Steamed Egg with Century Egg and Pork

The Cantonese restaurant version, and the one worth going out of your way for.

Century egg — 皮蛋 pidan — is duck egg cured in an alkaline mix until the white turns to a translucent amber jelly and the yolk goes dark green and creamy. Diced through a pale custard it gives dark, jellied, faintly ammoniac pockets against something very mild, and minced pork underneath gives savour and body.

⭐ It looks alarming and tastes wonderful. The century egg is the whole point — it is doing what an anchovy does in a Caesar, and if you leave it out you have a different dish.

⚠ Buy century eggs that are lead-free. Traditional cures used lead oxide to speed setting; reputable modern producers use zinc instead and say so on the box. Check the label.

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs (about 150 g — weigh them)
• 225 g warm light chicken stock
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 century egg (皮蛋), peeled and diced
• 100 g minced pork
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp Shaoxing wine
• 1/2 tsp cornflour

Pinch of white pepper

• To finish
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 scallion, green part only, sliced

Directions

1. Marinate the pork: mix the mince with the soy, Shaoxing, cornflour and white pepper. Leave 10 minutes.
2. Spread the pork in a thin, even layer across the bottom of your steaming dish. ⭐ It goes underneath, not stirred through — it is heavier than the custard and would sink anyway, and a clean layer looks far better when you spoon into it.
3. Peel and dice the century egg into pieces about 1 cm. ⚠ It is slippery and it stains; a wet knife helps.
4. Scatter about two-thirds of the century egg over the pork, keeping the rest back for the top.
5. Weigh the eggs, add 1.5× their weight in warm stock, add the salt, beat gently with chopsticks and strain through a fine sieve over the pork and century egg.
6. Skim any foam. Cover the dish with foil or a lid.
7. Steam over a bare simmer for 15 minutes — a little longer than plain zhengdan, because the pork layer has to cook through.
8. Check the pork, not the custard: the custard will be set well before the meat is. If in doubt give it two more minutes.
9. Uncover, scatter the reserved century egg, thread over the soy and sesame oil, add the scallion. Serve hot with rice.

Notes

🔴 The pork must be a thin layer, not a lump. A thick pad of mince will still be raw when the custard is done, and there is no way to fix that without wrecking the egg.

Salted duck egg works in place of century egg, or alongside it — it gives a completely different thing, salty and rich and orange rather than dark and jellied. The version with both is common in Hong Kong and it is very good.

⭐ This is the one dish in the dive where I would use stock rather than water without hesitation. The century egg is loud; water underneath it tastes thin.

In the dive: China — the everyday bowl.