What to do with LOTS (scads) of chicken eggs?

Uh, help.

I have just inherited 75 dozen medium eggs under 2 weeks old and kept under refrigeration. Yes, 900 eggs. From happy hens.

What is the best way to preserve them....

a) Raw in shell   b) Raw not in shell  c) cooked first

I am out of league here and nearly out of freezer space though I am seriously contemplating the express need for another freezer, anyway (just where to put it).  

I am open to suggestions, and soon, please.

I can only pickle so many.

Thanks.

Maybe you could dry some? I haven't tried it yet, but learned about it here .

Leigh talks about drying eggs on her blog ......

http://www.5acresandadream.com

I haven't tried it yet but Leigh found that some ways work better then others.

Tracy Wandling wrote:Maybe you could dry some? I haven't tried it yet, but learned about it here .

I checked the link, thank you. I also checked the equipment needed. Unfortunately the risk of salmonella lurks to do your own DIY dehydrating of eggs, and I have had salmonella more than once, with three rounds traced to eggs.
Thank you for responding to my request. Something to consider, however.

Su Ba wrote:Leigh talks about drying eggs on her blog ......

http://www.5acresandadream.com

I haven't tried it yet but Leigh found that some ways work better then others.

She has a really interesting blog there in general. Thank you for the link.

At that volume of eggs, I wonder if it would be more prudent to sell some of them...

Looking at the other posts, my suggestion is going to be two fold.

One is to crack and mix enough to fill up an ice cube tray and freeze them. Once they are frozen, toss them into vacuum or freezer bags. This will probably be equivalent to about half an egg per cube. I understand that there are some egg cube trays out there, but go with what you have, right?

The other one is to hard boil what you can. They last for a couple of months under refrigeration in a carton that way. It is also the first step in pickling them, if I remember correctly.

They should also last in the refrigerator up to six weeks. Since my girls are so prolific in the summer time, I have become quite determined in the preservation department.

I guess I could add a third fold to this, whatever is excess to your use needs and storage capability, try selling or giving them away. I especially like food pantries for that latter one, but neighbors and friends are never averse to getting them.

Your main option is gonna be B, since A only stands for fresh, clean, and unwashed eggs. C is okay too though. I've often reheated a batch of scrambled eggs that were frozen, for breakfast. The tiny air pockets in scrambled eggs means they do okay. Just pop a few portions in freezer bags and you'll be good for those days when you're too in a hurry to cook much breakfast or lunch.

Drying them seems like your best option though, quantity-wise. Whip them up in a blender and pour into dehydrating trays. Later, scrape them off the trays, powder them in the blender or a coffee grinder(well dried!) and vacuum seal them if you think it'll be while before use.

I don't think you're gonna get through them all in time though. Maybe start eating? Better get started on a menu with omelets, french toast, rich waffles, souffles, quiches, flans, custards, pound cakes, angel food cakes, egg cheese, salt-cured egg yolk, egg bread, egg noodles, eggnog, etc. Maybe egg soap too, if you've got the supplies.

Between those two, pickling, freezing some, and giving some to friends, family, and coworkers, you should be okay. If it's a while by the time you get to the end of the 75 dozen, start float-testing them in water. Ones that stand up are still okay, but eggs that float are bad.

Back when I had chickens we'd get a glut of eggs every now and then. My solution was to can them as custard. That was something I would eat later, my wife just never would remember to use frozen eggs. I don't remember the recipe but it was pretty standard except I doubled or tripled the amount of eggs per milk and sugar, it was a very rich high protein custard. The trick was to keep it from boiling over while canning. I used pressure canning because they were so high protein, and put water right up to the lids to buffer the temperature changes. You get the boil-over if the temp. is to high for the pressure so you have to bring them down real slow.

That's an awful lot of eggs. I've heard that they keep better under refrigeration fresh rather than boiled as long as they aren't washed, the hen puts on a protective coating when she lays them.

I've gone over to steaming eggs instead of boiling them. . . better texture, easier to peel.

Bill Erickson wrote:
They should also last in the refrigerator up to six weeks. Since my girls are so prolific in the summer time, I have become quite determined in the preservation department.

Maybe it's a european thing and we aren't raised to be squirmish about eggs. We just have an old fridge in the shed partly dedicated to the eggs from our four hens (we have a 2 person household). We put them per dozen in reused but clean eggboxes. We do NOT wash the eggs though. If they are dirty, they don't go to storage but are washed and used immediately for heated purposes. Once in cool storage we can keep edible them for about a year. After about 3 months they no longer get hardboiled, but just are used in baking and omelettes and stuff. The eggwhite thickens a bit due to dehydration. Sometimes the yoke sticks a bit to the shell too. But I always crack each egg individually and last winter I only tossed 1 real stinker, 2 bad ones without the stink and about 4 I was in doubt about. The rest we happily eat and we never got sick. They do taste fine after storage too.

Update:
Thank you Tom Strode, for the hints. I did make custard and canned it. I also made breakfast casserole, portioned it, and froze it in food saver bagging. I scrambled eggs and did same, packed in jumbo muffin tins and prefroze then food saver bagged and froze. I have about five dozen in brine as well, hard cooked and being pickled.

I evacuated most of the above  and have just over 35 dozen evacuated shells carefully stored in cartons. I can hork an egg like nobody's business... the shells will be used by some of the local churches for Easter projects for their kid programs. Between that and various other usage I have done up about 50 dozen and am going to do something with some more today. One of the last hurrahs will be to donate some to an easter egg roll on the courthouse lawn this season.

Breakfast casserole, made with a toaster oven and some food pantry dole items....

2 pounds of tater tots
2 pounds pork sausage bulk ground
8 slices thick bacon
18 medium eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
3-5 ounces (I think it was about 4) pepper jack cheese, grated (this is a very soft cheese, have patience)
About 4 ounces of shredded cheddar cheese.
Fresh ground pepper
optional-salt

Put on a rack or otherwise provide for drainage, in a 13x9 inch (33 x 23 cm) rounded sides cake pan  (I think it's a pyrex one) break the sausage up and lightly pack into the pan. Bake at 350F on convection bake for 45 minutes. Take out and let cool.

Grill the bacon, cover with foil or a cover to allow it to be hot and drip away, and turn frequently (I flipped mine at least four times) to get it to done without burnt and no rubbery fat. Drain very well.

I tried thawing the tots, they were still sorta froze when I assembled....

Spray or coat your glass pan with a higher temperature oil (olive will not work for this). Arrange the tots in neat rows all over and stack up the sides to fill and layer the entire pan to the edges.  (you make a 'crust' of tots). Lift your mat of sausage and pat the bottom to get rid of last amounts of shiny grease. Plop into the pan and finger break the mat up to fill the space.

In mixing bowl beat one dozen medium eggs with 1 cup milk and about 8-10 turns of fresh pepper. Carefully pour this over the meat layer to coat it all and let it drip. Put your cheeses evenly over this.

In mixing bowl beat 8 medium eggs with a generous half cup of milk. Add more pepper if you want. Carefully pour this over the cheese and coat it all.

Crumble the bacon up fine and spread/sprinkle over everything as the top layer. Use foil or some sort of lid, cover the pan, and bake at 350F convention bake for an hour. Uncover and bake at 350F convention bake for 15 minutes.

Pan will be heavy and be a bit centrally sloshy (cheese and milk made a wonderful sauce in there, the eggs will be cooked even if the tots were frozen). Cut at every two tater tots then through middle and  possibly two more strokes making each row four pieces instead of two... (serving size varies). You can add cooked diced mushrooms or peppers or onions (cook them first!) at 'before the cheese' layer (broccoli can be added fresh, it will cook if chopped up small enough) I suggest keeping other add-ins to under a cup or you won't get it all in the pan, more like half a cup total. I cut to get 5 across and one down the middle (10 servings) and portion froze them thusly.

Grating and making your own hash browns would be fine, you will need approximately 2 pounds fried or baked up, broken up, and lining the pan to about the thickness of the tater tot row. I ended up with 30# of tater tots so another thing I need to use up.

The recipe is from my scanning of four different ones that used: egg, potato, sausage, cheese. Now mind you I am celiac and vegan and can't eat this! (the tots are processed in a facility that handles wheat and they are CURSED) My spouse can, and he loves it. I also had a club meeting this last Saturday and took a pan of it to feed them (my turn to bring food), and made it fresh-that is where the pictures came from. I make it meat heavy so as to make it a filling lasting meal. Cost per ten servings, approximately $7.00 (including sausage I had to buy, some milk I had to buy, electricity to cook it, spices. The tots, eggs and bacon, were stuff I have to use up) So maybe a dollar a serving if you are having to buy your meat and all other ingredients. If you are raising your own everything, maybe $2.00 a pan.

Dry!  Dry dry dry dry dry!

Dehydrated eggs are the best thing ever!  Blend the eggs up, dehydrate them, then powder the egg flakes.  You can fit dozens of eggs into a pint jar.  I store them in the freezer for good measure, but I've had them sit on the counter for 1+ months without changing.  You can use them in any recipe that calls for egg (breads, cookies, any baking), or you can rehydrate them and make scrambled eggs.  If my memory serves me it's roughly 1:1 egg:water, but basically just add water and stir until it's the consistency of... an egg.  lol.

My favorite part about powdered eggs is taking them camping/backpacking!  Fat, protein, and nourishment in a weightless 'just-add-water' form.  I like to pre-make camping bread mixes (usually pan breads and pan cakes) and add all the egg I need right into the dry flour mix, so all of my baking mixes are 'just add water' as well.  Again, if I recall, 1 egg = 1 tsp of powder?  I measured it once upon a time but my brain might be rusty on that.

EGG POWDER <3

edit; I've also stored powdered egg in the freezer for over 1 year without change
edit #2; you can even dry whites and yolks separately, so if you recipe calls for just one or the other you've got it.  The yolks can also be rehydrated and eaten raw, just like an over-easy egg (although I eat my own chicken eggs totally raw all the time without reservation).   Dried eggs still rise and get fluffy just like a normal egg!