Posted: 1/6/2009 9:11:35 AM EDT
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My old boss was an avid sailor and use to sail to Hawaii and overseas, he mentioned that eggs coated with petroleum jelly would keep for a long time. Anyone try this?
Also found this http://www.wikipatents.com/gb/0584755.html Wondering how long is long as well... |
| Yup, was a sailor myself (would love another boat someday) and the best storage method I heard of was vaseline on the egg. The reason is because the shell is actually porous and the coating of PJ seals it up so that the moisture in the egg does not disappear via osmosis. |
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i have heard that lard or crisco work as well to seal the egg. my understanding was that you wanted to prevent rotting agents from getting into the egg.
interesting quote from this site In an attempt to seal the shell pores to prevent loss of moisture and carbon dioxide, a great variety of materials including cactus juice, soap and shellac were investigated with varying degrees of success. The only coating considered fairly efficient was oil which is still used today.
Thermostabilization, immersion of the egg for a short time in boiling water to coagulate a thin film of albumen immediately beneath the shell membrane, was rather extensively practiced by housewives of the late 19th century. Mild heating destroyed spoilage organisms but did not cook the eggs. If kept in a cool place, thermostabilized eggs coated with oil keep several months although some mold growth may take place. |
| When chickens lay an egg they are supposed to have a protective coating on them. If you wash your eggs before strorage you wash that coating off. I had a friend that did a study of how long store bought eggs had been around and it was scary.... altho I dont remember the exact results they were a month old or more when offered for sale at the store. |
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Quoted:
When chickens lay an egg they are supposed to have a protective coating on them. If you wash your eggs before strorage you wash that coating off. I had a friend that did a study of how long store bought eggs had been around and it was scary.... altho I dont remember the exact results they were a month old or more when offered for sale at the store. I have used this no wash method while sailing down the coast of Mexico when we would buy fresh eggs. Never had one go bad but I did not have eggs around for 6+ months. |
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Sailed for several years on 4 different sailboats. We kept eggs for as long as 6 months- no coating. The trick is obtain fresh, non-refrigerated, unwashed eggs (though we had store bought eggs last 4 months) and TURN them over every day or two. As long as you keep the inside coated, it will not let air enter & spoil them. You can tell when they are reaching their limit when the yolks start breaking very easy (still good to eat though) you will know right away if you lost one though!
In the old days before refrigeration, people covered them with waterglass to keep them. |
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Several years ago there was a thread here where somebody did an EXCELLENT report on egg storage, using all the folk-legend methods - lard, sawdust, etc, etc. He tested the eggs the old-fashioned way - by eating them.
It was awesome. I have looked and looked for that thread, but alas I think it is gone forever. 
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Quoted:
Sailed for several years on 4 different sailboats. We kept eggs for as long as 6 months- no coating. The trick is obtain fresh, non-refrigerated, unwashed eggs (though we had store bought eggs last 4 months) and TURN them over every day or two. As long as you keep the inside coated, it will not let air enter & spoil them. You can tell when they are reaching their limit when the yolks start breaking very easy (still good to eat though) you will know right away if you lost one though! In the old days before refrigeration, people covered them with waterglass to keep them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_glass#Food_preservation Food preservation Sodium silicate was also used as an egg preservation agent in the early 20th Century with large success. When fresh eggs are immersed in it, bacteria which cause the eggs to spoil are kept out and water is kept in. Eggs can be kept fresh using this method for up to nine months. When boiling eggs preserved this way, it is well advised to pin-prick the egg to allow steam to escape because the shell is no longer porous. An article in The Mother Earth News offers actual test results for this and other methods of preservation. http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/1977-11-01/Can-You-Really-Store-Fresh-Eggs-a-Year-or-More-Without-Refrigeration.aspx CONCLUSIONS At the end of seven months (all of our experiment that was finished and processed at the time this issue went to press), then, we had drawn these conclusions about our egg preservation experiment: [1] Unwashed, fertile homestead eggs seem to store much better than washed, unfertile agribiz eggs. Why? Probably for the simple reason that they're unwashed ... and not because they're fertile. Hen fruit, as it comes from the chicken, is coated with a light layer of a natural sealing agent called "bloom". And, while a good wash may make a batch of eggs look more attractive, it also removes this natural protective coating ... leaving the eggs more subject to aging and attack by the air and bacteria in the air. [2] The very best way we've found to stash eggs away for long-term storage is in a sealed container at a temperature of 35° to 40°F. Their whites may become somewhat runny looking over a period of time, buteven after seven months—the cackleberries stored in this manner smell good, taste good, have a good texture, and—in short—seem "almost fresh". [3] The widely touted idea of covering eggs with a solution of one part waterglass (sodium silicate) mixed with nine parts of boiled and cooled water does indeed seem to work better than any other "room temperature" preservation method we tried. If our experiences are any indication, though, it's really good for only about five months and is a distant second to controlled refrigeration. Another point: As good as some eggs kept in waterglass were, almost every batch we opened seemed to contain one real stinker. Which makes it a superior idea to open any waterglassed egg (or any egg, for that matter) separately into a cup ... where it may be inspected before pouring it into a skillet, pan, or dish with other food. [4] Unwashed, fertile eggs submerged in a solution of 16 parts water/2 parts lime/1 part salt, packed in lard, and coated with lard seem to keep at room temperature almost as well as unwashed fertile eggs that have been given the waterglass treatment. Washed, unfertile eggs do not. [5] Unwashed, fertile eggs packed in dry sand or coated with vaseline and stored at room temperature keep a little longer-but not much-than unwashed fertile eggs that are just left lying out at room temperature. Washed, unfertile eggs exhibit the same characteristics ... with all storage times running a few days less across the board. [6] Forget packing any kind of eggs in wet sand or sawdust! Our tests show that such methods of "preservation" can turn eggs rotten within a month and are worse than doing nothing at all to the hen fruit. *********** Steve |