake-like patterns over the

surface of the egg, making them even more special. Because I did not
vacuum-pack these eggs, they were oxidized yellow from inside to
outside, but that did not affect the taste!

How to keep Century Eggs:

Century Eggs are full of moisture. If stored in the refrigerator, the water
will gradually go way too cold, thus changing the original flavor of
the eggs. In addition, low-temperature preservation will also affect the
color of the Century Eggs and will actually make them turn yellow more
easily. So, it is not advisable to store the eggs in the refrigerator.

If you have leftover Century Eggs in the house that cannot be eaten or
need to be preserved for some time, they can be placed in plastic bags
and stored in a cool and ventilated place. Generally, they can be
preserved for about 3 months without change in flavor.

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9 thoughts on “Century Eggs Recipe – Homemade

Method Without Lead”

Zuzer Hun
August 15, 2018 at 12:08 pm | Reply

I am going to try it now. Just a hint: “edible sodium hydroxide” in

the recipe might be lethal for stupid people.

Sisi
August 20, 2018 at 8:56 pm | Reply

Hi Tiana, thanks for the recipe and the chemistry course! 🙂

What is the concentration of the sodium hydroxide that you
used? Thanks!

Tiana Matson
August 20, 2018 at 9:48 pm | Reply

Hi SISI, you are welcome,

1L water
50g edible sodium hydroxide
In fact, you can buy sodium hydroxide from amazon.

Mary
January 24, 2019 at 7:26 am | Reply

Hi Tiana, thanks you so much for your sharing. Its very helpfl. I
really wang to learn how to make the century egg. Can i have
your email address please so i can get more advices from you?
Thanks! Hope to hearing from you

Mary
January 24, 2019 at 7:27 am | Reply

Hi Tiana, thanks you so much for your sharing. Its very helpfl. I
really wang to learn how to make the century egg. Can i have
your email address please so i can get more advices from you?
Thanks! Hope to hearing from you

Lynne
February 1, 2019 at 9:26 am | Reply

Hi Tiana,

Great website and recipes! Thanks so much for sharing the

knowlege and skills. I’m a big fan of century eggs. Was
wondering at what stage do you vacuum pack the eggs? After
the egg white has firmed up? Many thanks!

Ross Starkey
February 5, 2019 at 11:59 pm | Reply

Hi Tiana,
I am a big fan of century eggs (I just now had one (sliced) with
chopped salted chiles and toasted sesame oil on water crackers)
but I have never tried to make them, I really should.

Do you know if it is possible to use emu eggs? Would the NaOH

penetrate to the center of such large eggs?

John
March 11, 2019 at 8:51 am | Reply

> Do you know if it is possible to use emu eggs?

Yes, but it will take much, much longer, perhaps so long that the
egg wastes in the meantime.

Time estimate in weeks: 3*(diameter of emu egg)/(diameter of

duck egg).

Tiana Matson
March 12, 2019 at 3:57 am | Reply

Hi John, I am not sure, I haven’t used emu eggs before.

But I think you can have a try, good luck, thanks.

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