OFF TOPIC: storing eggs

carl reitnauer · Apr 30, 2015

If i refrigerate,how long can I store eggs,fresh from the chicken house? What is the optimum temperature?

formenwhogrow · Apr 30, 2015

At least a month if no cracks in any shells. Normal fridge temperature. If you have a lot to store, you can crack them into freezer bags and freeze them with good results, but you cannot freeze them in the shell as they'll expand and bust out.

Why Worry · Apr 30, 2015

A good friend of mine was part of the crew of a sailing vessel that went around the world. I said they took along eggs even though they had no way to refrigerate them. He said the covered the shells with Vaseline and as long as they were not exposed to air, the kept just fine.

pllr · Apr 30, 2015

back in the day of limited refrigeration, Grandma would coat the eggs with mineral oil and store in cool, dark cellar of the old brick farm house, this is central wis, over the winter months when the hens stopped laying

Dick2 · Apr 30, 2015

When I was young, I often wondered how the delivery trucks could haul eggs in an unheated truck body when it was real cold in ND without the eggs freezing. I was told that as long as the truck kept moving at regular intervals, the eggs wouldn't freeze. It must have worked as they kept on doing that.

Chuck (CA) · Apr 30, 2015

I don't know why, but all the eggs in the store are packaged with the small side down. Must mean something.

Charlie M · Apr 30, 2015

I've had eggs in the refridge for 3 months - still edible but not the very good quality. I like to give them a few weeks as they peel better for hard boiled eggs. They will loose moisture with time and create a bigger air pocket. When they get enough air to float their quality has gone down hill a lot. I would say probably not more than 2 months for a good quality egg if you hard boil them. Maybe up to a month from a quality stand point if you are doing them for breakfast. How much they stand up in water is a good indication of how old they are.

longear · Apr 30, 2015

Chuck (CA)"](quoted from post at 19:34:28 04/30/15) I don't know why, but all the eggs in the store are packaged with the small side down. Must mean something

if you store them the other way all you can hatch is bats. lol

They should be stored for hatching points down and not refrigerated.

Hotflashjr · Apr 30, 2015

If you don't wash your eggs you do not need to refrigerate. We have kept chicken fresh eggs out of the fridge with good quality for a month. As soon as you wash an egg you have to refrigerate it.

Ultradog MN · Apr 30, 2015

I have posted this here before.
When I was in the Navy, on a sub tender, over in Sardinia, we got replenished about every three months.
We would get hundreds of cases of eggs with 40 or 50 dozen eggs per case.
The cases were cardboard that was wax sealed so the eggs couldn't dry out.
We ate them every day and never gave their age a thought.
So that was at least 3 months, probably more like 4 by the time the eggs were processed, cased and shipped over to us. They might have been even older.

JRSutton · Apr 30, 2015

If done right, they can last quite a long time. Several months at least.

I'm not sure if there's really an optimum temperature. Obviously you don't want to freeze them, and I wouldn't go over 45. 40 should be about right.

To have fresh eggs always available, you've got two options:

A.) Get more chickens - use artificial light in the winter months to keep them laying - and never worry about egg storage.

Or B.)

- Don't wash the eggs(until ready do use). Washing removes the natural layer "bloom" - your eggs will rot much more quickly without this layer - whether or not they're refrigerated, clean, covered in oil, etc.

- store them in an airtight container

- refrigerate at about 40 degrees

That's it.

coating them with anything, or storing them in water - though popular ideas, will reduce their lifespan.

Mother nature already has it all figured it out, don't try to outsmart her.

If in doubt about an egg's freshness - put it in a bowl of water. If it sinks and lays on its side, it's good.

If it sinks but stands up on end, it's ok but getting old.

If it floats, toss it.

Steve@Advance · Apr 30, 2015

A few years ago I toured the Elissa, an 1800's tall ship. It is on display in Galveston, still operates on a limited basis.

There were poster displays on board, describing the conditions of crossing the Atlantic. They never knew how long it would take, had no refrigeration, tried to carry enough rations, hoped for good fishing and good weather, which rarely happened. By the end of most trips they were near starvation, had eaten everything, no matter how spoiled, even resorted to eating their leather shoes!

Of course the cook took the brunt of the blame. Said they never used the same cook twice. Once in port he was fired, lucky to get away unscathed! That's just the way they did it...

JRSutton · Apr 30, 2015

Somebody else mentioned it anyways - but I meant to add "pointy end down" to keep the air sack away from the yoke!

old · Apr 30, 2015

Years ago I knew a family that owned a egg farm and they at times took 6 months to get enough eggs to load a truck so at time those eggs where 6 month old before they left the farm. Then they would go to a ware house to be sorted and then to the stores so eggs in the stores can be 6 plus old before a person buys them. . An egg not washed which one should never do till ready to eat can/will last a very very long time. Washing the shell introduces Bactria into the egg. The hen puts on a coating to protect them from said Bactria. At that egg farm they would spray the eggs with some sort of oil to make them keep better and stored them in a walk in cooler. Still remember walking around in that big building picking up eggs and putting them in flats.

Bob in SD · Apr 30, 2015

I've done this (smeared w/ Vaseline) on camping trips. 2-3 weeks, starting w/ store bought (so pre-washed) eggs and had no issues.

rustred · Apr 30, 2015

i can tell how fresh an egg is as soon as i drop it in the hot frying pan. if it runs all over its old. a fresh egg pretty much stays together.

GordoSD · Apr 30, 2015

SO what did a dozen eggs sell on the black market in town for?

GordoSD · Apr 30, 2015

Add some baking soda to the water when you hardboil eggs. They peel easy peasy after that.

jeffcat · Apr 30, 2015

Another thing with eggs and a little mineral oil or such to seal the shell. If you want to get rid of the damn Canada geese you do this. Have someone PROTECT you by keeping the geese back first. With a pair of those brown Jersey gloves soaked in mineral oil, coat all of the eggs. Hen will still sit because you didn't break the eggs and they will never hatch. The oil seals the egg and no air can pass through the shell.

donjr · Apr 30, 2015

While in the service, I was on a Polaris type sub. We would store our eggs in the coldest area of the boat- over the torpedo tube drain collecting tank. We still usually had eggs at the end of a patrol, about 2 months later, without refridgeration.

john in la · Apr 30, 2015

Other than keeping the egg in the chicken till you need it.....
The best way I have found to store them is unwashed; in a sealed container;
pointy end down; at about 35 to 40 degrees.

Bob in Australia · Apr 30, 2015

A long time ago, we used to preserve unwashed eggs in 'water glass' which is sodium silicate. The eggs could be stored for many months, but preferably in cool conditions.

old · Apr 30, 2015

So what sub where you on??? I did 3 tourers on the USSBN633blue crew. We always ran out of eggs before we got the the middle of the 90 days under. Powdered eggs where bad tasting

shunkfarm · May 1, 2015

I read that in parts of Europe that commercial eggs are not washed before going to the store. My wife is grossed out by this. Being that our chickens lay in straw, sometimes there can be a bit of nasty on them. I wipe this off but that is all. Most are very clean looking right out of the nest.

I have kept fresh eggs for a month or two with no noticeable loss of quality.

J

jal-SD · May 1, 2015

While I was in college, I worked for about 3 years at an egg breaking plant where whole eggs were processed into frozen product for industrial use (commercial bakeries, etc.) and powdered eggs. We also "oiled" whole eggs for the army. (BTW, this was Vietnam war era.) They were candled, washed, and then sprayed with some type of oil. After this process, they were packed in 30 doz double sided cardboard cases, wired shut, marked with a date code and plant # and then shipped out by the rail car load. Shortly after I started working there, one of the guys that worked at the plant was drafted, and ended up in Korea instead of Nam. He came back to work after doing his time an army cook. He told of opening cases of eggs processed in our plant that had date codes in excess of a year after being processed. He knew how to read the codes, as one of his jobs at the plant was to stamp both the plant code # and date codes on the cases after they were wired shut. He said they were as good as fresh eggs. Obviously, eggs will keep fresh for a long time if handled properly. (My $0.02 worth. jal-SD)

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