Prep time
10 minutes
Cook time
336 hours
Course
Preserves
Skill level
Beginner
Season
Spring, Summer
Serves
6 yolks
If you’re lucky enough to have a flock of hens—at some point, in spring or summer, when they’re really laying, the day will come when you think you might be tired of eating eggs. Salt-cured yolks will revive you. The yolk is the only part of the egg that matters to the tongue, the whites serve mostly to protect this orb of flavor, in my opinion.
Salt-curing turns the volume up on everything we love about the essence of yolk and transforms the texture so that we can enjoy it on everything. Salt-curing yolks is the most fool-proof of cures, so it’s a great place to start if you’re interested but intimidated by the curing process—all it takes is salt, yolks, and two weeks’ time.
When they’re done, you’ll have rich, salty, probiotic umami bombs to shave, grate, or slice onto pasta, toast, salad, beans, grilled meats, roasted vegetables, or more eggs. Think of it as your dairy-free parmesan, your fish-free bottarga, and your new favorite way to eat eggs.
Ingredients
- 6 fresh egg yolks
- 1 box Kosher salt
Preparation
- Pour enough Kosher salt into your non-reactive container to cover that bottom evenly with ½ inch.
- Take one egg, in the shell, and use the fat bottom end to make six depressions in the surface of the salt for the yolks to sit in.
- Crack your eggs, separate your whites into a container to use elsewhere, and gently tip the yolks into the prepared salt.
- Gently pour more salt over the yolks until they are covered by a thick enough layer that you cannot see their color showing through.
- Put a lid on your container or cover it in plastic wrap and place on a flat shelf in the fridge for one week.
- After one week, unwind about 18 inches of clean cheesecloth from its board and lay flat. You do not need to unfold width-wise.
- Remove the yolks gently from the salt, gently from the bottom with a finger. The very outer layer will still be a little jammy but overall, the yolk should feel firm.
- Brush all of the clinging salt off of each yolk, press back into a tidy circle with your fingers, and place on the length of cheesecloth, evenly spaced.
- Fold both sides of the cloth over the yolks and tie a section of string in between each yolk and at both ends.
- Hang this chain of yolks somewhere cold and dry, like the fridge or a cool clean corner of the pantry (below 50°F) for another 5 to 7 days until the yolks are dried. They should no longer be sticky and soft on the outside, the rest of the clinging salt should brush away easily, and the yolk should grate like a semi-hard cheese rather than smearing on a Microplane.
- Store the yolks in the cheesecloth inside a covered container in the fridge for up to a month. I recommend making another batch as soon as one is finished drying.
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Salt-Cured Egg Yolks
Prep time
10 minutes
Cook time
336 hours
Course
Preserves
Skill level
Beginner
Season
Spring, Summer
Serves
6 yolks
If you’re lucky enough to have a flock of hens—at some point, in spring or summer, when they’re really laying, the day will come when you think you might be tired of eating eggs. Salt-cured yolks will revive you. The yolk is the only part of the egg that matters to the tongue, the whites serve mostly to protect this orb of flavor, in my opinion.
Salt-curing turns the volume up on everything we love about the essence of yolk and transforms the texture so that we can enjoy it on everything. Salt-curing yolks is the most fool-proof of cures, so it’s a great place to start if you’re interested but intimidated by the curing process—all it takes is salt, yolks, and two weeks’ time.
When they’re done, you’ll have rich, salty, probiotic umami bombs to shave, grate, or slice onto pasta, toast, salad, beans, grilled meats, roasted vegetables, or more eggs. Think of it as your dairy-free parmesan, your fish-free bottarga, and your new favorite way to eat eggs.
Ingredients
- 6 fresh egg yolks
- 1 box Kosher salt
Preparation
- Pour enough Kosher salt into your non-reactive container to cover that bottom evenly with ½ inch.
- Take one egg, in the shell, and use the fat bottom end to make six depressions in the surface of the salt for the yolks to sit in.
- Crack your eggs, separate your whites into a container to use elsewhere, and gently tip the yolks into the prepared salt.
- Gently pour more salt over the yolks until they are covered by a thick enough layer that you cannot see their color showing through.
- Put a lid on your container or cover it in plastic wrap and place on a flat shelf in the fridge for one week.
- After one week, unwind about 18 inches of clean cheesecloth from its board and lay flat. You do not need to unfold width-wise.
- Remove the yolks gently from the salt, gently from the bottom with a finger. The very outer layer will still be a little jammy but overall, the yolk should feel firm.
- Brush all of the clinging salt off of each yolk, press back into a tidy circle with your fingers, and place on the length of cheesecloth, evenly spaced.
- Fold both sides of the cloth over the yolks and tie a section of string in between each yolk and at both ends.
- Hang this chain of yolks somewhere cold and dry, like the fridge or a cool clean corner of the pantry (below 50°F) for another 5 to 7 days until the yolks are dried. They should no longer be sticky and soft on the outside, the rest of the clinging salt should brush away easily, and the yolk should grate like a semi-hard cheese rather than smearing on a Microplane.
- Store the yolks in the cheesecloth inside a covered container in the fridge for up to a month. I recommend making another batch as soon as one is finished drying.