eggs shelf life

[svrn]

How long can eggs be kept in a cold dark place before they go bad. I've had month old eggs out of the fridge that were great. If I vacuum-sealed them would they last longer?

I'm thinking about them as a survival food.

[balancing-act]

I'm thinking about them as a survival food.
[/quote]

Are you predicted some kind of imminent mass doom? Or you can just never be too sure, that kind of thing?

Eggs seem to last quite a while, but not forever, idk exactly.

[Dorothy]

Troll - it depends on if you wash them or not. The chicken puts on a natural coating called bloom that allows a chicken egg to stay completely viable in just about any weather or conditions for the couple of weeks that it takes for the chicken to lay enough eggs to have a complete clutch. After that if you don't wash the bloom off and store it at room temp in your house those eggs will taste and be almost as nutritious as the day they were laid for months. If you want to go longer they used to preserve eggs by immersing them in a good quality olive oil. Why eggs go bad is because the shells are porous and it is oxygenation that breaks the interiors down over time. Olive oil in a way prolongs the bloom effect. But in the "olden days" they used certain techniques to help eggs to ferment properly. If you do this then you can have eggs that would be better than good for years. I have never tried to ferment eggs though because mine never last very long at all.

You have to start with good fresh eggs from chickens that were fed right and that are not washed. That's the ticket. If you are talking about having a store for at least half a year (I would think - but google it) all you need is some olive oil. The whites break down before the yolks by the way as they are closest to the shell and get the oxygenation first. The white is only backup nutrition for the growing chick and a buffer for shocks etc. Make sure your egg yolks are round, the whites are thick and those stringy things on the end are still there. Those stringy things are what hold the inside of the egg to the shell in place and are the first thing to break down as the inside starts to separate from the shell with oxygenation.

I learned all this kind of stuff years back when I was studying chicken books before I got my girls. If you really want to understand eggs - it's the chicken nerds ya gotta ask. 

Oh - and don't put your eggs in plastic please. Why eat plastic as shells are absorbent? Yuck. There are many better things to store them in than that. They used to store eggs in ashes from the fire. I'm not sure about that either. They used to bury them too. But when researching it I decided that olive oil was the best choice.

[goodsamaritan]

My experience with unwashed duck eggs is 2 weeks shelf life

[Dorothy]

My experience with unwashed duck eggs is 2 weeks shelf life

You're kidding! That's so short. Are they refrigerated? Refrigeration really shortens shelf-life. What temperature do you store them at? I wonder if they weren't old to begin with.

All my chicken/duck nerd friends say that their eggs stay fresh for months.

[svrn]

what i really want to know is if a vacuum seal will prolong its life and by how much.

[Dorothy]

That sounds dangerous to me in oh so many ways.

I would do it in the traditional ways. There are many. You can keep eggs for years if you preserve them traditionally.

[goodsamaritan]

You're kidding! That's so short. Are they refrigerated? Refrigeration really shortens shelf-life. What temperature do you store them at? I wonder if they weren't old to begin with.

All my chicken/duck nerd friends say that their eggs stay fresh for months.

Yes I'm sure it's 2 weeks.
Maybe because it is the tropical weather in my location?
Just like raw meat, I can't just hang it out like Sabertooth does.

[RawZi]

I'm sure it's 2 weeks.
Maybe because it is the tropical weather in my location?

    You can't make higheggs there?  What if you would bury them, like some Chinese people do.  I have some really old eggs here.  Wish me luck, I am going to eat one or more today.

[svrn]

That sounds dangerous to me in oh so many ways.

I would do it in the traditional ways. There are many. You can keep eggs for years if you preserve them traditionally.

What sounds dangerous about vacuum sealing? Do you suggest i just leave the eggs in a tub of olive oil? That sounds pretty expensive to me, especially if im gonna be using raw olive oil.

How do you make high eggs rawzi?

[Dorothy]

Zi - I think Troll is in NYCity - not so good for burying.

I took a class in olive oil and all truly extra virgin oil is raw - it has to be - but then again - 70% of the oils that are labeled extra virgin are not. They found some oil 3000 years old and it still had active antimicrobial factors in it. It might be expensive to get real extra virgin. If money is the only concern though - then cook and pickle them or dehydrate them.

You can also put the eggs in ashes from the fireplace and many other forms of traditional preservation.

Eggshells are absorbent and will pull in the plastic. That would be the number one concern. The second would be that it would likely rot the eggs in a bad way instead of good way. You want the right kind of bacteria growing.

It reminds me of like when the Inuit were convinced to start putting their meats in plastic instead of traditional methods - botulism.

[svrn]

I will be leaving NYC to live in the middle of nowhere in a couple of months so that wont be an issue (thank god).

So if i buried a couple hundred eggs and dug em up in 10 years would they all basically be "century eggs"? Would it be feasible to eat many of these every day for an extended period of time or would that be too much bacteria? Would they help to sustain me or should they only be used as part of the rest of my stored food? Right now my only real options for storeable food are grains and I would really like to have something other than that if I ever need it.

[Dorothy]

Going out to the country. Nice.

From what I read Troll "century eggs" were actually usually cured from 3 months to a year (the oldest ones were for the Emperor only. It's like the century aloe plant that is called that because it's supposed to bloom once a century - but actually blooms usually within a decade. It's one of the exaggeration names. I've never made them so please don't depend too much on my knowledge. It would be better to research it more - maybe get every book at the NYC library on chicken raising and eggs. That's where I learned what I know. You could skim the books to see if there is any good info on traditional egg preservation.

Here's the thing with bacteria: in other cultures and in older cultures, they grow up never refrigerating their eggs and they prize cultured eggs so they get used to eating the bacteria and have a gut that is used to lots and lots of bacteria - good and bad. They don't live like we do and try to sanitize everything like I do. You would have to get yourself more and more used to foods with lots of probiotics. Some people get diarrhea eating just a little bit of good bacteria because it can be so cleansing. How much you can eat and with how much bacteria and what you will be able to tolerate will much depend on your personal tolerance, your health and of course - personal taste. It's like it is with high meat. Some people can't stand it and some people thrive on it and it's usually not for beginners. Same with eggs.

Another thing to consider when storing a food buried in the ground is that it might be raided by animals - so would have to be properly protected.

If you are moving to the country and will have a place of your own, often the best way to make sure you have enough food for the long-term is to learn how to raise it for yourself. If you have chickens some of them are going to go broody and raise more chickens. If you have enough space they will be able to go out and find bugs for themselves. In this way you could have a continual supply of fresh eggs - and old chickens to eat too. Just an idea in case it could work for you. I love my chickens and love the fresh raw eggs, so that is my preference to figuring out how to store them.

Oh - and GS - it seems like where you are the eggs last only as long as it would take for a chicken to get together a clutch. That would mean that if they are bad in two weeks that they are breaking down before hand - which seems so strange. The eggs must be washed. You might be best served to place your eggs into oil that you get right away to preserve them. Without the bloom - eggs deteriorate way faster. I have gotten to the point where I just don't eat eggs without the bloom. I trust the chicken to protect the egg properly - I don't trust humans.

[eveheart]

So if i buried a couple hundred eggs and dug em up in 10 years would they all basically be "century eggs"?

Century eggs that people make or buy around here are a preservation process that is more involved than simply burying eggs for a while. In the market, they are eggs packed in a clay that has salt and other stuff in it. Sorta like a pickling or liming process (I said sorta!).

Fresh eggs can be stored covered in a tub of lard (or other fat) at ambient temperatures so that they don't oxidize. In my moderate climate, I can store any eggs for a long time, such as a month or more.

[Dorothy]

Yes, lard would be like the olive oil Eve. The fat gets into all those little pores - but I'm not all that sure that lard would be cheaper than oil - would it? The oil is pretty easy because you just pour and cover. Also, can lard sit out as long without going rancid - let alone a raw animal fat? A good olive oil will not go rancid for at least 2 years and is by the nature of its processing raw. It can be used again and again to store the eggs. I would wash the eggs though before putting into the oil as the particles on the egg could make the oil turn prematurely. 

True - in the old days they used to use lime and charcoal and other things for century eggs and then bury them in the soil - or not - but there are some cultures that would plain bury too. I'm not really sure how good the lye would be though and if you use ash from a fire you'd have to be careful about what trees.

I think fat would so much easier myself and safer. In a pinch you could even eat the fat! I have yet to have an egg last long enough to go bad though. Too many hungry critters!