In an Eggshell
chinese and southeast asian farmers domesticated ducks not only to provide a ready supply of meat but also for their luscious eggs. today, more than 65 percent of all duck eggs sold commercially throughout the world are produced in china, and over 90 percent are produced in asia. historically, ducks eggs weren’t necessarily eaten fresh in the manner of the Western world; aging was — and is — the norm.
consider the century egg. created by preserving duck eggs in a mixture of clay, salt, age, quicklime and rice hulls for several weeks to several months, this sulphur- and ammonia-scented, dark-green to gray delicacy is popular in modern china, vietnam and thailand, where it’s also known as the millennium and thousand-year egg. Its creation probably evolved to preserve excess duck eggs during times of plenty by coating them in alkaline clay, not soaking them in horse urine as Westerners once believed.
salted duck eggs are another asian specialty. chinese and vietnamese processors soak raw eggs in brine or pack each egg in damp, salted charcoal and then cure them for four to six weeks. Filipinos prepare them using the Pateros method by dipping raw eggs in a batter of clay, salt and water before wrapping them in newspaper and curing them for 12 to 16 days. Both methods result in eggs with runny yolks and firm, red-orange yolks. Pateros eggs are dyed red to distinguish them from fresh duck eggs or balut. salted eggs are boiled or steamed and peeled before eating.
unique by Western standards, balut is an incubated, fertilized duck egg boiled for 30 minutes when the embryo is at least 16 days old. Widely hawked as street food in the Philippines, it’s also popular fare in china and in vietnam, where balut incubated up to 21 days is favored — long enough for beak, bones and feathers to form. eating a balut is somewhat of a ritual: crack the wide end of the shell, make a hole, sip the warm broth, and then eat the yolk and the moist, tender duckling. Is it tasty? Westerners who summon the courage to try balut say it is. a Filipino restaurant called Maharlika in new York city sponsors a balut-eating contest every year. More than 200 contestants participated in 2013; the winner downed 18 eggs in five minutes.