Traditionally made of duck eggs, but it's not common in my area, so I substitute with eggland's best chicken eggs, try to use bigger sized eggs to get the most out of it. You can double the portion of the recipe below and make 24 eggs in a big glass container, since you have to wait 40days for the egg to be perfectly salty and fragrant
Ingredients:
12 duck eggs (or chicken eggs)
1 cup sea salt (I use ice-cream salt)
4 cups water
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine, (I did mine in yellow rice wine/brandy/Shaoxing, and I love it all)
1 star anise (八角)
2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
Method:
Rinse the eggs and drain well. Set aside.
Put water and salt in a saucepan. Add star anise and Szechwan peppercorns. Bring it to a boil. Once the salt completely dissolves, turn off the heat. Let cool completely.
Pour in the wine and stir well.
Use a clean glass container, carefully arrange the eggs in the container. (Note: check every egg to make sure there are no cracks on it.) Pour salted water into the container and cover the eggs. You’ll notice some eggs above would float to the surface, so place something, like a little sauce plate on top of the eggs. The basic idea is to get all eggs submerse completely in the brine. Tightly cover the container and place at room temperature. The brining process normally takes 30 to 40 days. Label the start and finish dates on the container to remind yourself. (I used Google calendar to set an email alert to myself.) After 30 days, take one egg out to cook and see if its taste is salty enough. If not, let the rest to brine for a few days more. If you’re satisfied, drain all eggs out and wipe dry. Keep them in an egg carton and place in fridge. The salted eggs can be kept for a few weeks in fridge.
I learn this recipe from Christine here:
http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2010/09/homemade-salted-eggs.html
Important note: Christine mention that the ratio of water and salt used in this recipe, water: salt = 4:1
with brining days around 35 to 40 days. If you use higher ratio, the days of brining would be different.
good luck!
