Marinated Iron Eggs | 自製鐵蛋

Iron eggs are a famous Taiwanese snack.  They are not made of iron nor taste like iron.  They actually are slightly chewy eggs that have undergone a long marinating process with soy sauce, cinnamon, star anise, and sugar.

The invention of these tasty eggs was said to be an accident.  People say that a long time ago there was an old lady who used to sell boiled eggs in soy sauce in the street everyday.  Most of the time she couldn't sell all of the boiled eggs and she didn't want to waste them, so she just left the boiled eggs warming in the soy broth again and again.  Eventually the eggs turned into the black, chewy, and flavourful snack the locals loved.

Every time when I went to Taiwan, eating iron eggs is a must.  You can find iron eggs that are chicken eggs or quail eggs.  I love both, but quail eggs are even better.  I love the chewy and nearly rubber-like texture of the egg white layer.  It is a wonderful beer snack.  My husband likes chicken iron eggs more.

Cinnamon sticks and star anises. 

Making iron eggs at home is very easy and simple because it requires only patience.  In some recipes, people will use dark soy sauce to add a deeper flavour and also adding a dark tone to the eggs.  Yet I stopped using dark soy sauce for years because of the food colouring it always contains.  In my recipe, I only used light soy sauce, and I recommended Kikkoman.  You will need good soy sauce to give the eggs quality flavour since it is the second main ingredient.  Though spending money on organic or expensive brand of soy sauce isn't necessary.

Marinated Iron Eggs

Ingredients:

6-8 Eggs (either from the fridge or at room temperature)

1 cup Light Soy Sauce

5 cups Water

2 Cinnamon Sticks

4 Star Anises

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

How to make it:

1. In a deep pot, add the eggs.  Fill the pot with water just enough to cover the eggs.  Bring the eggs to a boil over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes.  Drain the hot water.  Immediately fill the pot with cold water and soak the eggs for about 5 minutes, or until the eggs totally cool off.

2. One at a time, put an egg in a cup and gently rattle the cup until the egg shell cracks.  Gently remove the loose egg shell.  Repeat this process until finished all the eggs.  Rinse the eggs to make sure there are no shell pieces stuck on the whites.  Set them aside.

3. In a deep pot, combine the rest of the ingredients and the eggs.  Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium.  Let it boil for another 20 minutes.  Turn off the heat.  Leave it to cool in the pot with the lid on.

4. The next day, bring the eggs to a boil again and then turn off the heat to let them cool.  Repeat this heating and cooling process once per day until the eggs have shrunk to half of the original size and the colour is dark.  It will usually take at least 3 days to reach a light brown colour (if you are not using dark soy sauce).

After 3 days of marination.

Basically, the eggs are ready to be served right after the first marination.  However, if you want to achieve the dark colour and chewy texture, boil and cool the eggs over 8 days at least.

I was a little crazy about my eggs; I'd marinated them for ten days.  After taking this photo, I ate two of them and then poured the rest back to the pot to continue the process.  I will marinate them for another week and then share them with my friend.  We both miss Hong Kong, and we both miss the time travelling in Taiwan.

Update: I eventually marinated the eggs for 12 days.  The result - they are a bit too salty.  I recommend 6-8 days of marination is sufficient.