How to Preserve Eggs

How to Preserve Eggs: Egg production is seasonal; here is how to preserve eggs for up to a year or more when eggs are plentiful, for use in winter when eggs are scarce.

You know the drill. The hens are mad egg machines through all of springtime, summer, and even into fall. And then the weather changes, the days get shorter, or they all go into a molt. 

You were selling eggs by the dozens on the cheap, and then all of a sudden... there is nary an egg to be found. The egg shortage may last for at least a couple of months. 

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The "Egg Crop" is Usually a Seasonal One

At Ambresse Acres, we strive to work WITH the chicken's normal biology, and choose not to boost their wintertime coop lighting. Therefore we end up with a ton of eggs from February through the end of October (at best). During bountiful times we eat plenty of eggs, bring deviled eggs and potato salad to public events, and bake a LOT of quiche. 

From mid-November to some point in mid-January, egg-laying temporarily dries up. Right now as I write this in mid-December, our girls are giving us exactly ONE egg a day, occasionally two. 

Knowing that our "egg crop" will be seasonal, we plan ahead for it. During Spring, Summer, and into Autumn, we preserve extra eggs by a variety of methods, so that in the lean months of winter we will still have plenty of nearly fresh eggs.

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How to Preserve Eggs: My Favorite Methods

This page discusses how to preserve eggs. There are quite a few methods, and most of them will preserve eggs long term - for a year or more.

These are my favorite methods - click a link below depending on the method that interests you most, or keep reading...

Dehydrating Eggs.
Water Glassing Eggs.
Freezing Eggs.
Freeze-Drying Eggs.
Preserving Eggs in Salt.
Oiled Eggs.
Pickled Eggs.

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Dehydrating Eggs

There are days in spring and summer when you may feel like you are buried in extra eggs. This is the time to dehydrate some of your egg overages for use while the girls aren't laying.

While you can dehydrate cooked scrambled eggs, I prefer to thoroughly dehydrate raw eggs, and then vacuum-pack them in measured quantities.

Complete instructions for dehydrating eggs and then reconstituting and using them can be found on the page: How to Dehydrate Eggs. Yum!!

Cooking with reconstituted dehydrated eggs is a dream for nearly every recipe or breakfast meal. You wouldn't know the difference between them and freshly scrambled and cooked eggs.

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Water Glassing Eggs

Water Glassing Eggs - Place clean, unwashed, eggs in an easy-to-make hydrated lime solution. Water glassing will preserve the fresh raw eggs for at least one year, and probably longer.

The principle behind water glassing is that the tiny hydrated lime particles seal the pores in the eggs, resulting in prolonged preservation of the eggs. The details are on the Water Glassing Eggs page.

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Freezing Eggs

Each compartment of a typical ice tray contains one medium egg weighing 49-50 grams (1.73 - 1.75 ounces). (My 49-gram egg leaked ever so slightly out of its cube.) Of course, the extra-large eggs of a typical American Bresse hen aged one year or more, weigh significantly more - from 60 grams to as much as 80 grams (or even more!). The ten large eggs I recently scrambled filled 13.5 cubes. 

To Freeze Eggs:

• Use fresh, washed eggs.
• Scramble well.
• Pour into ice trays, muffin tins, or other compartmentalized tray.
• Freeze.
• Once frozen, thaw the tray of eggs 10-15 minutes, or just long enough to loosen the cubes in order to remove them from the tray. Re-freeze and store in the freezer in freezer bags. 

To Use:

• Thaw and use! They taste wonderful.
• Calculate one egg per cube. Cheat upward if needed. 

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Freeze Drying Eggs

Freeze Drying Eggs: Freeze dried eggs are good for at least a year when stored in jars for day-to-day use. Follow the directions for dehydrating eggs above, but pour the raw scrambled eggs into the freeze dryer trays. Follow the processing directions provided by your freeze dryer. The time frame will vary, depending on how many trays you fill up inside the freeze dryer.

Once freeze dried, powder the eggs, and then decide how you'd like to store them. There are two ways you can store freeze dried eggs:

1. First - store in glass storage jars on the pantry shelf. The eggs will be good for at least a year.
2. Second - you can store in airtight bags with oxygen absorber packets, in which case the eggs will be good for up to 20 years.

I already want a freeze dryer! They are very pricy machines, but if you process your food frequently for longer-term storage, it may very well be a wise investment.

In the meantime, please check out this video by Moon + Magnolia - it takes only a few minutes for the woman to show you step by step how she freeze dried eight dozen eggs for keeping on hand for a year.

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How to Preserve Eggs in Salt and/or Oil

Preserve Eggs in Salt: This was a common method of egg preservation back when refrigeration was a rare commodity in the United States. It is still a good method to use, should you so desire. It works because salt will desiccate germs and bacteria, thereby protecting the eggs. 

Preserving eggs in salt is very easy to do, if you have enough salt: Simply bury the eggs in plain salt, pointy side up, ensuring the eggs are fully covered and none of them are touching. Eggs preserved in salt should last for around 6 months.

Salt is desiccating - it draws out moisture from both the germs and the eggs. Over time, the eggs will change in texture due to moisture loss. You can still use the eggs - choose them for baking or scrambling. 

Oiling Eggs: Clean the eggs and oil them in mineral oil, lard, or tallow. This serves to block the egg pores, protecting them from germs and moisture loss. Oiling alone will preserve eggs for at least three months.

If you combine these two methods and preserve oiled eggs in salt, your eggs should last for a good two years!

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How to Preserve Eggs by Pickling

Pickling eggs is a tasty way to preserve eggs! Place shelled, hard-boiled eggs into leftover pickle brine, or make your own pickling brine. Cover and let them marinate in the fridge for several days at least.

I love to use beet juice, apple cider vinegar, and finely chopped onions in my homemade brine. Add a bit of ground cloves and a dusting of salt. The end result are delicious eggs that are stained a purplish pink on the outside. The longer they soak in the brine, the brighter the color and the better the flavor.  

Pickled eggs are perfect for a quick snack between springtime or summertime projects on the homestead. They will last in the fridge for several months, that is, if you don't eat them first.

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Now you know how to preserve eggs - all the best ways! And if you manage your egg supply well, you may never run out of eggs all year long. Enjoy!

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