The Stunningly Simple Method To Make Fresh Eggs Last Up To 2 Years
Calling all egg lovers! Whether you enjoy cracking them open to start the day with some protein on your avocado toast or using them for various baking recipes, eggs are a crucial ingredient in any food lover's kitchen. According to Statista, approximately 9.2 billion dozen of eggs were produced in the United States in 2021, equating to 110.4 billion eggs.
With all of these eggs produced in the United States alone, it's only right to try to put them to good use and let as few go to waste as possible. With over 101 ways to cook an egg, you shouldn't have to worry about using all of them up. But how many times have you bought a dozen at the store only for them to sit in your refrigerator for months on end? Then, once you're down to the last couple of eggs, you're left wondering if they're still good.
Thankfully, there are actually several research-based and traditional methods to store eggs that allow them to be eaten for months and even years after. It's important to note that these methods were used on farm fresh eggs and not eggs purchased from a grocery store (there's a difference, per H.C. Summers), so results may vary.
How to make eggs keep longer
Listen, reading about some of these methods to make eggs last longer might just leave you shocked. But in times when you may find yourself without a refrigerator, and with the price of eggs soaring, any method to make them last longer is good in our book. According to Modern Farmer, natural, farm-fresh eggs have a bacteria-preventing coating on them that allows the egg to stay protected from moisture. The eggs bought at the store are washed, meaning this coating goes away. This results in eggs needing to be refrigerated to stay good and "fresh" for a couple of weeks.
Indiana-based company Jas. Townsend & Son, Inc., a company that specializes in 18th-century topics and lifestyle, actually walks its nearly two million YouTube subscribers through the top egg preservation techniques. The first method is using slaked lime. When farm fresh eggs are submerged in slaked lime water for eight months, a claimed 100% of the eggs are still good to eat. Slaked lime is made when quicklime is mixed with water (via Dictionary.com). You can buy slaked lime at a building or mason supply store, specifically asking for "hydrated" lime. One quart of regular water with one ounce of hydrated lime should produce these results.
An article from The Genesee Farmer takes this method a step further, claiming that this method could allow the eggs to be stored and eaten for as long as six years.
Other methods for making eggs last
Townsends actually explains five other methods that people can try to naturally preserve their eggs without a refrigerator for longer periods of time. Other methods include: burying them in salt or in brine; storing them in wheat bran; coating them in shellack; coating them in butter or animal fat, and burying them in wood ashes.
While these methods were proven to work throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, they weren't 100% effective, per Townsends. Storing eggs in salt or in brine made the eggs absorb the salty flavor while also drying out the inside of the egg, so it could only be used for a short period of time. Storing eggs in wheat bran did make the eggs hold a musty taste, but 30% of the eggs were still good after eight months. Coating the eggs in animal fat resulted in a 60% success rate while burying eggs in wood ashes had the best success rate, boasting 80% of the eggs still good and fresh after eight months.
According to The Boat Galley, you could also grease eggs with Vaseline, boil them in water for 10 seconds, deep-freeze them, or simply turn eggs on different sides and angles every few days to make them naturally last without refrigeration.