How to Preserve Eggs Without Refrigeration • Homestead Lady
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Do you have a surplus of eggs but not a surplus of space in the fridge, here are several ways to preserve eggs without refrigeration. We’ve included an “odd” bonus method at the end (considering the title of the post). We also discuss which is safest to preserve, raw or cooked eggs. Also, some old fashioned ways of preserving eggs without refrigeration are mentioned just for fun!
Those of you who have a talent for searching out grocery deals and those of you with an egg-laying flock often end up with a surplus of eggs! You can store them in the refrigerator for a time but that takes electricity and space.
So, you might have occasion to ask yourself, what’s the best way to preserve eggs especially if you don’t want to use refrigeration? Fortunately, there are numerous ways to preserve eggs without refrigeration!
Today we’ll be outlining 4 methods:
So, which do I think is best? I’ll answer that at the very end because I don’t want to taint your opinion of what will be best for you.
Most food preservation training resources from books to websites will suggest that you preserve cooked, scrambled eggs to lessen the possibility of contamination from pathogens like salmonella and campylobacter. The scrambling/cooking process essentially pasteurizes the eggs before preservation.
Pre-cooking eggs can make them less useable for baking recipes but it does reduce the preservation time because a lot of the water inherent in eggs evaporates off during cooking.
Still, which is the best way to preserve eggs safely?
The Eggy Bottom Line:
The following information details how to work all of those methods!
We’re starting out with my least favorite method because I don’t care for the texture of dehydrated eggs when rehydrated and made into something like scrambled eggs. I’m very picky about eggs because they’re probably my favorite food.
I know I said I was going to try to not influence you with my opinion too much but, if we’re going to be friends, it’s important that I be honest.
However, you can pulverize dehydrated scrambled eggs in a high powered blender to make something similar to egg powder suitable for use in baking recipes. We share a few more tricks to make dehydrated eggs work better, but bear in mind that they’re not going to be as good as fresh, in my opinion.
For all dehydrated eggs, the key to correctly dehydrating them is to be sure they are dry-dry, not just kinda dry. You want them DRY.
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To Dehydrate Scrambled Eggs:
*Very humid climates may take longer to dehydrate sufficiently. Don’t give up, you’ll get there!
Remember, this is NOT the official recommended way to dehydrate eggs. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Store for a year in an air-tight container away from direct sunlight and heat. A Mylar or plastic air-tight sealed bag is best. I’ve read sources that say that dehydrated eggs can last as long as ten years, if properly stored.
Possible? Yes.
Advisable? Bleh, no.
The flavor starts to get weird after a year, in my opinion. They’re a high fat item, so if storage conditions aren’t completely and consistently cool and dry, dehydrated eggs can start to taste rancid.
The easiest method for storing eggs without refrigeration long term by far and the one that preserves the most nutrition, flavor, and texture is freeze drying. You do need the expensive and energy-consuming freeze-drying unit to preserve eggs this way. (I don’t judge because I own one, too.)
Eggs preserved this way will last up to 25 years and taste like the day they were laid! This is probably the easiest way to add eggs to your food storage.
If you go far enough back in history, you’ll read tales of Colonial families storing their eggs in ash, salt, and even by coating them in oil! Those are all perfectly legitimate methods even today, though not all of us have a bulk supply of ash, salt, or oil on hand.
Another common old fashioned way to preserve eggs without refrigeration is to place them freshly laid and whole into lime, which has long been used to finish off various kinds of construction like cobb. Often called water glassing eggs for storage, this method only works with fresh, unwashed whole eggs.
Store bought eggs will not water glass successfully.
You will also need containers with lids: glass jars, food-grade buckets, crocks, etc. By submerging the eggs in a lime water solution, you can preserve them whole for many months, even up to a year.
If you don’t have a freeze dryer, this is my best suggestion for preserving eggs without refrigeration! I do have a freeze dryer and I still use this method because it’s so easy to set up.
These eggs will store well for three to six months, and relatively well for six months to a year. You really can’t tell the difference between a fresh egg and a water glassed egg for the first six months.
After that, while the flavor and texture are still good, the older eggs are just a bit flat. They’re still very usable (as in, I’ll still eat them scrambled and I’m picky), but if you’re using them in a baking recipe after twelve months of storage, use one and a half to double the amount.
At any point during their tenure in storage, you can remove water-glassed eggs and preserve them in a shelf stable way via freezer, dehydrator, or freeze dryer.
As I mentioned, several food preservation sources suggest scrambling eggs before attempting to preserve them to avoid risk of contamination by pathogens like salmonella. If you’d like to keep your eggs uncooked for preservation, then freeze drying is still a safe option because of the extreme temperatures of the method.
However, if you don’t have a freeze dryer, what’s the best way to store uncooked eggs?!
The most popular choice is to freeze them. This is really cheating if we’re talking about storing eggs without refrigeration but freezing eggs is very simple and straightforward.
It requires no special equipment beyond the freezer itself. If you have a chest freezer for storing bulk meats, this can be a simple solution to preserving eggs for the short term.
One caution about freezing eggs for storage is that they do require electricity to keep them preserved and frozen. We get nasty winter and summer storms during which we lose power now and then, which is part of why I don’t often freeze eggs myself. However, the process is uncomplicated and can be done with fresh or store-bought eggs.
Store for up to six months in the freezer. Any longer and the eggs start to taste funky and might be a little flat when you bake with them.
My first choice would be freeze dried because:
“What if I don’t have a freeze dryer,” you ask, and rightly so!
A dehydrated egg will technically store longer than a water-glassed egg but you compromise flavor and texture, in my opinion.
What do you think?
Always remember to do your own homework about food preservation, best safety practices, and keeping yourself healthy.
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