Salt cured egg yolks

Today I'm going to do something completely new for me... I'm going to talk about something I just started doing! I learned how to salt cure egg yolks a few months back and they are amazing! They're super simple to do and you really need to try it!

Now normally I won't write a post about something until I've been doing it for a long time but this is so simple and delicious that I just have to share! Especially since egg season is starting and with the spring days getting longer and warmer lots of us are starting to get overwhelmed with eggs.

I've made these about 5 times so we're just going with it today

Also, I'm going to be sharing my meringue recipe soon so I'll give you a way to use up all those whites that we'll have left over! Unfortunately I'm not really a recipe developer so I don't have some great but long story prepared about how this recipe reminds of some time in the past etc etc. LOL 

So let's just get to the salt cured egg yolks.

Lets start with the weird part. Salt cured egg yolks kind of taste like cheese! Crazy right? It has a rich creamy taste and texture that is nothing like egg yolk at all! The first time I heard of this I was like why would you want to put egg yolks on everything... But trust me you do!

What are salt cured egg yolks?

Well, they're just egg yolks, that were separated from the white that have been preserved in salt and then dehydrated to remove more moisture. Salt has been used to preserve food since at least 2000 BC! It is one of the oldest food preservation methods and a very effective one at that! 

Salt enhances and often changes the flavor of the food it's preserving giving it new uses.

This is amazing if you can't have dairy because you can get the flavor of cheese without the lactose intolerance. That's a big win!

I have put grated salt cured egg yolks on grits, mashed potatoes, salads, cottage cheese, yogurt, vanilla ice cream, sandwiches, pasta dishes and even on top of steamed vegetables! Not only is this absolutely delicious it is a great way to use up extra eggs.

How to make salt cured egg yolks

You're not going to believe how easy this is. You're going to put egg yolks in salt, put it in the refrigerator, wait a week, then dehydrate them. That's it!

Here is the exact recipe.
Using a glass baking pan, put about a half inch of fine salt in the bottom.
Make a little indent for each egg yolk.
Separate the egg yolks from the whites, saving the whites for later.
Gently spoon each yolk into one of the small indents you made in the salt. If the yolk breaks scoop the whole thing out as it won't cure correctly once broken.
Cover them completely with salt.
Put the pan in the refrigerator for about a week, uncovered.

After a week remove the baking pan from the refrigerator and use a spoon to scoop out the egg yolks. Dust off as much salt as you can. They'll be a little sticky though so don't handle them too much.
Put the yolks in a dehydrator. I set them on the herb setting (95°F) for 24 hours.
Once completely dry they will feel firm with just a tiny bit of give when you squeeze them.
Remove from the dehydrator and dust off the extra salt.Grate with a fine cheese grater. Or slice thinly into strips.

How long do salt cure egg yolks last?  

You can store the egg yolks in a sealed container in the refrigerator for about a month, but I bet you'll eat them by then!

There are so many ways to use these in various dishes that I'm sure you'll come up with lots of great ideas! Taste a little bit of the egg yolk once it's freshly grated and just come up with ways to use it! You'll find that they add a nice accent to sweet or savory dishes.

I mean, I had to try the ice cream one after I read it online because it kind of sounded crazy, but it was really good!

I really want to try curing egg yolks in salt with basil and thyme mixed in as I think it would give them an added flavor and be amazing atop alfredo...but I haven't tried it yet. I bet they would be great in wedding soup too instead of parmesan! Great...now I'm hungry again!

I've found various ways to do this and ultimately I settled on pure salt. Some people use sugar mixed with the salt which isn't a bad idea if you want a less salty end product, but I went for simplicity and they are delicious!

If you want to use sugar and salt the correct mixture is about 1/3 sugar and 2/3 salt. If you try it let me know in the comments what you think!

Related reading: 75+ Dessert recipes t use up extra eggs!

~L

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