Favorite ways to preserve eggs?

[NatJ]

I'm curious what some of your favorite ways to preserve eggs are?

I put them in the refrigerator.
I mark the date on either the eggs or the carton, and use the oldest eggs first.
Eggs will keep for many months if you just stick them in the fridge.
Many of the traditional ways to "preserve" eggs are from the days before refrigeration. We don't hear about them much now, because refrigerating is easier and works better.

I also make things that use lots of eggs, that can be frozen for later use.
This includes waffles and cookies (I've frozen raw dough or cooked cookies).
Waffles, pancakes, muffins, and many other things work fine with 2x or 3x as many eggs as the recipe says, which makes them a little more nutritious too.

I see people have already mentioned freezing the eggs, which I would do if I had a big oversupply.

But if you have way too many eggs in the summer, those same chickens will probably be laying at some rate through the winter too-- so you might not need as many preserved eggs as you think.

Other than preserving eggs for yourself to eat, if you have way too many, you can give eggs away or sell them, or cook them and feed them to chickens or to a dog.

 

[sheknitsandcrochets]

Thank you for your response @NatJ ! Those are some good tips/ideas!

 

[sheknitsandcrochets]

@Sally PB Cool! We plan to as well!

 

[Percheron chick]

All eggs behave the same way. It's something about protein structure and ice crystals.

 

[NatJ]

@Percheron chick Woah! That's terrible!! I wonder if it had to do with them being goose eggs? Because I've heard of a lot of people freezing chicken eggs and they didn't seem to experience the problems you did with freezing the goose eggs?

I've encountered odd-textured yolks in eggs that froze. I also read about it years ago, in a book on raising chickens. I find some internet articles that talk about it, too.

Here are a few example articles:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/how-to/packages/food-network-essentials/how-freeze-eggs
https://www.peteandgerrys.com/blog/how-to-freeze-eggs
https://www.thekitchn.com/can-you-freeze-leftover-egg-whites-amp-yolks-243385

They all say pretty much the same thing:
--whites freeze just fine
--yolks go weird, unless you scramble them with the whites or add something to them. The "something" is often salt, but I've also seen mentions of sugar, honey, or corn syrup.

 

[NatJ]

@NatJ Intersting.
Yeah I had a similar experience when I tried to cook a store bought egg that was in the back of the fridge (and thus partially frozen).

Do you freeze eggs whole or beaten? @TheresaV says she beats the eggs before freezing them, maybe that helps?

I have never frozen eggs on purpose, so far.

I have cooked & eaten eggs that got frozen in the back of the fridge, or in the nestbox in cold weather.
When a whole egg freezes all the way, the shell cracks, and when the egg thaws it starts to leak. Eggs like that I do not eat; I throw them away.

I would not try to freeze a whole egg in the shell, because I know the shell would crack.
To freeze eggs, I would take them out of the shell, and I would mix the yolks either with the egg whites or with something else to make them not get that weird texture.

As far as actual experience goes, the only eggs I have deliberately frozen were baked into waffles or cookies or pancakes, or mixed into cookie dough but not yet cooked. The eggs behaved fine in all of those cases.

 

[sheknitsandcrochets]

I have never frozen eggs on purpose, so far.

I have cooked & eaten eggs that got frozen in the back of the fridge, or in the nestbox in cold weather.
When a whole egg freezes all the way, the shell cracks, and when the egg thaws it starts to leak. Eggs like that I do not eat; I throw them away.

I would not try to freeze a whole egg in the shell, because I know the shell would crack.
To freeze eggs, I would take them out of the shell, and I would mix the yolks either with the egg whites or with something else to make them not get that weird texture.

As far as actual experience goes, the only eggs I have deliberately frozen were baked into waffles or cookies or pancakes, or mixed into cookie dough but not yet cooked. The eggs behaved fine in all of those cases.

Makes sense. And yeah, definitely wouldn't intentionally freeze them in their shells!!

Thank you for all of your help and info!

 

[Trazom]

I’m waterglassing in a BPA-free, food-grade, five-gallon bucket and lid with a ratio of 1oz by weight of calcium hydroxide aka pickling lime or hydrated lime to 1qt of filtered water. Hope it works! I’ll try to report back with results as we use them.

 

[sheknitsandcrochets]

I’m waterglassing in a BPA-free, food-grade, five-gallon bucket and lid with a ratio of 1oz by weight of calcium hydroxide aka pickling lime or hydrated lime to 1qt of filtered water. Hope it works! I’ll try to report back with results as we use them.

Awesome! Good luck!

 

[Lor]

If you try this, vacuum seal the portions 1 layer thick in the bag and alternate them right side up and upside down so the package will come out flat. When I did them all right side up, the package came out dome shaped because the portions are wider on the top than on the bottom, like a cupcake is.

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That's a good tip. Hadn't thought of alternating them. (right side up and upside down)