Why do they call it century eggs (pi dan)? It's obviously not a 100 years old.?

Answer 1

It's more of an exaggeration. There are techniques for making pi dan that vary from several days to several months; it's more of a strange translation than accurate description.

Technically, if you look at it, pi = skin, dan = egg. It's an old technique to preserve eggs for times when there may be less, like winter.

Answer 2

Well, obviously it's one of those boo boo by Westerners. They probably thought the eggs looked awful and smelled weird, so decided to make a point about how not fresh the eggs are, so what better way then to call it a century old?

BTW, do you know the best century eggs are made using horse urine?

Answer 3

They are called that because they look ( and to me, TASTE) like a 100 year old egg.

Answer 4

they may very well be a 100 years old it is common for them to be 50 or more years old!