We tried TikTok’s hack for making ‘salt-cured’ eggs

TikTok’s new salt-cured egg hack is one of the wildest internet food trends we’ve seen.

The viral hack, which supposedly makes eggs taste just like cheese, involves letting your yolks sit in kosher salt for at least a few days. The result? Tiny, frozen, eggy coins that you can grate over your food.

Apparently, this trick is a real upgrade to dishes like avocado toast, pasta or anything you’d put grated cheese on. In one viral video, foodie TikToker @thehungerdiaries showed how the trick can really elevate a plate of spaghetti.

@thehungerdiaries

Have xtra yolks? Salt cure them! So easy + SO delicious — just use wherever you’d sprinkle some cheese! #yolk #zerowaste #foryou #fyp #foodhacks

♬ original sound – The Hunger Diaries

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But while @thehungerdiaries’ food does look delicious, it took a lot of work to get there. The TikToker says it takes about a week to fully salt-cure her eggs. Frankly, who has that kind of time?

Luckily, some of us get paid to have that kind of time. That’s why we decided to test out this viral hack ourselves: to find out if it’s really worth the effort.

To see what happened, watch the clip above or keep reading below.

How to make salt-cured eggs

Here’s what you’ll need to make these:

  • Several eggs (depending on how many you want to make)
  • Kosher salt
  • A large, shallow baking sheet
  • Cheesecloth
  • A cheese grater

To start, separate your eggs yolks from the whites. Next, pour a healthy amount of kosher salt into a large baking sheet, at least enough to cover the bottom.

Now, softly place your eggs in rows across the salt-lined sheet. After they’re all in there, pour even more salt over the top, until your eggs are fully covered.

Keep the eggs in the fridge for at least 48 hours. Next, remove them from the fridge and wipe off as much salt as you can (the eggs should be firm and circular at this point, like tasty-looking silver dollars).

Finally, wrap the eggs in cheesecloth, using a rubber band to divide each yolk from the last. Hang the cheesecloth in the fridge for another 48 hours.

And then it’s time to dig in!

We grated our eggs over a huge plate of penne pasta with marinara sauce. The result was, quite honestly, amazing. The eggs really do taste a lot like cheese, but they also bring a deep, salty, savory flavor that fits right in with a warm plate of pasta. We could definitely see these going great on avocado toast, too.

So is it worth the effort? Probably not. That said, the end result is pretty delicious, so if you’ve got several days to spare, why not give it a go?

If you liked this video, check out our episode on how to make a gigantic Pop-Tart at home.

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