Eggs: How do you preserve them?

Eggs, I love them! My hens however don't produce throughout the year at the same levels.



I have heard in passing several different ways of preserving eggs but I want to see what folks are actually doing. What kind of techniques are folks utilizing?

Just leaving on the countertop? Refrigeration? Freezing? Water glassing? Pickling?

I'm sure there are many more different techniques that I am missing!

Thank you all in advance for your answers, this is part of my background work for a new edition of a Permies Poll.

Generally, I keep eggs either on the countertop or by refrigeration. I'm handing out eggs to family members and don't usually have a glut that needs long term storage.

I just recently started freezing them. I take a dozen eggs and scramble them up in twos. Each bowl of two eggs gets poured into a plastic cup and then they all go in the freezer. The next day I pop the frozen scrambled eggs out and put them in a freezer bag and the bag goes back in the freezer. When I need two eggs for a recipe, baking, or whatever, I can pull a two-egg puck out of the bag and let it thaw in the fridge overnight. In the morning, I have two eggs ready to use.

I use the water glass technique.

I put all the clean unwashed perfect eggs in a solution of water and pickling lime.  They are good like that at room temperature for a year.

We wash and eat the ones that come out of the nesting box dirty.



This is my favorite book for egg preservation.  So many great ideas in there!

https://permies.com/t/192096/Preserve-Eggs-Leigh-Tate

I make pickled eggs with all sorts of different spice mixes, Indian type spices make the best egg salad sandwiches!

I also oil them, making sure they are TOTALLY coated, only uncracked eggs, and check them when I crack them.

The other thing I do is make something like Egg Foo Yung, I add asst veggies and a bit of flour to eggs, then bake them on well greased cookie sheets or cake pans, cut to sandwich size, and freeze them. Pro tip: If you are packing your lunch to take with you, put the eggs in the bread still frozen, by the time you want them later they'll be thawed.

I preserve mine in slaked lime (1oz by weight) & water (1quart). I've kept them that way for up to 3yrs. I also used to use any jars I could find, including plastic ones. Nowadays, I'm using only glass, so far half gallon sized - either pickle jars or canning jars.

We use pickling lime and water also, heavy on the lime (usually there is undissolved lime on the bottom of the 1/2 gallon mason jar). We have kept them this way for 2-3months, on the counter, in AZ (so low 80s in the house) with all the eggs remaining satisfactory when used.
Good luck!
Mark

I use to have a freeze drier and dried them that way.

I don't have enough surplus that I can preserve any these days, but I used to water glass them. I actually put jars of water glassed eggs in the fridge thinking I could keep them indefinitely, but then I always ate them within 4 or 5 months at most, so that didn't really matter.

The first thing we tried was freezing the eggs. We did not like that. The eggs tasted strange. Then we tried waterglassing with lime, and it’s okay, but the lime makes the shells brittle so they break if we move a bucket. Now that we have a freeze dryer, that’s how I preserve my eggs. It’s fast and easy, plus as a bonus, I can use them to make bags of baking mixes. Right now, I have about 200 eggs preserved for the winter break.

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:Now that we have a freeze dryer, that’s how I preserve my eggs

Forgive my ignorance, but I can't figure it out in my head how the process might look. Do you crack eggs into a vessel, freeze dry them, and grind them into a powder? Is it more of an all day event or an afternoon task to process a whole bunch?

Hope you don't mind all the questions, I never thought of the viability of a freeze dryer until you mentioned baking mixes and feel like I had a eureka moment.

I am happy with liming. I save several 1/2 filled 5-gallon buckets in the fall. But the lime is so expensive in the little pickling lime bags! $10/lb was the best price I could find!

I bought a 50# bag @ $1.23/lb that should last the rest of my life:
https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/product/food/baking-pantry/calcium-hydroxide/cal-lime-calcium-hydroxide-food-grade/20410?package=BP424

("water glassing" is the old name, sounds more romantic, though from what I read that was actually a different chemical.)

These are duck eggs with such a thick white, so that by 6 months later the whites are getting more "normal" runny. Anyway, I use them for pumpkin-pie like recipes with the winter squashes. Duck egg shells are so thick that I only had two or three with cracks that I threw away. But if it were a problem, I would take the plastic egg cartons my friends give me, remove their tops, and store the eggs nicely packaged in those.

I like my expensive toy the freeze drier (mine took 6 months and a lot of work on my part and theirs before it worked), but don't want to be dependent on it if/when consistent electricity isn't available (or yet another part of the freeze drier needs replacing).

Nina Wright wrote:I am happy with liming. I save several 1/2 filled 5-gallon buckets in the fall. But the lime is so expensive in the little pickling lime bags! $10/lb was the best price I could find!

Nina, do you have any agricultural supply places in your area? Hydrated lime is sold by the 20 kg bag here for under $15. Or you could see if there is some place that sells masonry lime, but make sure it's plain and not hydraulic (type N or S are both good). It does not keep forever, especially in humid climates, as the calcium hydroxide gradually turns to carbonate, but you can make lime putty with it and keep it under water and that is good long-term storage.

We water glass a few dozen and freeze dry several hundred each year.  
I found that using gallon jars worked better, less breakage, than 5 gallon buckets, plus it is easier for us to store them.
Freeze drying is fantastic!  We have a medium, which is 4 trays.  I mix up 18 eggs per tray, mix just like you are making scrambled eggs.  The fd process takes about 18 hours or so.
When they are done they look and feel like styrofoam.  I put mine in a blender for a few seconds and they are powder.  Basically 2 tablespoons of egg powder to 2 tablespoons of water is one egg.  Easy to adjust.  I like them scrambled and the wife bakes with them a lot.  I have several years supply stored up and have given a LOT to family and friends.

Timothy Norton wrote:

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:Now that we have a freeze dryer, that’s how I preserve my eggs

Forgive my ignorance, but I can't figure it out in my head how the process might look. Do you crack eggs into a vessel, freeze dry them, and grind them into a powder? Is it more of an all day event or an afternoon task to process a whole bunch?

Hope you don't mind all the questions, I never thought of the viability of a freeze dryer until you mentioned baking mixes and feel like I had a eureka moment.

It’s simple really. Each tray can handle 12 eggs and there are 5 trays, so one load can handle 60 eggs. The eggs has to be whisked together before you put them in your trays, since egg whites mostly disappear when frozen, it works better to just whisk them.
The machine has several settings, so you can put non frozen items in and use the flash freeze part, or you can put the trays in a freeze and pre freeze them. If you do that, you can skip the freezer part of the process.
In the drying process, the trays are heated and the vacuum pulls the water out as it defrosts. It then sticks to the drum, which is freezing cold. That way things are dried.
To rehydrate 1 eggs, you mix 2 tablespoons of powdered eggs with 2 tablespoons of water. When you make baking mixes, make sure to add this liquid to the amount of water your recipe calls for.
When the eggs come out of the FD they are in powdery brigs, that are easily ground into a powder.
With the abundance of food we grow here, it has become essential for me. Below I have added pictures of some of the things I have made with it.
lemonade (freeze dried Meyer lemons powdered. Mixed with powdered sugar.
Instant sweet potato mash in 3 flavors, several types of flours too from pumpkins, squash, cassava/yuca, and sweet potatoes.
I also freeze dry orange and lemon juice, and freeze dry tangerines, and other fruit.
I make instant flavor/food colors by freeze drying juice from berries and other fruits, and then grinding them into a powder.
It also makes the best garlic powder, and dried herbs, since you don’t loose essential oils with this method.
Lastly it allows me to freeze dry and store sour dough starters and kefir grains, since you can set the drying temperature to 95F. The low temperature keeps the yeast and bacteria alive, and I don’t have to worry that I kill my starter, by forgetting about it.

* My refrigerator space is limited, so I do leave them on the counter: they never stay there 21 days, which is the amount of time it stays safely under a hen for hatching. since the kitchen is warm, though, and now I have roosters, I refrigerate them right away so I don't have the bloody yolk of a fertilized egg!
* I sell them to neighbors and friends.
* I even tried glassing them and they were edible for well over a year, but extreme care has to be taken to not crack them when putting them in and select real good eggs. They tasted fine when hard boiled, but after a year, the yolk and the white were not as well separated and I couldn't do a "sunny side up": it always rant together, more like scrambled. When I hard boiled them, they were fine. The easiest way to eat them was to cut them in half [with the shell still on], and scoop them with a spoon.[ I may even do that all the time instead to trying to peels the darn things].
*When I peel them, it is to put them in beet pickle juice. [I always can extra red pickle juice, and they are so good that way].
* When all that fails, I've been giving them away to food pantries.

I have been preserving eggs in hydrated lime for 6 years now.  Only had three bad eggs in that time.  I only preserve around 90 eggs a year and that gets us through october-december when the girls aren't laying.  Around May, I start putting the eggs away.  However, I use quart jars and put 6 to 8 eggs per jar, then put 5 jars in a case and have 3 cases, which go down in our root cellar. One heaping tablespoon to a quart of water.  That may be too fussy for most, but I like knowing which are the oldest to freshest-so to speak-and it saves having to dig through a mound of eggs.  I have made mayo out of the preserved eggs, using just the yolk.  They scramble well and work fine as an ingredient in recipes.

I love not having to go to the store to get eggs, especially now!😉

PS  here's a similar thread    https://permies.com/t/88760/kitchen/Preserving-Eggs-Hydrated-Lime
and the one I posted the above to   https://permies.com/t/209833/Lime-egg-water-bad-thoughts

I never tried it but I heard you bury them in sand. And don't clean them when they come out the chicken. The chickens stuff on it has natural preservatives.

Timothy Norton wrote:Generally, I keep eggs either on the countertop or by refrigeration. I'm handing out eggs to family members and don't usually have a glut that needs long term storage.

Same here. I did glass eggs safely, just as an experiment, to see if it would work. It did: I preserved some for 2 yrs.
The results were good and except for one that must have had a slight crack, they were all useable.
Right now, I'm selling eggs for $3.00/ dozen to make a little money on the side, but also to put the brakes on rising egg prices: when they know they have competition, they don't raise their prices.
I also put 36 eggs in an incubator. They should start hatching on April 27th. I already have takers: Folks who were not raising chickens and have decided to take the plunge!
If I get them all sold, I will keep selling baby chicks. It will all be straight runs, with the cockerels for meat and the hens for eggs.
One dozen eggs nets you $3.00. A single baby chick can get you more than that! If I sell them for $3.00-4.00 /piece, that's another way to sell "surplus eggs", and it contributes to a better economy in my area.
Now, incubators are not cheap, $100-$300 for models with features like automatic egg turning and digital temperature control. But you can reuse them over and over.

One year of university I took all my food from home for the eight months I'd be living at school, using a bike trailer. 90 km, two trips. At the time eggs were a bigger part of my diet than now, so I took maybe 12 dozen or so. The last trip I made bringing food was in mid-October.

For preservation, I simply relied on the natural coating that eggs are laid with. So I selected eggs that were clean and did not wash them (washing removes the protective coating). I stored them in a friend's root cellar (high 30s-low 40s Fahrenheit) for most of the time, then brought them to my warm apartment and kept them in the closet for the last few weeks before eating. Using this method, I kept eggs from that trip in October all the way through to late April. Never refrigerated. I don't recall that any spoiled. I cooked them thoroughly to make sure they were pasteurized. They tasted good.

I'll put another shout out for pickled eggs. You can get pretty creative with different spices. We make a sichuan / korean pepper flake combo that is amazing. Another thing you can do is make egg noodles and then dry them out for storage.

I have water glassed mine for a year with good success. The only caveat is that the eggs will not retain their shape once cracked after preserving that long. In other words, it’s very difficult to make over easy eggs without the yolk and white falling apart. So scrambled it is. Taste wise and texture wise once cooked it’s the same as fresh.

E Sager wrote:I'll put another shout out for pickled eggs. You can get pretty creative with different spices. We make a sichuan / korean pepper flake combo that is amazing. Another thing you can do is make egg noodles and then dry them out for storage.

Ouh! my hubby loves pasta. I had not thought about making pasta with eggs but that should be on my bucket list of "learning how to do". I'm going to look for recipes right now. You have to share the Sichuan/ Korean pepper flake combo. Is it as hot as it sounds?
I don't have an extruder but maybe...just rolling the dough flat and cutting in long strands would be really good. I understand that properly dried pasta will keep a looooong time.
About pickled eggs: Whenever I can beets, I keep the extra juice to make beet wine, which I use for cooking wine.[You'd be surprised how good that is. Cathedral window red and transparent. You would never guess it comes from earthy beets.]
Then, I use some of this extra juice also to make pickled beets. Placing hard boiled eggs, peeled, into the pickled beet juice is a special treat for the eyes... and later, for the tummy.