English

Noun

century egg ‎(plural century eggs)

1. A Chinese delicacy made by preserving a duck, chicken or quail egg in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime and rice hulls for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing.
   • 1912 November 15, “Chop suey hox exposed”, in The Mixer & Server, volume 21, number 11, page 35:

     Almonds, parched watermelon seeds—esteemed as a great delicacy—spareribs covered with a mixture of molasses sugar, fried fish, chicken livers and century eggs were put on the table at once.

   • 1922 December 20, E. C. Heinsohn, “Eggs and Poultry in China”, in The Egg Reporter, page 28:

     More or less is heard about the Chinese "century eggs." These are duck eggs which have been preserved by a coating of mud, rice hulls, lime and wood ashes.

   • 1953, Dorothy Snapp McCammon, We tried to stay, page 95:

     In the middle of the platter were century eggs, eggs which have been left in lime for a long, long time until the yolk has become dark and the white gelatinous.

   • 2015, Deborah Lowe Kwok Yun, The Little Cantonese Cookbook:

     There are many varieties of congee but the most common is this salted pork with century egg.

Translations

Synonyms

• preserved egg, hundred-year egg, thousand-year egg, thousand-year-old egg, millennium egg, pidan, songhuadan