---------- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.02

     Title: PRESERVED DUCK EGGS (THOUSAND YEAR OLD EGGS)
Categories: Eggs, Chinese
     Yield: 12 servings

     2 c  Tea, very strong black
   1/3 c  Salt
     2 c  Ashes of pine wood
     2 c  Ashes of charcoal
     2 c  Fireplace ashes
     1 c  Lime*
    12    Duck egg, fresh

 *Available in garden stores and nurseries.

 Combine tea, salt, ashes and lime. Using about 1/2 cup
 per egg, thickly coat each egg completely with this
 clay-like mixture. Line a large crock with garden soil
 and carefully lay coated eggs on top. Cover with more
 soil and place crock in a cool dark place. Allow to
 cure for 100 days. To remove coating, scrape eggs and
 rinse under running water to clean thoroughly. Crack
 lightly and remove shells. The white of the egg will
 appear a grayish, translucent color and have a
 gelatinous texture. The yolk, when sliced, will be a
 grayish-green color.

 To serve, cut into wedges and serve with:

 Sweet pickled scallions or any sweet pickled vegetable

 Sauce of 2 tablespoons each vinegar, soy sauce and
 rice wine and 1 tablespoon minced ginger root.

 Preserved Ancient Eggs

     These are often called thousand-year eggs, even
 though the preserving process lasts only 100 days.
 They may be purchased individually in Oriental markets.

     The description of the whites turning grayish
 isn't quite accurate from the ones I've seen. They're
 more a dark blackish amber color-- quite attractive
 actually.

     From "The Regional Cooking of China" by Margret
 Gin and Alfred E. Castle, 101 Productions, San
 Francisco, 1975.

     Incidentally, this is an excellent book. It's
 written by Maggie Gin of commercial Chinese sauce
 fame. If you can find an early edition, get it. The
 later editions have been integrated into her marketing
 strategies and may not be as complete as this one is.
 They also call for whatever the sauce ingredients are
 or "Maggie Gin's Such and Such Sauce".

 per Stephen Ceideburg

 Submitted By SAM WARING <[email protected]>
 On MON, 20 NOV 1995 145845 GMT

-----