How to Preserve Eggs with Hydrated Lime - No Refrigeration Needed

so yesterday i got to go visit my dear friends perry and carol in lawrenceburg tennessee they have some of the happiest chickens i've ever met in fact they're so happy they love strangers they came up and just wanted held and petted and just loved on and because they are so happy they lay a whole lot of eggs so before i left there perry and carol made sure i did not leave without at least four dozen freshly collected eggs and i couldn't wait to come home the first thing i thought of was i want to show you how to preserve eggs in the next few minutes we're going to talk over how to very simply very easy any of us can do it preserve eggs for up to two years with no refrigeration i'm not joking stick around i'll show you in a minute it would be naive of us to think that if we just get some chickens they'll certainly lay enough eggs for our family all through the year but you must know that if the chickens are brooding or molting or just traumatized by some sort of catastrophic event or weather change they stop producing and that's why we need a way to have eggs that are going to last us through those seasons sometimes as much as six or eight weeks where they stop altogether laying eggs it's pretty interesting if you start doing the research you'll notice that there are actually dozens of ways that people have recorded as their method of how to preserve eggs the longest now some of them are really strange and out there and many of them are unproven to be consistently successful i want to show you just one of the top two ways that i preserve eggs that i think is the longest lasting with the most the highest success rate now since the beginning of time humans have eaten eggs as far as we know and it's only in very recent history that we have the luxury of refrigeration and a freezer yes that can preserve your eggs and keep them for months without going bad but i want you to plan for the event that you might not have a freezer as a luxury to keep your eggs they also take a lot of room in there and most freezers are not huge so let's think about outside the box what could we do to preserve eggs for the longest amount of time today i'm going to talk you through a really simple way that i think all of us should know how to do and i'm excited to share it with you i've got here four dozen eggs that's 48 eggs that were all hatched from there or not hatched but all laid this week from the hens that are so happy they're laying a whole lot of eggs these have not been refrigerated nor have they been washed and that's very important i don't want you to to bend the rules on that because this will not work if they have ever been refrigerated and washed so you can't use this with store-bought eggs at all also you want to check your eggs closely so that there are no hairline fractures or little cracks these are all perfect shape at least right now they are we'll see by the end of this episode if i've kept them all without breaking anything all right the next thing you're going to need is just a simple croc that's going to have a pretty tight fitting lid and you can use a five gallon bucket or any kind of a nice bucket with a with a tight fitting lid will work just fine and then we are going to use slaked lime as one of the things that it's called it's also known as pickling lime it's used in mortar and the easiest way for you to get this kind of lime is not through the store where you go to the grocery store and buy a little tiny bag of pickling lime for like 10 bucks you want to go to the hardware store like down to lowe's or home depot or if you have an ace hardware or even tractor supply this lime is different than what you might throw out in the garden so you're not looking for that but this is the exact same kind you're going to find in lowe's that's used in cement isn't that crazy so you can get like a 50 pound bag for 10 or 12 bucks that's going to last you for years of egg preservation and making a whole bunch of stuff as well so that's where you're going to start i've got my two crocks that are my favorite this is a four gallon crock i got at an antique store whenever i'm out traveling my favorite thing to do instead of stopping at a rest area is find a good antique store run in there and see if there are any treasures that will make me a good prep stutter you'll often find crocs like this but they'll be missing their lid so i measured it carefully and i went on amazon and i just ordered myself a nice thick pine lid that i will be able to seal up and use as a tight fitting lid for this crack and it will work just as well as this brand new croc that i got in cantrell iowa at the amish store they have some of the best things for those of us who are prep setters and you can get these in all sizes but they're rather expensive and so this is a luxury item from my kitchen but you can get them with i think three gallons five gallons you can get and they're excellent for fermenting that's really what they're often used for i'm using mine for preserving eggs so today what you're going to see is us mixing up our concoction to put with these eggs and that calcium hydroxide that i mentioned i got this version of you'll see it literally it's the same thing you're going to get that's called slaked lime at the hardware store this is different though than the sodium silicate that you will hear some folks using interchangeably when we talk about eggs being water glassed or water glassing that's a different thing and you don't want to mix them together but they're both very effective at this this seems to be just a little bit more affected in my opinion at making them last even up to two years with no refrigeration and even a lot of fluctuation in hot cold hot cold so this is all you're going to do you want to get one ounce of this by weight so we're not measuring it with a little spoon or anything this is by weight you want one ounce of this to one quart of distilled water now i've heard some people say oh i have my own well can i just use my own well water i'm going to encourage you don't use tap water because of the things that are in it like the fluoride and the other things that we don't want in there the chlorine but well water often you don't know for sure how many heavy metals are in there and minerals and things like that if in doubt just trust me on this one you want to use distilled water thankfully i have a gracious friend who donated their distiller to me i'll put the link below for the one that i use it's a water wise brand distiller and it does a fantastic job and then another video we'll cover how to distill water not using electricity at all but that's the kind of water you're going to mix up and so we will use that here in just a moment now let's get started putting these in because there is just a smidgen of thought you want to put into how you put your eggs in first you're going to have checked them for those hairline fractures and make sure that they're crack free and then you're going to put the little pointiest end down remember that i've heard multiple people give multiple reasons and i don't know which one is the most valid but i do know that for a fact when you keep them face down like that it does kind of keep that little air bubble that naturally occurs up in the top fat part of the egg and it keeps the yolk a little bit more centered who cares if it's centered or off centered but some of you who are real particular when you fry your morning eggs might be thankful that you stored it nose down it will not ruin them if you don't but what you're going to do is attempt to carefully turn your croc kind of at a diagonal like this one and yes you can see a little anomaly there's a little black speck in there that was fired into it it's not dirt or anything i have washed this thoroughly i've washed my hands thoroughly but don't touch your eggs with any kind of wash you do not want them to be washed because it will take the bloom off before you've even preserved them we want that on there just make sure they're not all chunky and feathery you don't want that kind those might be do better somewhere else so i usually just start and the moment i put the first egg in i can pick up the second egg and lay it next to it and very quickly they start holding each other up in that nose down position the more i put in the more they cooperate with each other and it works best in my opinion to put them in this first layer while it's still dry affect most all the layers i put in while it's still dry but some folks like to put the water in first so i keep this at an angle i go ahead and put all of them nose down propping each other up and they'll fill it up so that it's like a little puzzle down in there all right i've got the first layer complete now i can actually put it back up on its upright and it will those eggs are all holding each other up which is perfect and now just carefully with clean hands i go and stack the whole rest of the batch of eggs right on top of them now if you're wondering this one gallon crock is going to hold just shy of 48 eggs i could fit all of them in here technically but what you'd find is it's hard to get the water to be at a high enough level to cover them by about an inch which is what i'm going to want before i call it good so i'll just fill it up with probably close to 40 eggs i hope that helps you know how many you can expect but they all fit in almost like little puzzle pieces on top of those down below them as soon as i get this filled up i'll show you what it looks like all right i think i'm just going to stop right there and it's okay if a few of them lean over on their sides i think i've got 45 eggs in there right now and that's perfect because i want about an inch of water on top of them none of them can be hanging out and i'll even take a few of these out if they're too close to the surface of that water but now let's prepare the slaked lime i'll say this one more time just so you remember one ounce by weight of the calcium hydroxide to one quart of distilled water now when you fill up a whole gallon like this it's hit or miss because all eggs are just a little bit different in size so you may fit more or less in may take a little bit more of the volume up of that crack but generally you want to plan for about one-third to one half of that being what you need to mix up in water which would mean one quart to two quarts that would be the equivalent uh that we're looking somewhere right in between that measurement so to start i will just do one this is exactly one ounce of calcium hydroxide and then i have two quarts of distilled water here already prepared for us because we might need as much as two quarts but we're just going to pour in one quart first and stir it up let's see how much i've got that's almost as fine as like powdered sugar so you do see a little bit of it in the air i don't think it's going to hurt anybody now the best way to do is whisk this up and since we're staying true to the idea of no electricity i did want to show you one of my favorite little mixing tools that i use a lot this is what i use in place of a blender a whole lot of times so when other folks are buying the electric blenders look at how as you push on this it actually does the blending for me almost like a power mixer or a power whisk so truly you could for this particular project use just a good egg whisk but i'm going to in this case use my little semi-powered powerless whisk that's going to just bring everything up from the bottom of that and mix it in real good over time the slate slime does tend to settle to the bottom of the crock and that's just fine don't worry about it but before you pour it in you sure do want to make sure you have absolutely stirred it in well so we're going to whisk it up here just a little bit until it's as incorporated as we can get and then we'll pour it over the top of those eggs all right there's our first court again this is lukewarm this is not cold nor is it hot and you want it just at that lukewarm here we go we're going to pour it on in all right it looks like we can fit at least one more cord over there just perfectly so let's get that done there are a lot of folks that use older crocs that don't have lids and just in case you do decide to do that and you cannot find a lid for the best of you what you'll want to do is after we get this filled a little bit i'll mix just a little bit more and get it fully covering those eggs you can actually cover it with olive oil a thick layer of olive oil you know how that floats and rises to the top of water and as long as this is airtight over it so a lot of folks will use that in place of a of a lid you shouldn't have any eggs that float to the top if that happens you have a bad egg and when you take these out that's one of the first tests you'll do is by taking about two cups of water set your egg in it and just make sure it goes immediately to the bottom because if it floats it might be bad you prepare yourself for that we've prepared this perfectly though and because i have a good lid i'm not going to cover it with a layer of oil or anything obviously i don't have room in this crock anyway but those bubbles are simply from the froth that probably worked itself up when i was stirring it but what we're going to do now is just cover this with our lid if you're worried at all because crocs have this way of not necessarily being exactly perfect in their seal don't stress about that because it can handle a little of unsealedness as long as there are no eggs touching the air above the water line but if in doubt you can put a little layer of saran wrap just right underneath this or right over that before you lay it on there so that it seals that nicely and there are folks that also choose to put just a little rim of oil or thick gummy-ness like wax or something right around there if they really want a tight seal i'm happy with the way i've got mine and i will literally keep it on the counter because this is going to keep it dark i'll keep it on the counter and later transfer it to the pantry that is literally all there is to it can you believe it this will sit on my counter and last for anywhere between eight months to two years with perfectly edible good eggs there are the occasional exceptions to the rule but almost all of them will last that long i want you to know that the slaked lime that's keeping them is this very interesting thing this calcium hydroxide is miraculous in my opinion and it can be used for so many different things in fact in a future episode i want you to tune in because we're going to make our own and i'll give you a hint to let you know what that's going to look like literally collecting seashells outside and little bone fragments that you might find out in your yard those along with all of the eggshells that you save from your eggs yes i save all my eggshells i use some of those in the garden especially around like tomato plants that benefit from them but the rest of them i save because they make the very same lime that we put in here to preserve the eggs again can you believe that so we'll do that in a future episode that i hope you tune in for i did want to just let you know it is kind of an antibacterial that takes care of these eggs over the long term that's why it works and when you get them out don't expect them to be identical to a fresh egg because the the yolk as well as the white of the egg kind of gets just a little bit wadi waterier if that's a word more watery it doesn't hold up quite as tall and straight as the yolk of a freshly laid egg but it will taste just as fresh and it will be delicious if by chance you have one that doesn't smell right or is off color or the the yolk is immediately broken as it exits the the shells as you're breaking it if it's not your fault for breaking the yolk probably no that's a bad egg because once it doesn't hold its own yoke together that's a bad sign all right we'll talk about that in another episode for now i want you to just get some slaked lime of your own down at the hardware store put this together and you're going to have some preserved eggs that will last you at least all the way through winter there you have it wasn't that easy and i promise you your grandparents would be entirely proud of you now if you haven't already i do hope you subscribe and hit the bell so you get all of our videos as they come out each week share this with somebody that you love and let's meet back here next week and until then will you make it a point to go out and be a blessing to someone else today we'll see you next time bye for now before you go we'd love to share a scripture with you it's matthew 11 28 then jesus said come to me all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens and i will give you rest when i'm awake when i have sleep then i know you're always watching over me when these dark clouds come in ants around me i know you'll be right there to pull me out oh right here right now oh right now lay my burdens made my burdens down you

Channel: PREPSTEADERS

Views: 61,079

Rating: 4.9674797 out of 5

Keywords: Survival, Homesteading, Prepping, Preppers, prepsteaders, wisdom creek, waterglassing, eggs, distilled water, slaked lime, hydrated lime, Calcium Hydroxide, Crock, Egg preservation, no refrigeration

Id: JIeY4ICQNdA

Length: 21min 14sec (1274 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 03 2020