keeping eggs indefinitely unrefrigerated

[Owly055]

Eggs are one of the most valuable foodstuffs as far as being inexpensive, compact, and extremely nutritious pound for pound, and well worth carrying on a long voyage if you can prevent breakage.   


Fresh eggs can be dipped in sodium silicate (waterglass), which is cheap and readily available.   This seals the shells against air infiltration, which is what causes spoilage.   

I'm sure other  treatments work, but I know this one from experience.  It dries hard in the presence of CO2.. There is enough CO2 in the atmosphere to do the job.  We use it in metal casting to create a hard rigid sand for cores, etc.

I've heard that oil has the same effect, I would suspect that a thick shortening like Crisco would be pretty ideal for a readily available way to exclude oxygen.

                                                      H.W.

[Bob J (ex-misfits)]

If you can buy them "fresh" at a farmers market or from a  local with a small flock, you can go 6 months without them being refrigerated if kept in a cool place.  Oils, canola or vegetable oils work to coat eggs, don't use olive oil. How do you know if an egg is really fresh?  They're impossible to peel once you hard boil them.

[CharlieJ]

And how do you know if an egg is bad?  It'll float like a cork!!

[Frank]

Farm fresh eggs last a long time by simply turning them every few days as well. Don't know why...just know it works...

[Owly055]

And how do you know if an egg is bad?  It'll float like a cork!!

     I've heard this before........ but never the science behind it.....      What I have observed first hand is that old eggs when cracked into a pan run like water and fill the pan.  That's been my rule of thumb.   Our local store gets eggs from a supplier who I believe mismanages his inventory..... first in last out instead of first in first out.   I've had enough bad eggs from that supplier that I won't buy his brand anymore........ and I know the guy well.   He's the wholesaler, not the producer.  The producers are some local Hutterite colonies, and I have no way of knowing where the problem is.  This has been going on for many years, and out of misguided politeness.... Actually a reluctance to engage in what will result in some ill will and conflict and defensiveness, I've never brought it up to him.  Apparently nobody else has either.   If I were him, I would want to know about the problem and address it, but many people are defensive rather than wanting to hear the problem and address it.   It would seem that he's not getting a flood of complaints and others are buying his product, so who wants to listen to one voice in the wilderness?   Periodically in the past 30 years, I've bought his product in hopes that the problem has been rectified.  Invariably after a few batches, if not immediately, I get a few bad eggs.   Interestingly, I have talked to a number of people about this, and not one of them professes to have had this problem.   They aren't stinking spoiled eggs, they are just eggs that fill the entire pan when you crack one into a hot skillet.  To me that's a spoiled egg and I won't eat it.  I'm sure hard cooked they are quite harmless.........  I don't consider myself finicky. 

I just googled this page up:   http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/1/egg-quality-handbook/30/watery-whites/

Note that there is a graph on the page that shows the the life expectancy of an egg in terms of deterioriation of the whites over time at different temperatures.    There is a line for oiled eggs that shows that oiling them definitely makes a huge difference.

Below is the text from that web site.   Clearly watery yokes are an indication of eggs that are not fresh, not necessarily that they are spoiled.

                                                 H.W.


Watery whites
Description

When an egg broken onto a flat surface has a watery, spread-out white, this usually indicates that the egg is stale. The height of the white and the weight of the egg are used to calculate a value in Haugh units on a scale of 0 to 110; the lower the value, the staler the egg.

A minimum Haugh unit measurement of 60 is desirable for whole eggs sold to the domestic consumer. Most eggs leaving the farm should average between 75 and 85 Haugh units.
Incidence

The development of watery whites is chiefly due to the increasing age of the egg. The rate of development is increased by high storage temperature and low humidity (see figure 4). As birds age, the Haugh unit value of their eggs decreases by about 1.5 to 2 units per month of lay (see figure 3). Some birds consistently produce eggs with watery whites (Haugh units less than 30) later in lay.
Cause    Control
Old eggs    Minimise storage time on the farm by:
? increasing the number of pick-ups per week for grading or delivery to retail outlets. ? collecting and packing eggs laid on pick-up days so that they are consigned on that day.
? grading eggs while they are fresh when packing them on the farm.
High storage temperature and low humidity    Reduce shed temperatures in summer. Collect eggs at least twice daily and even more frequently in summer. Store eggs in a coolroom at a temperature of less than 20 ?C e.g. 12 to 15 ?C (requirements may vary in different countries) as soon as possible after collection. If a humidifi er is not fitted to the cooling unit, place an open tray of water in the coolroom to ensure humidity is kept at 70 to 80%. Oil eggs soon after collection. Use only an oil such as Caltex Pharma White 15 BP/USP approved for this purpose by the relevant authorities.
Ageing of bird    Keep flock age as low as economically possible.
Diseases, e.g. infectious bronchitis and egg drop syndrome    Follow effective vaccination programmes.
Fungal toxins    Do not allow feed bins or feed lines to become contaminated by stale, wet or mouldy feed.
Ammonia    Control ventilation to keep ammonia levels low.
Rough handling    Examine egg handling procedures and equipment, and modify to minimise bumping or shaking of eggs.
Incorrect packing    Pack eggs on filler flats with the air cell upwards.
Birds which persisently lay eggs with watery whites    Culling these birds is not practicable, as they are hard to identify. The only way of handling the problem is to remove the eggs at grading (like all eggs with watery whites, they are distinguished by an enlarged air cell).
Strain of bird    Be aware that some strains produce eggs with a high average Haugh unit rating.



Figure 4: Effects of egg age and storage temperature on egg Haugh unit value

                                      H.W.

[Captain Smollett]

There was someone a few years ago either on one of the cruising sites or off-grid sites that did a rather big "study" of keeping eggs.  They compared something like 6 or 8 methods of coating and compared the product quality monthly (I think) over a period of a year (or more).

I don't have a link handy, but it's a good read.  Bottom line: simpler is generally better.  Eggs kept "out" with no coating last 1 or more months just fine with no loss of "quality."  I've always thought this was adequate for our needs, since even ocean passages are of finite time.  Don't really see the need to keep them longer than a few months, and don't have room to store that many anyway (we could easily eat 1 dz per day if we allowed ourselves to).

"Keep Refrigerated" is largely myth, at least as far as fresh eggs go.  All the "fixes" one reads about are mostly unnecessary, though the turning thing is simple enough.

As for bad eggs floating, I'd hypothesize it is due to gas production as the egg putrefies which lowers the density.  Regardless of "why," if it works it works.

[CharlieJ]

Purely by chance, I happen to have a really old egg in the refrigerator :)

[CharlieJ]

=

As for bad eggs floating, I'd hypothesize it is due to gas production as the egg putrefies which lowers the density.  Regardless of "why," if it works it works.

Did a search and found this-

"So, as there are pores present in the shell, bacteria enter the egg and start decaying the biological matter inside. This produces a smelly gas (and other gases too), Hydrogen Sulfide (also present in smelly farts). The gases from this decomposition, and the air from outside, keep increasing in volume as time passes."

[SeaHusky]

I believe that even without decay the egg looses liquid through the shell which is replace by air (i.e dries out) and therefore floats.

[SeaHusky]

Fresh eggs anyone?
http://www.boredpanda.com/sailing-chicken-guy-monique-guirec-soudee/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=BPFacebook

[Owly055]

Fresh eggs anyone?
http://www.boredpanda.com/sailing-chicken-guy-monique-guirec-soudee/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=BPFacebook

Thanks for that.  Cute article.   Unfortunately any pets can create problems entering foreign countries.  In this era of bird flu, it might be a real problem in some places.

                                                                 H.W.

[Marc]

I will remember this

[SV Dayenu]

Just confirming:

Eggs that "float" are "bad"...

We teach self sustainability and raise chickens and quail. "Farm Fresh" eggs can last up to a month without refrigeration. When the eggs are laid, the process leaves a micro thin coating that protects the eggs (Think: wild birds leaving eggs in a nest)... "Store bought" eggs (Commercial production): The eggs are washed and cleaned so they look "nice" when you buy them... The protective coating is removed and so, you need to keep them refrigerated.

The reason eggs float after a while is the process of the embryo in the egg growing... To help insure a good hatch rate, eggs are sometimes floated for viability. For sellin our ougs to customers wanting to eat them, we tell them to float first. If they sink, they're good to eat.

My wife (a teaching master gardener) and I (a certified land steward), have been teaching "this stuff" for 7+ years.

See  www.jarelselfsustainableliving.com

We're prepping our small boat for the ICW and plan on buying eggs in 18+ cartons. We'll crack open most of the eggs and pur them into a quart container for refrigeration (Engel ice box conversion), the rest, we'll store un-cracked in camping style plastic containers. We'll use the whole eggs first then dip into the refrigerated onew as we go.

Hope this helps!

Richard & Tresa

[Frank]

Love the quart container idea...
Never would have thought of that.

Grog to ya

[CharlieJ]

You can extend the life of fresh eggs by wiping them with vaselene. Locks the air out. Some folks also dip them quickly into boiling water to do the same. Key word is quickly. Also turn them over every weekor so. Long term sailors keep them for months