Step 1

Place the salt and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil and cook until the salt dissolves. Let it cool down completely.

Step 2

Check each egg to make sure there's no cracks (Cracked one will get rotten inside the brine).Very gingerly place each egg in a glass jar big enough to harbor 12 eggs. When the brine solution has cooled down, gently pour it into the jar. The eggs will float. I crumpled up a parchment paper and put it on top to gently push the eggs down so they are all submerged in the brine solution. Let them sit in the brine for the next 30 days. Label it on the jar and mark your calendar or set a reminder

Step 3

At the end of 30 days, take one egg out and you can boil it and give it a try to see if it's salty enough. Usually the white part is very salty, but the yolk isn't. The yolk will harden and can be held with your fingers. If you are happy with the result, carefully drain off some of the brine and take each egg out and place them in the fridge and use them as you need. I would say keep them for max 3 weeks

Step 4

For making moon cakes, you will separate the whites from the yolks. The yolks will be hard and round when you use brining method

Step 5

For use as grating over pasta or other dishes, separate the whites from the yolks. I discard most of the whites because they are very salty. You can keep them to eat with rice porridge or cooking other dishes. Set the yolks on top of the cheese cloth and put them in the refrigerator without any wrap to let them dry out for 2 days. After that, proceed to smoking them as described below

Step 6

In a clean small baking sheet or platter (or anything you wish to use), place about 1/4-inch layer of salt. Separate the egg yolk from the white (keep the whites for other use) and very gently place the yolks on the salt (as shown in photos). The yolks should be intact (I have one that was "broken" and I tried to cure it anyway to see how it went, the result was still good, just not as pretty). Cover with more salt on top of the egg yolks. Wrap with a plastic wrap and place this inside the refrigerator and let them cured for 3 days

Step 7

After day 3, get them out from the fridge. Gently dust off most of the salt with your clean hands. You can see that the yolks have somewhat hardened at this point with some creamyness on the outside. Gently submerge each yolk in the apple cider solution. This will get rid of the rest of the salt. Store this in a container and keep in the fridge and use with any recipe that calls for salted egg yolks

Step 8

If you want to grate it like a block of cheese as topping on your pasta, etc, place a clean cheesecloth on a tray. Lay these yolks down on the cheesecloth and put them back into the refrigerator without any wrapping to let them dry out for 2 days

Step 9

I use tea leaves to smoke the egg yolks. You are welcome to use wood chips to do that.

Step 10

I place about 1 cup of tea leaves on top of a medium pan and heat them until they started to smoke. Then I lower the heat and place a heat-proof rack on top of it and set the egg yolks on top of the rack along with the cheesecloth. Keep them smoking on this low heat for about 30 minutes. The yolks will have that smoky flavor

Step 11

Remove and store in an air-tight container. Some said these can be stored at room temperature. But I'm a little nervous about storing them at room temperature. I stored them in the refrigerator. Should be good for about a month