Salted duck egg

A duck egg brined or salt-packed until the white turns sharply savoury and the yolk sets rich, orange and oily. Shelled and dropped in whole or whisked through at the end, it seasons and enriches quick soups (hairy gourd and sliced pork above all) with no extra salt needed. The oozing yolk is the prize.

TCM properties

Nature · cooling　Flavour · sweet、salty　Meridians · heart、lung、spleen

Traditional food therapy

In Cantonese food therapy the salted duck egg is taken as cooling (used to nourish yin, clear heat and settle internal fire) and tradition holds the cured egg cools the lungs better than a fresh one.

Cautions: read first

• Extremely high in sodium, so watch it if your blood pressure is high
• Those with kidney or cardiovascular disease should eat little of it
• Cured foods are not for eating every day

Preparation

Shell it and add it whole, or whisk it through the soup (the method for hairy gourd, salted egg and sliced pork soup); the yolk is at its best when the oil runs.

Origin

Gaoyou in Jiangsu (Gaoyou salted duck eggs are the most celebrated). Australian retail is packaged imported brands (boiled packs and frozen yolks at Asian grocers). Three-egg custard and amaranth in stock want raw salted eggs in the shell; the boiled packs are for congee and the frozen yolks for pastry

Availability in Australia

Easy to find

Pairs well with