The experiment was a success! I ended up leaving the yolk for a day longer than planned, so the curing process went on for 5 total days. I “excavated” the yolk from the salt & sugar mixture, brushed off most of the leftover mixture, and then washed the yolk with some cold water.

The physical properties of the yolk were changed dramatically from the fresh yolk, as expected. Namely, the yolk became a lot harder, with some hard gummy consistency, reminiscent of a rubber eraser we all used in school. The color went from bright orange to a bit duller, darker orange. The surface of the yolk retained some of the particles of spices that I added to my curing mixture.

After the brushing and washing of the yolk, I left it on a wire rack inside my oven, at 70 °C, for around 75 minutes. This step is required to draw out any leftover moisture, especially after the washing. This isn’t necessarily a microbiologically needed step, since there should be no way for the bacteria to survive a 5-day salt curing process, especially considering the size of the yolk. After the drying process, the color of the yolk became a bit paler.

Disregard my photo taking skills, but basically this is what the yolk and its grated form looked like!

The taste test

After drying, the yolk was left in the fridge, and wrapped in a paper towel, to cool off. Then, I used a fine grater, similar to this one (not sponsored), to grate the yolk and use it as a topping. The topping idea, especially pertaining to cooked pasta, should be similar to using grated parmesan cheese. I cooked some spaghetti and, without adding any sauce, added the grated yolk on top. I also tried a bit of the yolk on its own.

While cold, the taste of the yolk isn’t much, ie. it’s exactly what one would expect – it tasted a bit salty, a bit fatty, with a slight hint of the spices I added (note: the spice amount should be doubled from my original recipe, at least).

When used as a topping on something hot (spaghetti in my case), the yolk melts and becomes viscous, all the while enveloping the spaghetti and adding the savory component, with a slight hit from the basil and cumin.

I also tried the grated yolk on some freshly made toast – I sprinkled a generous amount of it on top of the hot piece of toast, and got the same effect – the yolk melted and the bread absorbed it; the added fatty taste was reminiscent of buttered bread but with a bit different flavor profile, which was, of course, expected. Adding some freshly grated garlic and a bit of parsley lifted this taste test to a higher level. This made me wonder if adding garlic powder to the curing mixture would yield a more interesting taste of the grated cured yolk.

In the future, when I have time, this experiment should be repeated and modified, following the notes in this post. I would also like to experiment with different kinds of eggs – duck eggs in particular have an interesting yolk taste, or so I’ve heard.

The main point is that cured yolk has the potential to be a great condiment to some specific meals, e.g. hot, starchy foods that are normally bland, such as pasta, toast, rice, or potatoes.