do the eggs taste funy when preserved in hydrated lime

[Colonel]

@Eelantha No, you're not "sounding grim" - you're sounding realistic, practical, and responsible. I keep hoping to see first-hand experience replies here also. I bought a 50 pound bag of Hydrated Lime, and I'll be trying this method. Unfortunately, it will be many months before I'll know how it does - after those many months.

 

[Eelantha]

@Colonel - Sweet! That makes two of us testing out this method, then. I've bought my own bag of lime back in March, and have been storing my cleanest eggs ever since. My 5 gallon bucket got finished in late July though, because I only have 6 laying hens and half of them were messy layers, so it took time to fill it. As eggs can last two months on the countertop at room temperature, I'm waiting at least that long before testing out the eggs at the top of the bucket - the last ones to go in it. I'm also crossing my fingers that this works, because my country got hit with about two months of constant heat waves for the summer season, and you're supposed to keep your water-glassed eggs in a cool area.

I've started a second 5 gallon bucket since then, but that one is filling at a crawl (laying period slowing down because we're hitting autumn) and the extra lime is starting to crystalize at the surface. Do you have similar problems on your side?

Cooking-wise, the only instructions I have over water-glassed eggs is to wash them in clean water once you take them out of the bucket. There's also the obligatory need to make a pinprick hole in the shell if you want to boil said egg... hopefully the shell doesn't crack or the contents, spill out while cooking. Have you seen other specific instructions about how one should go about cooking water-glassed eggs?

 

[Colonel]

Excellent!

I'm only getting 2 eggs per day at this point, but I've got another 10 hens that should start laying in about 2 or 3 months, at which time I'll have plenty to experiment with. I'm in Florida, so heat may have an impact here (but I don't have to worry about them freezing!).

Later this morning, my wife and I will be going to a class on pressure canning (we are very active in our local prepping group - I maintain the group web site), and there will be a man there who has severe dietary restrictions, but he can eat plenty of eggs. I'm bringing a bag of Hydrated Lime for him to try out for himself.

I've seen a very wide range of instructions - various concentrations, additives, procedures, etc., so I'm hoping to settle on one standard that works. I suspect that all work, but some just might be a bit better or a bit easier than others.

Thank you so much for restarting this thread - it's just what I've been looking for. Keep in touch, take care, and God bless.

 

[Eelantha]

@Colonel - no, thank you for bumping up this thread and calling me out, I was so busy on my side that I completely forgot to post a comment about my own progress with Hydrated Lime! I'm sure there are readers waiting to see the results of our experiments here, so I can't wait to see what my bucket yields.

I'm getting 2-3 eggs here, sometimes 4. Two of my girls have started molting, but my pullet should start laying any day now, so there are chances I'll get 5 eggs a day for a short while before the rest of my ladies decide to quit for the winter. Temperature-wise, I don't have to worry about my eggs freezing during wintertime - the bucket is in the same room as my wood stove.

Likewise here, I've talked with a farmer about water-glassed eggs and he is waiting for the results of my bucket before trying it himself and spreading the word around to his friends. Several other people I've talked with are all also waiting to hear back from me over the matter, as they've never heard of this being done before and are understandably wary of potentially wasting a precious food source.

Can you write your results if you test out any of those instructions?

 

[Colonel]

Yes, I will definitely write up the results. There are several folks in our prep group who are following this also, so I'll be putting up a web page with the results, photos, etc. I'll be sure to include a link here on this thread (as well as a link on the page to this thread).

 

[Eelantha]

The more people who try this, the better we'll know if this method proves true or false. When is your bucket due to yield its own results, if you don't mind my asking? :3

I'm not that good with the computer, so I'll write up as detailed a summary as I can remember of everything I've done in the last few months leading to my egg-tasting. Boiled eggs are my favorites, so I'll definitely be testing the pinprick hole in the shell trick!

 

[Colonel]

I haven't even started yet, and won't until these 10 start laying. At this point, I'm not getting enough eggs to do any preserving.

I think what I might do is set up a web page to compile all of the different variations of using Hydrated Lime, along with the results that folks have reported. That way, we've got it all in one place so we can compare them and decide what we want to do.

 

[Eelantha]

I see... I had to cheat on my side to get any progress done with preservation, as I had a small flock. Since the numbers of eggs that went into the bucket could vary, I usually waited until I hit 6 eggs before opening the lid. That took usually 2-3 days, if past that mark I didn't have 6 eggs I'd still dump what quantity I had in the bucket. I keep my fingers crossed that putting 2-3 day old eggs in Hydrated Lime will not give me bad results.

Please do, it'd be nice to have a place where everything is compiled and easy to find

 

[TooCheep]

I used this preservation method last year to store eggs for the winter. It worked well for me.

• No, the eggs don't taste like lime. The bloom protects them.
• When you remove them, do use a glove or scoop as the lime will dry out your skin. If you do touch the lime water, just wash it off right away to avoid problems.
• Based on my experience as well as one YouTube I watched, this method has about a 90% success rate. Some eggs will crack and/or leak. Fortunately, they are easy to identify when you pull them out. If you have any doubt about an egg, just break it into a cup first and you'll see if there is a problem before using it.
• The eggs are very edible, but slightly softer/more runny than fresh. It is common for the yolk to break, so I recommend you use them for scrambled eggs or baking.
• Supposedly, eggs can keep for up to 18 months using this technique, but I only preserved mine for about 5-6 months.

I am in the process of loading another bucket for this year.

 

[Eelantha]

An experimented third tester! Yay!

How many buckets did you need to fill in order to not need a trip to the grocery store for new eggs until your hens started laying again?

Thank god they don't taste like lime. I had read online that some people said they had a bit of a moldy smell and tasted old. I've no idea what an old egg tastes like apart when its rotten (that scent is unforgettable), so I was a bit anxious over that aspect 0x0

Is the egg yolk susceptible to break open inside the shell (or leak out of the pinprick hole) if the egg is boiled?

18 months... amazing! I've read some people preserve their eggs up to 2 years at a time. Do you know anybody who hit that mark or further?