Preserved Duck Egg (Century Egg/Pidan): Production and Use
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Origin
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Description
Pidan (century egg / thousand-year egg) — duck eggs preserved in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime, and rice hulls for 2–3 months — is one of the most distinctive preserved foods in the world. The alkaline environment (pH 9–12) denatures and gels the egg white to a dark, translucent black-green and the yolk to a creamy, dark grey-green with a specific sulphurous, mineral, intensely savoury flavour. The process is the extreme end of the alkaline food transformation spectrum that includes nixtamalisation and pretzel-making.
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The Thread
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Flavour Context
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Pillars V — VII
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