The yolk’s on me

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? In my case, the egg arrived first and foremost. I remember the humble egg being the first meal that I relished eating, my mother having cut soldiers out of buttery toast so that I might dip and dunk and splatter the saucer with the molten yolk. I remember always being slightly disappointed that the white of the egg wasn’t as spectacularly tasty as its decadent counterpart.

I also remember being slightly disappointed that the dipping only went so far on a soft, boiled egg. Thus, two eggs became the norm as secondary school beckoned, those alongside two slices of toast.

Then I remember my road-to-Damascus moment when I realised that instead of dipping and dunking, I could simply heal the soft-boiled egg upside down and the runny yolk would flood out onto the toast.

Then it was more of a topping than a dip and as secondary school progressed, two eggs became three, became four. Then the duck eggs arrived and that was the real game-changer.

I couldn’t do it now but I remember regularly eating two soft-boiled duck eggs and four slices of toast, all washed down with about a pint of milk. They say that youth is wasted on the young. But it wasn’t wasted on me and my appetite.

As you might have noticed from the photo, my new favourite method of consuming my egg yolks is markedly different.

Cured egg yolks at first sounded a bit of a stretch too far and only something I’d imagine sushi restaurants crafting so as to gild the lily of the freshest fish.

Then I tried making them at home and, well, I am now a certified convert.

Honestly, I didn’t think it would be possible to eat four cured eggs yolks one after another, that is, until I tried that first jammy egg on crispy toast.

Much in the way a ceviche is ‘cold cooked,’ there is no actual cooking here but instead, the salty element of the mix, in this case the soy sauce, cures the egg yolks by drawing out the posture within thus ruling out the growth of bacteria or spoiling.

Prior to trying this for the first time, I embarked on a good aul rip of research and I read that it’s possible to cure yolks in soy and honey, or sriracha sauce and even Worcestershire sauce. So long as there’s a salty component in the mix, a curing seemed certain.

If you’re in any way interested in food, I can’t recommend this highly enough. Over rice, mashed onto toasted sourdough or as per my personal favourite, as a jammy topping for avocado on toast, cured egg yolks are… egg-ceptional. Sorry!

The effort required here is minimal, which I also like. The only thing you have to have is patience – at least 12 hours thereof.

Apparently, the minimum spell for the curing to take place is 12 hours. However, said curing can also last a couple of days. It’s worth remembering that the longer the eggs cure, the more solid they will be come – and the saltier.

I let mine rip for about 18 hours and they seemed bang on the money, slightly running but slightly jammy. Maybe next time I’ll try the first yolk after just 12 hours just to compare and leave the last one for a full three days.

INGREDIENTS

l 6 or 8 egg yolks

l 120ml of soy sauce

l 120ml of mirin

l 120ml of water

l 1 heaped tbsp of honey

l 1 tsp of sesame oil

THE PLAN

In a saucepan, dump in all the ingredients EXCEPT the egg yolks.

Bring to a boil and then simmer for two minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool completely.

When cool, separate the egg yolks and place these into a shallow container, ideally one with a lid and ideally, glass. The yolks shouldn’t be too packed in.

Now pour the soy mix into the container but NOT on top of the yolks. Instead pour into the corner of the container. Pouring on top of the yolks might result in a yolk breakage.

Stick the lid on or at least cover the container and place into the fridge for the requisite time, for argument’s sake, 24 hours. However to ensure there is an even cure, you have to flip the yolks every 12 hours.

Egg-ceptional.