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Egg yolks are one of the most magical of foods. Chefs all over the world wax poetic about them, but it’s hard to understand why when all you might be exposed to are the wan, watery, factory-farmed yolks you see in most supermarkets. A golden treasure they are not.
You can only understand the joy — lust, even — over an egg when you finally see (and taste) a real egg, eggs from chickens raised on grass and bugs and whatever else it is that a hen loves to nibble throughout the day.
Before I’d encountered such eggs, when I saw pictures of Italian egg pasta, I thought they were retouched: Their pasta is always bright yellow. As much as I tried, I found it impossible to duplicate with eggs from the supermarket. I talked to Italian pasta makers and they said you need yolks of a truly golden, almost orange, hue. That’s what gives you that pretty color.
I came into possession of such eggs from my friend Teala’s father, who raises ducks and geese in my neighborhood. It’s what I prefer to use for my pasta, and, just like the Italian pasta pictures I swooned over, the photos on this post are not retouched. This is precisely how yellow they actually are.
Not too long ago, Teala’s dad gave me two goose eggs along with the duck eggs. I was amazed at their size. I cracked one open and made an entire batch of pasta with that one egg. I was shocked at how orange the yolk was — brighter even than the duck eggs.
I wanted to capture that color, that richness. I’d known about salt cured egg yolk for a few years; my friends, Chefs Brad Cecchi and Oliver Ridgeway at Grange in downtown Sacramento had first clued me into it. Basically you bury egg yolks in salt, then dry them out until they are like a very hard cheese. This is exactly how you use them — as a golden, eggy, über rich substitute for grated cheese over pasta or rice.
Brad and Oliver never explained to me exactly how to do this, but fortunately Chef Jeffrey Weiss does in his remarkable book CharcuterÃa: The Soul of Spain. You will be seeing a lot of this book in the months to come. I am mildly obsessed with it and have already made a half-dozen or so of its recipes, ranging from salami to sausages to cured fish and now, here, salt cured egg yolks.
If you’ve never cured anything in your life, this would be a good place to start. It’s really easy and comes together in about 2 weeks. And once you’ve made the cured yolks, you can use them over pasta for months.
What else can you do with cured egg yolk? Not sure. I eat a lot of pasta. What would you suggest?
Grate your egg yolks over any of these pasta recipes.
Salt Cured Egg Yolk
Ingredients
- Egg yolks
- Salt
- Cheesecloth
Instructions
- Get yourself two containers: One for the whites, so you can do something with them later, and one to cure the yolks. You will need to lay down a half-inch layer of kosher salt in the bottom of your curing container; you can go a little deeper if you want. Make little depressions in the salt to hold the egg yolks.
- Crack the eggs and separate them. Gently lay the yolk in one of the depressions and repeat until you have all your eggs in the container. Now bury them in more salt.
- Keep the yolks buried in the salt for a week in the refrigerator. Take them out -- the yolks will be firm and a little tacky still -- and carefully brush off the salt. You might need to remove the salt with a damp paper towel.
- Wrap the yolks loosely in cheesecloth and hang them in the fridge until they are dry, about 7 to 14 days. Store in the cheesecloth in a closed container in the fridge.
Notes
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Thanks Hank! I was wondering what dishes this is traditionally used in.
Have you reused the salt to make more cured egg yolks?
Josh: I have not.
Is this salmonella safe?
Poppi: Not sure, but you are encasing the yolks in pure salt. Not much can live through that. And I always use very high quality eggs, which are generally free from salmonella.
We do this at the restaurant I used to work at, Trenchermen! Chef loves to grate them over beef tartare, and his vegetarian grains dish. I believe we used a mixture of salt and sugar and we let them dry fully in it, they were flipped after a week or so.
How do you hang them in the fridge?
Joylan: Wrapped in cheesecloth that’s been tied in a bundle. Hang bundle however you can in the fridge.
I am coming up on a week in my smoked salt, thyme and cracked pepper mix.
I fry up the egg whites with a little shredded cheddar cheese and then mix it up with the dogs dinner. She loves it.
Making this now. I don’t have lovely dark yolks but I am making macarons for a wedding and want to try this.
I have done the salting side of things, and have hung them in the fridge for 10 days, but they are not hard, they are gelatenous in the centre and not able to be grated or chopped due to this texture… Have I done something wrong or just not long enough drying them?
Interesting. I suspect the yolks needed to salt a bit longer. Never had that happen. Keep drying them, they’ll solidify eventually.
Is it OK to go ahead and hang them if they are still a little “wet” one face? I just unburied mine and noticed a few are still a little runny, they were buried in salt for 7 days while I was out of town. I went ahead and wrapped & hung them, but want to make sure I’m not inviting disaster and should start over!
Yep, you can hang them. They should dry out fine in the fridge. The slightly wet part might stick to the cheesecloth, so be careful when you unwrap them later.
Sure enjoyed this! Just had a pasta carbonara of sorts, using only the shredded cured egg yolks-no raw. I’m thinking it would be delicious on a Caesar Salad. Thank you Hank!
Hank, I need ideas for what to do with egg whites other than using them to make desserts. Do you have any savory recipe suggestions for using leftover egg whites?
Of course! I always use the whites to make a pasta called “sheets and linens,” which uses only the whites.
Egg Yolk Bottarga, i have been making for a while in my restaurant. I blend the yolks, shape a sous vide bag like a piece of bottarga and pour the yolk in, sealing it shut. They are then cooked sous vide 72C for 35 minutes, cooled in an ice bath. It is now set enough to salt and dry but not discoloured
Oh, man, I’m definitely going to make these! And I’m going to grate them over MOREL RISOTTO.
Question: when you say, “Wrap the yolks loosely in cheesecloth and hang them in the fridge until they are dry, about 7 to 14 days” do you mean pile them all together in the cheesecloth, or wrap and hang them separately? I’m making gum paste (I decorate cakes as a sideline), using 8 egg whites, and was wondering what to do with the yolks. This looks like the answer – I love fermenting and curing food myself.
Is salting egg yolks a modern or traditional food preservation technique? The recipe above seems modern (using refridgeration).
So amazing!! Am going to have to try this soon. Egg whites freeze well, so if you don’t have a use for them right away (aren’t making meringues, or angelfood cake) you can freeze your whites in baggies or chicken eggwhites fit each to a standard icecube tray ‘cube’. If you can get the larger egg whites to freeze in cube trays then you know you have that number of tablespoonfuls of eggwhite for use inthe future (one cube=one chicken egg). Just saying, there’s options for the whites!! 😀 … Now, to find local goose eggs!!!
Having a fresh supply of turkey eggs, I will definitely try this. Thank you!
Having a fresh supply of Turkey eggs, I will definitely try this.
Thank you!
I think you could use these in the many Chinese recipes that use salted duck eggs. For example, there is a lovely soup which has a base of chicken stock, a bit of pork and preserved mustard greens. The final flourish to the soup is salted duck yolk which is kind of sticky but when cooked in the soup goes firm like normal hard boiled eggs. It adds a great umami hit to the soup.