How long will raw eggs stay at room temperature without being refrigerated?

[the6step]

I started eating raw just yesterday. 4 raw eggs, 1 package of raw grass fed ground beef. I'm still alive.

So I'm waiting for a farm order so I don't have to go to the grocery store, but in the meantime (since it seems like it's better to eat raw eggs from grocery store rather than cooked food) I have some non-gmo, organic, "sunlit barnes and porches" eggs. One of the packages I have has been out for more than 24 hours, and I'm wondering how long these eggs can last non refrigerated.

The follow up question is the same question but for pasture eggs. I live in NYC so it might be difficult for me to get eggs "in the membrane and poop" as people were putting it on this other thread I was reading, so just assume they look like regular store bought eggs.

[dariorpl]

It depends on a few factors like temperature, humidity, how long ago the eggs have been laid when you get them, and how high you will allow them to get before you consider them to be spoiled.

Even in the summer, unrefrigerated eggs should last for a month if not more. Certainly a few weeks without developing any kind of smell. When they do start to smell, the smell is very mild and usually not unpleasant. If anything, they have a stronger taste only, but the smell doesn't begin to get unpleasant until it's been 2+ months usually.

Try and get eggs that have never been refrigerated. Refrigeration probably destroys nutrients and there's a chance that refrigerated eggs will spoil faster when left unrefrigerated.

If it's very hot and humid, like over 30 degrees celcius consistently and with high humidity, they may begin to develop a faint eggy smell within 2.5 weeks or so. But again, this also depends on how long they've been laid when you first get them.

Btw, plenty of people intentionally allow their eggs to get very high for months upon months (in some cases years or even decades) before consuming them.

[TylerDurden]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2421530/So-eggs-fridge-Scientists-crack-age-old-argument-chilled-room-temperature-best.html

[PaleoPatsy]

^^Is it possible for someone to summarise what the Daily Mail article says?  (I try not to click on Daily Mail articles to avoid supporting them and increasing their revenue)

[dariorpl]

^^Is it possible for someone to summarise what the Daily Mail article says?  (I try not to click on Daily Mail articles to avoid supporting them and increasing their revenue)

iirc, it says that they did tests and found that there was no difference as far as "food poisoning" from keeping eggs refrigerated or at room temperature. Can't remember if they said refrigerated eggs lasted longer. Probably so.

[PaleoPatsy]

iirc, it says that they did tests and found that there was no difference as far as "food poisoning" from keeping eggs refrigerated or at room temperature. Can't remember if they said refrigerated eggs lasted longer. Probably so.

Thanks so much Dariorpl

[surfsteve]

I don't know about raw eggs but when I was a kid my dad always went to a bar that had a bowl full of hard boiled eggs. I never saw anyone order one and my dad went there for years... till one day a new guy came in and ordered one. He cracked it on the bar, peeled it and ate it without complaining about it being spoiled or to my surprise keeling over dead!

[FRANCIS HOWARD BOND]

I remember hard boiled eggs on the local bars and believe they were pickled, but never fancied one although other people had these or whelks.

[surfsteve]

Yeah I remember pickled eggs too! Never seen anybody eat one of those either. Nor a pickled pigs foot. I bet more of them were eaten on wagers than out of actual hunger. The pickled eggs looked like they had been shelled but thinking back the acid in the vinegar might have just made the shells soft.

I wonder if vinegar is paleo. It would seem so and that it would form naturally in fruit that is rotting. Same with alcohol. I've seen nature videos of monkeys getting drunk and falling out of trees from eating fruit that has fermented.

[dariorpl]

I think it may be the case that a strong acid like vinegar can dissolve the shell of an egg if given enough time, so then the eggs would effectively be shelled, but by having the shell dissolved in the acid.

As far as vinegar being paleo, we've had this discussion here some time ago, I'll try and find you the link

[dariorpl]

here:

http://www.rawpaleodietforum.com/general-discussion/how-are-you-able-to-substain-this/msg128298/#msg128298

[FRANCIS HOWARD BOND]

Another item on bar tops was pickled onions which were quite popular, although they may have produced unwanted reactions later on!

[surfsteve]

I have a lot of experience making my own pickled vegetables from scratch. Vegetables will make their own vinegar by simply leaving them to ferment. Adding salt will not only make them taste good but keep them from turning to mush. The salt and spices you add are what control which types of microbes are allowed to grow and the flavor you get. The flavor comes not only from the spices but from the very types of microbes you allow to grow during the fermentation process by adding them.

I don't drink anymore but I also have a lot of experience making my own wine and alcoholic beverages. Ginger beer was the most rewarding and easiest to make. If you cap any fermentation and make it hard for the gasses to escape it will make it's own natural carbonation.

[dariorpl]

If the salt and spices are what control the types of yeast and bacteria that grow and ferment the foods, then wouldn't it be possible to start a "mother culture" similar to vinegar, with the salt and spices, and then use that culture to introduce the desired yeasts and bacteria into a new preparation, without the need to add the salt, in such a way that salt is only necessary with the first preparation, but not in subsequent ones?

[surfsteve]

I'm afraid it doesn't work that way. The yeasts and cultures on the vegetables are already on there so unless you sterilize them by boiling you can not control the culture you begin with. On the other hand this is exactly what you do when you make ginger beer. First you boil it to kill off everything. Then you add a specific type of yeast into a sterile environment. For example champagne yeast. With uncooked wild live cultures like making pickles however you are stuck with whatever is on them to begin with so all you can do is control the conditions to propagate the ones you want. I always use extra salt than recommended when I pickle. I feel this is needed because I use real Celtic sea salt, which has many other minerals besides sodium chloride so you need a little extra.  My favorite thing to ferment  is a mixture of carrots, celery and onions. I also make a mean salsa from tomatoes, onions and hot peppers. For spices I like salt, pepper, oregano. cayenne, and last but not least garlic!

[dariorpl]

I was thinking that by overloading them with the bacteria and yeasts you want, it would work.

When making kefir from kefir grains, all it takes is to add either a small amount of kefir grains, or a little already made kefir from a recent batch into raw milk to get the whole of the raw milk to adopt the bacteria and yeast composition of your kefir, even though the milk already has its own microbes present in small quantities, but what you add is much more concentrated and developed, so it overtakes whatever else was in there from before.

[surfsteve]

I highly recommend you save some jars and start doing it for yourself. Start small till you get the hang of it to avoid throwing out huge batches and then once you get the hang of it you can go to town!