Fermented egg

This article should be merged with  Thousand-year egg

The last trimming threw away the source information of the paragraph below. As a result, the material here is incomplete and out of context. This paragraph was written by a French writer descripting the process in China with no time reference. Yet, the last sentence mentioning the retail price of the egg which is market and era sensitive. Certainly, no one can buy an egg at a penny a piece in the US today.

A very common method is to place the eggs in a mixture of clay and water; the clay hardens around the eggs, and is said to preserve them good for a considerable time. But another and much more elaborate method is also commonly practiced. An infusion of three pounds of tea is made in boiling water, and to this are added three pounds of quicklime (or seven pounds when the operation is performed in winter), nine pounds of sea-salt, and seven pounds of ashes of burnt oak finely powdered. This is all well mixed together into a smooth paste by means of a wooden spatula, and then each egg is covered with it by hand, gloves being worn to prevent the corrosive action of the lime on the hands. When the eggs are all covered with the mixture, they are rolled in a mass of straw ashes, and then placed in baskets with balls of rice - presumably boiled - to keep the eggs from touching each other. About 100 to 150 eggs are placed in one basket. In about three months the whole becomes hardened into a crust, and then the eggs are sent to market; the retail price of such eggs is generally less than a penny each.