"I never thought so many of those pullets would survive the winter, and now they have really started laying, and I don't know what to do with so many eggs... I have hit up all my friends for empty egg cartons, and the refridgerator is about to bust. Help!"
- signed - eve@TooManyEggs.org
Here are a few suggestions:
- Devil five or six dozen and bring to the next pot luck. Try ground Cayanne or Ancho chilli pepper in place of Paprika for an added kick.
- Donate them to a local food pantry
- Easter Eggs - who cares if it is the middle of winter.
- Eggnog - 4 gallons of nog will fill the bill at the next feast.
- Engineering Experiment - See who can build a method to drop an egg off a ten story building without breaking.
- Feed them to the pigs - They will eat them whole - Crunchy on the outside, gooey on the inside.
- Game where you toss an egg back and forth between a pair of people. On each successful catch, you take a step backwards.
- Household surprises - hide a few around your friends' house: Out of site on a high shelf, behind the jars of last year's pickled okra, in the back of a closet, etc.
- Hundred Year Old Eggs - Also called century egg, thousand-year egg and Ming Dynasty egg, all of which are eggs that have been preserved by being covered with a coating of lime, ashes and salt before being shallowly buried for 100 days. The lime "petrifies" the egg, making it look like it's been buried for at least a century. The black outer coating and shell are removed to reveal a firm, amber-colored white and creamy, dark green yolk. The flavor is pungent and cheeselike. Eggs from chickens are generally used, though duck and goose eggs are also preserved in this manner. Hundred-year eggs are sold individually and can be found in Chinese markets. They will keep at room temperature (under 70°F) for up to 2 weeks or in the refrigerator up to a month. These preserved eggs are usually eaten uncooked, either for breakfast or served as an appetizer, often with accompaniments such as soy sauce or minced ginger.
- Dehydrated eggs - Great for backpacking. This can be done in a dehydrator.
- Meringue Pies - Chocolate, Banana Cream, Coconut Cream, Lemon, etc. Make one of each.
- Pickled - Boil three parts (red wine) vinegar with one part water, optionally add chili peppers, garlic, peppercorns, whole cloves and sliced ginger. Place boiled eggs in a jar, cover and seal. Store in refridgerator for one week, then can remain at a cool dry place for up to one year.
- Quiche - Lorain, Alsacienne, Cheese, Broccoli, Mushroom, ham, seafood, salmon. Whatever you have.
- Sell them outside of the local paintball establishment.
- Sephardic Eggs - Fill a large baking dish with whole raw eggs. Add a few onion skins, a couple teaspoons of coffee grounds and a couple cups of water. Cover tightly. Bake at 175 F undisturbed for at least 12 hours. Shabbat Shalom.
- Souffle - Cheese, Chocolate, etc.
- Wrap them as Christmas gifts and give them away to strangers. Even if it is early Spring, be ure to include strict warnings not to open until the holidays.
To use the whole shells in crafts, the contents must be removed - to do this, "blow" them. The best way to blow eggs is to make two holes in each end with a needle, and then to widen one of the holes with a toothpick. Traditional directions say to just use a needle, but we found that children (and most adults) found it impossible to blow the eggs with holes that small. We also used a cake tester to break the egg yolk in a few places, which made the process easier. Shake the egg very well to break the yolk and, standing over a sink or bowl, blow into the smaller hole with all your might. The egg white and yolk should drain from the bottom. Repeat the process until the egg is empty. Wash the egg well and set aside to dry.
Preserving eggs[edit | edit source]
Method 1) Place in the palm of the hand a little salt butter or pure salted lard, and turn the egg about until every portion of the surface has been covered with the grease. Thus a small amount of lard or butter will cover a large number of eggs. Pack with the small ends down in pails, tubs or cases in dry bran, meal or flour.
Method 2) Or pack eggs, greased with salted lard or butter between layers of common salt. Take care to store in a perfectly dry, well-ventilated place where the eggs will not freeze. Eggs thus stored can be preserved for several months.
Method 3) An equally effective measure of preservation is to submerge eggs in 16 parts water, 2 parts lime and 1 part salt.
Method 4) Untreated: Do not to wash them. There is a coating on eggs that will keep them fresh. Then keep them in a basement or a dark cool dry cellar. The eggs need to be turned once a week. Just keep them in an old egg carton and turn them over once a week. Mother Earth News did a test years ago and I believe they kept eggs for 6 months in a cellar just that way. To check and make sure the eggs are good put in water. Good eggs lie on the bottom, they do not float.
Method 5) Mix together in a tub or vessel one bushel of quicklime; thirty-two ounces of salt; eight ounces of cream of tartar, with as much water as will reduce the composition to a sufficient consistence to float an egg. Then put and keep the eggs therein, which will preserve them perfectly sound for two years at least.
Method 6) submerge clean eggs in Water Glass (Sodium Silicate), lasts up to six months.
Drying[edit | edit source]
Eggs can be dehydrated and powdered for long term storage and for travel (e.g. backpacking):
- Blend thoroughly (under a minute in a vitamix)
- Fill trays with a thin layer of egg
- Set the dehydrator around 135oF (vegetables setting).
- Dry over night.
- You can put the dried eggs back in the blender to powderize.
- Seal and store in a cool dark place.
To rehydrate: Mix 1 part warm water with 2 parts egg... wait a few minutes before checking and using.
Egg writing[edit | edit source]
Dissolve 1/2 ounce of alum into 1/2 pint of vinegar. Dip a fine tipped brush into the solution and write your message on the shell of an egg. Let dry completely; then boil for 15 minutes. Writing cannot be seen on the shell, but is on the inside of the egg.
Can you eat that egg?[edit | edit source]
By Scott Matthews
If not sure you ought-ter,
then place it in water.
If it lies on its side,
then it's fresh; eat with pride.
After three or four days,
at an angle it lays.
But, it still is a treat,
so go on and eat.
Ten days, stands on end,
in your baking 'twill blend.
'Cause it's definitely edible,
in your baking, incredible.
But, if it floats on the surface,
that egg serves no purpose.
'Cause a floater's a stinker!
Out the back door best fling 'er!
Preservation of eggs[edit | edit source]
(from the Household Cyclopedia (1881)
A writer says: The best method I know of to preserve eggs is to fill the pores of the shell with fresh, clean lard, so as to exclude all the air. It is my opinion that this simple and easy method is preferable to any now in use. Some put them in lime-water, some lay them down in salt, some put them in saw-dust. But the lime cooks them, so that they have a dried appearance; salt has a similar effect, while eggs saturated with lard (as far as my experience goes) open fresh and nice. In Paris, however, where they understand these things thoroughly, eggs are preserved by immersion in hot water, as follows: Water is made to boil in a kettle, a dozen eggs are put into a colander, which is plunged into the kettle, left there about a minute, and then withdrawn with the eggs. By this means a thin layer or yolk becomes coagulated, and forms in the interior surface of the shell a sort of coating, which opposes itself to the evaporation of the substance of the egg, and consequently to the contact of the air which rushes in to fill the void left by the evaporation.
