century egg

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 hoax exposed”, in The Mixer & Server‎^[1], 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^[2], 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^[3]:

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

   • 2022 June 18, “Go on a Binondo food trip this Father's Day at Lucky Chinatown”, in Manila Bulletin‎^[4], Manila: Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-06-22:

     King Chef (2F Main Mall, 0932 323 1871) serves healthy food and authentic Cantonese cuisine in a fine dining setup. For Father's Day, treat the whole family to its dim sum platters! It has a roasted platter which includes soyed chicken, roast duck, barbecued pork asado, fried five-spice roll, and soyed cucumber with century egg. Another option is the steamed dim sum platter, where you can devour a spread of hakaw, pork & shrimp siomai, Japanese siomai, beancurd roll, and Taosi spareribs.

Synonyms

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

Translations

Chinese delicacy

• Burmese: ဆေးဘဲဥ (hce:bhai:u.)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 皮蛋 (pei⁴ daan^6-2)

  Hokkien: 皮蛋 (zh-min-nan) (phî-tàn)

  Mandarin: 皮蛋 (zh) (pídàn), 松花蛋 (zh) (sōnghuādàn), 松花 (zh) (sōnghuā), 變蛋／变蛋 (zh) (biàndàn) (regional)

• Finnish: satavuotinen muna, tuhatvuotinen muna
• French: œuf de cent ans (fr) m
• German: hundertjähriges Ei n, tausendjähriges Ei n ("millennium egg")
• Japanese: 皮蛋 (ピータン, pītan)
• Korean: 피단 (pidan)
• Macedonian: вековно јајце n (vekovno jajce)
• Malay: telur padi
• Mongolian: зуун жилийн өндөг (zuun žiliin öndög)
• Portuguese: ovo centenário m
• Russian: столе́тнее яйцо́ n (stolétneje jajcó), тысячеле́тнее яйцо́ n (tysjačelétneje jajcó) ("millennium egg"), пида́нь m or f (pidánʹ), сунхуада́нь m or f (sunxuadánʹ)
• Spanish: huevo centenario m
• Thai: ไข่เยี่ยวม้า (th) (kài-yîao-máa)
• Uyghur: ئەسىرلىك تۇخۇم (esirlik tuxum), يۈز يىللىق تۇخۇم (yüz yilliq tuxum)
• Vietnamese: trứng bách thảo