This winter we had to run to the store to buy eggs. We are spoiled with fresh eggs so when winter came around and our hens were hardly laying eggs, we felt it. This year we are trying to prepare for the slower laying months. We don’t want to buy eggs at the store ever again, Lord willing.
Out of all the ways to preserve eggs, water glassing made sense to us. You only have to buy one ingredient: pickling lime.
When your hens are laying more than you can consume, start putting away in a basket or bowl clean and unwashed eggs. You want the eggs to be clean and you can’t wash your eggs. Keep your eggs in a pantry and not in your refrigerator.
A lot of people store their eggs in food grade buckets. Which works but after doing some research we have decided to keep them in mason jars and store less at a time. When you store a lot of eggs, the ones on top may be too heavy for the ones on bottom causing the eggs to crack. You could still use the eggs that haven’t cracked but this could make the whole bucket stinky.
All you need is:
- hydrated lime or pickling lime
- a jar or bucket with lid so water doesn’t evaporate. You could add a small layer of olive oil on top.
- distilled water
- fresh, unwashed, unrefrigerated, and clean eggs.
The ratio is for every one ounce of pickling lime used you need one quart of water.
First add your eggs to the jar or bucket. Then weigh out your pickling lime in a separate bowl. Add water to the pickling lime and mix. Pour the water and pickling lime solution over your eggs. Seal the bucket or jar so the water doesn’t evaporate. In a few minutes the lime will settle to the bottom of the jar. This is totally normal.
It is said that you can preserve raw eggs using this method, a year, eighteen months, or even two years. I don’t plan to keep the eggs that long. Just to get us by on our slower months. If we don’t use up all the water glassing eggs that we are preserving this spring by next spring, then I’ll bake the eggs and give them back to our chickens to eat.
Before using the eggs, you want to rinse off the eggs with water.
If you liked this post, you might enjoy How to Render Lard.
Thank you for reading our blog post.