Keeping farm fresh eggs longer is a crucial skill,whether you have backyard chickens or a homestead. These proven methods will help you extend the freshness of your eggs.
Learn how to check egg freshness, how to keep eggs fresh longer, and some simple ways to preserve eggs from your flock.
How to preserve fresh eggs
Spring on a homestead means an overabundance of eggs.
While my two-year-old hens took a break over the winter, the six young Rhode Island red pullets began laying in the fall and continued to supply us with eggs all winter long.
As soon as the days began to lengthen in spring, the older gals also resumed laying and soon we were overrun with eggs. I mean, the 8-12 eggs-per-day kind of overrun. For two people.
And although I use a lot of eggs during the spring, I still have more than several dozen eggs in the refrigerator. Lots more.
Can eggs be preserved for later use?
Yes, they can! Let's explore several ways you can "put eggs by" to use later.
But first, feel free to cook and bake with abandon, without worrying about how many eggs a dish requires. Spring is the time to splurge on recipes that include eggs.
You'll find more than 13 delicious ways to use extra eggs in this list of my favorite egg-heavy dishes.
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How to check egg freshness
Before trying any of these methods of preserving eggs, do the "float test" to weed out the too-old eggs.
To check freshness of eggs in water, put the eggs one at a time in a deep pan of water. If an egg lays on the bottom of the pan it is a good, fresh egg.
If one end of the egg stands up in the water but the other end is still on the bottom of the pan, it's a good egg, just not as fresh.
If the egg floats on top of the water, get rid of it - very carefully! (Rotten eggs stink!)
How long do farm fresh eggs last
Eggs are laid with a natural coating on them which is called "bloom." The bloom seals the shells and keeps bacteria from entering the eggshell through the shell's pores.
As long as you don't wash the bloom off the eggs, they will keep quite well in the refrigerator.
Is it necessary to keep eggs in the refrigerator? Actually, no. You can keep them on the kitchen counter as long as you don't wash them.
They don't last as long on the counter as in the refrigerator, so plan to use these eggs first, before the ones in the fridge.
Of course, if an egg has a crack it should be discarded whether you keep them in the refrigerator or on the counter. Cracks allow bacteria to enter the egg.
The FDA says that fresh eggs should be used within 4-6 weeks if they are refrigerated. But honestly I don't pay much attention to the dates.
I use the oldest eggs first, and if I think they might be too old, I test if the eggs are fresh using the float-in-water test above. Of course if they flunk the test, we don't use them.
By the way, if I'm selling eggs from my flock, I only sell the newest, freshest, refrigerated eggs!
Eggs that you buy at the grocery store are probably already 4-6 weeks old when you bring them home. We all know from experience that store-bought eggs will keep quite awhile in our home refrigerator. The FDA says to use eggs from the grocery store within 3-4 weeks of purchase.
For this reason, I feel that I can safely refrigerate farm fresh eggs for 4 weeks longer than store-bought eggs.
Storing eggs long term
The methods that I'm sharing here are meant to store eggs for longer periods of time, but if you wish to store eggs long term I suggest preserving them with lime (called "water glassing") or buying freeze-dried eggs (unless you're blessed to have a home freeze dryer!).
You'll find directions for water glassing eggs here, from Homesteading Family.
Pickled eggs
Making pickled eggs was the first way to preserve eggs that I researched. I didn't find much information at the time, but pickling eggs has become a more popular topic lately.
While we're not big fans of pickled eggs, I do make an occasional batch of pickled eggs. I use these directions to pickle eggsfrom Healing Harvest Homestead.
Can you dehydrate eggs?
I've been told repeatedly that it's not safe to dehydrate eggs at home - that the eggs don't get hot enough to kill any bacteria. Raw eggs are famous as a source of salmonella poisoning.
In spite of this notoriety I do eat raw cookie dough, which contains raw eggs. Don't judge me.
So I tried dehydrating eggs anyway, whisking up half a dozen fresh eggs and spreading them on the plastic dehydrator sheet that's meant to be used for making fruit roll-ups.
It took a really long time to dry the eggs, and they were greasy when they were "done" so I wasn't entirely sure that they were dry enough to store. They didn't look terribly appealing either. Honestly, I couldn't make myself eat them.
If you're interested in dehydrating eggs and want to give it a try, here are directions to dehydrate eggsfrom Little House Living.
How to freeze eggs
Freezing eggs is an easy way to preserve them for use later.
I used to use ice cube trays for this but one egg takes more than one "cube" of space. That made figuring out how many cubes I'd need for a recipe calling for two eggs a bit of a guess.
So I began using my silicon cupcake liners, set inside a cupcake baking pan so they would hold their shape better. This is a much better method. And even better is using a one-piece silicon baking mold.
You have the choice of freezing the eggs well-beaten or simply cracking an egg into the cavity and freezing it unbeaten (less labor!). The choice is up to you; they seem to do well either way.
Simply set the full silicon baking molds or ice cube tray in the freezer until the eggs are frozen.
Then pop the frozen eggs out of the molds and put them in a zippered bag, and put the bag back in the freezer to store.
Frozen eggs can be stored for approximately one year.
When ready to use them, let the frozen egg thaw in the refrigerator overnight and then add to your recipe, or make an omelet or scrambled eggs.
How to freeze whole eggs
You can also freeze whole eggs. Simply place washed eggs in zip-top bags, label then with the date and put them right in the freezer.
When you need an egg or two, remove them from the freezer, run them under warm water, remove the shells and place the eggs in a bowl to thaw.
It usually takes 15-30 minutes to thaw a whole, frozen egg on the counter, or a couple of hours in the refrigerator.
The first time I froze eggs whole, I was convinced that the eggs would crack in the freezer, make a mess and be unusable, but I could spare a few considering I was overrun with eggs.
So I washed half a dozen eggs and put them in the freezer in a zip-top bag, labeled with the date.
The next day I checked them out. Yes, they had cracked, but evidently the egg inside was already frozen when that happened so there was no mess.
It was easy to peel the shell from one of the eggs after letting hot tap water run over it for a few minutes. (It's a strange feeling to hold a shell-less, raw egg in your hand, still holding its frozen whole-egg shape.)
I put the egg in a bowl and stuck it in the refrigerator to thaw completely. By the next morning it was thawed and ready to use. The yolk stood tall just like a fresh egg should.
If you have room in your freezer, this is a viable method of preserving eggs. It's definitely the quickest and simplest way to freeze eggs.
Preserve eggs with mineral oil
This quick, easy and simple method has become my go-to way to keep eggs fresh longer in the refrigerator. Of course, you're still limited by the amount of space you have in the fridge.
While most directions I've found suggest using mineral oil, I use cooking oil (which in my house means olive oil) instead. The directions are the same.
Pour a small amount of oil in your hand and roll a washed, dry egg around until it's completely coated with the oil. Set the egg on a kitchen towel while you coat the rest of the day's eggs - don't set them back in an egg carton yet, as the oil will make them stick to the carton.
Then "polish" the eggs with another clean towel to remove excess oil. The oil seals the pores and keeps air and bacteria from penetrating the shells, keeping the eggs fresh longer. Store them in cartons in the refrigerator.
These eggs last a good number of months in the refrigerator. Since I use eggs sparingly during the winter, I usually have enough to get us through till spring.
If you're interested in having chickens in your backyard so you'll have a surplus of eggs, check out all of my chicken-keeping posts here.
