Water Glassing: Egg Preservation Experiment!

[Sequel]

@Sequel you beat me to it!!! I just tried them out!

1st Month Taste Test!
Sorry I missed my deadline, but it was only by 2 days...I've been gone and life gets in the way sometimes! I decided to pull out 2 eggs and try them! The egg shells have a bit of a white coating on them from the lime water, but the taste of the eggs is still spot on! I do wish that I had added these eggs to the lime water as soon as they were laid, but as I stated at the beginning I saved them on the counter until I had 40 eggs, so some of them had been on the counter 1-1.5 weeks before they were placed in the lime water.

At 1 month the egg yolks already appear to be a bit flatter than fresh laid and the whites are definitely runnier. I really wish that I had some eggs that have not been fertilized just to see if there is a difference! I should also have set aside some in the fridge from a month ago as that would have been fun to also compare! Oh well, maybe I will do that next year! The egg on the left is from one of my Marans hens, their yolks are always a darker color, even though they all free range!

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White coating! The Marans egg is on the right in this picture...the other one is from one of my EE's!
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Wow that’s great! I’d seen videos on YouTube and thought hmmm.... Now I’m seeing proof right here on the Internet! People have been living and eating way longer than they’ve had refrigerators, canned food and the like. It’s so interesting!

 

[drstratton]

Wow that’s great! I’d seen videos on YouTube and thought hmmm.... Now I’m seeing proof right here on the Internet! People have been living and eating way longer than they’ve had refrigerators, canned food and the like. It’s so interesting!

Same here! I really wanted to do this myself, I was sure it would work, just because there is so much information out there already...it will be interesting to see how they are doing at this time next year! When I do this again, I will add the eggs to the lime water as they are laid!

 

[TooCheep]

@Sequel you beat me to it!!! I just tried them out!

1st Month Taste Test!
...

So... Have you eaten them yet? What did you think?

 

[drstratton]

So... Have you eaten them yet? What did you think?

I did, I went back to my post and made the sentence bold where I talked about it! I can see where it kind of got lost! They tasted great! One month down and still good to go!

 

[TooCheep]

Wow that’s great! I’d seen videos on YouTube and thought hmmm.... Now I’m seeing proof right here on the Internet! People have been living and eating way longer than they’ve had refrigerators, canned food and the like. It’s so interesting!

Yup. Salting, drying, fermenting, pickling (and likely other techniques) have all been used across many cultures and far longer than refrigeration for longer-term food preservation.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Great thread, thanks. Just one question. There are two kinds of lime? Are they interchangeable?

 

[cavemanrich]

Great thread, thanks. Just one question. There are two kinds of lime? Are they interchangeable?

I don't usually answer questions that OP can, but here is a quick answer for you.
I copies pic from first post. It is Calcium hydroxide.

If you are thinking of garden lime, as the other type, I do not think that one would work.

 

[TooCheep]

Great thread, thanks. Just one question. There are two kinds of lime? Are they interchangeable?

Yes, there are multiple forms of lime, not all of which are appropriate. The kind used for water glassing is calcium hydroxide which is known by a number of names: hydrated lime, pickling lime, slaked lime, builders lime. You can find it as (1) pickling lime (smallest and most expensive), (2) builders lime (cheap, but larger than most would want for this purpose), (3) some types of garden lime (I bought a 3lb bag which will be good for many years). Be careful on the latter as you will also find calcium carbonate and other forms labeled as garden lime.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Yes, there are multiple forms of lime, not all of which are appropriate. The kind used for water glassing is calcium hydroxide which is known by a number of names: hydrated lime, pickling lime, slaked lime, builders lime. You can find it as (1) pickling lime (smallest and most expensive), (2) builders lime (cheap, but larger than most would want for this purpose), (3) some types of garden lime (I bought a 3lb bag which will be good for many years). Be careful on the latter as you will also find calcium carbonate and other forms labeled as garden lime.

Thank you!

 

[preciouschick]

After watching a video on Water Glassing earlier this year, I decided that I would like to try and preserve my eggs for winter using this method! I plan on pulling an egg out each month to see how well they are holding up! I'm super excited about seeing the results from this process...my husband...not so much...

I will eventually add all of the information of my experiment into an article!

I purchased a 1 gallon glass jar with a lid. I am using Mrs. Wages: Pickling Lime (Calcium Hydroxide) and also some Olive oil as suggested in the video to help keep the water from evaporating! One thing that I think I did wrong from the start was that I didn't get the lime mixed as thoroughly as I should have, so I've been going in and gently spinning the jar left, right, left, right...I will continue to do this until it's fully dissolved!

So the tools & steps I used:
A 1 gallon Jar with lid...glass or plastic works fine
1 oz. Calcium Hydroxide (Lime) (Make sure you use only Calcium Hydroxide with no other additives)
1 quart cool water
40 eggs per gallon seemed to be a good fit
Olive oil

Thoroughly mix your Lime into the quart of water (1oz lime to 1 quart of water is the ratio)(do not do as I did ). I already had my eggs in the container (I wanted to have as many as it would hold and decided I would pour the lime mixture over the top...one quart was perfect in my container), but you can mix in the jar and add the eggs after, which is what I will do next time since I now know I can fit in 40 eggs to 1 quart! I then poured some olive oil on top and covered with the lid!

Day 1
I have it sitting on my laundry room counter at the moment...once the Lime is better dissolved I will place it in my storeroom in the basement! It's cooler and has less daylight!
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I was going to update my water glasding but saw your post and decided to put it here. I have 13 hens and still get 8-10 eggs a day. Sooo.... back in november I water glassed a lot of eggs. They are 3 months stored. I bought the plastic container I saw on a homesteaders video. I have taken some out and have only tried boiling them. I washed them before boiling them. PRO's....taste fresh. peel easy. No lime taste.
CON's... you have to prick the shell before boiling them. which I didnt do, so they cracked after putting them in boiling water! Next I will try frying them. Then update.