---------- 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
  <SAM.WARING@382-91-12.IMA.INFOMAIL.COM>  On   MON, 20
  NOV 1995 145845 GMT
 
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