Freezing eggs

[roitelet]

Does anyone know if eggs can be frozen?

I have lots at the moment but I know that the chooks will soon be going off the lay so I would like to preserve some rather than give them all away.

All advice very welcome. Thanks

[Flummery]

I don't know about raw eggs roitelet. I would imagine they would burst their shells. Certainly if you hard boil them the whites go very rubbery and not at all pleasant. Years ago I had a real fad for kedgeree for breakfast (posh or what?) but after some experimentation would freeze it without hard boiled egg and parsley and add those on the morning. Otherwise you felt you were chewing the egg white forever and the parsley went limp and slimy.

Anyone know if you could freeze beaten egg - to give you a scrambled/omelette option later?

Just checked on 't internet and you can freeze them raw - either beaten together or separated - freeze whites and yolks separately.

[Alison]

Freeze egg whites quite often and it works fine. For some reason never have any spare yolks though.

[mrs potato head]

Don't eggs have a naturally long shelf life naturally, so long as no cracks in shell?.

[nemo]

hello roitelet
nemo here from ireland
every summer we freeze our surplus eggs we crack the eggshell and put the required number of eggs into a freezer bag. after we defrost the eggs we only use the eggs for baking usually for making sponge cakes
i hope this helps
a very good little book about hens and use full recipes is "hens in the garden eggs in the kitchen
regards
nemo

[Don Vincenzo]

hello roitelet
nemo here from ireland
every summer we freeze our surplus eggs we crack the eggshell and put the required number of eggs into a freezer bag. after we defrost the eggs we only use the eggs for baking usually for making sponge cakes
i hope this helps
a very good little book about hens and use full recipes is "hens in the garden eggs in the kitchen
regards
nemo

Hi
having worked in the catering industry, in some places we used to buy frozen eggs yolks in a litre packs for various cooking purpose. I found them fine
Regards
Don Vincenzo

[roitelet]

Thanks All,

I will give it a try but the darling little hens are still laying

[Dobby]

I have seen nigela larson do it, freeze eggs that is

[Flummery]

Bet you got all the lads going there, eh, Dobby?

[valmarg]

According to Michel Roux's book Desserts, a Lifelong Passion,"Unbeaten egg whites can be kept frozen in an airtight container for several weeks.

Egg yolks: To freeze, whisk lightly with 5-10% sugar, then freeze at -25C/-13F for no more than four weeks.

Egg yolks 'burn' on contact with sugar or salt, so they must be beaten immediately with a whisk or spatula until completely homogeneous, otherwise they will form into hard little granules, which are impossible to break up."

valmarg

[Janette]

I sympathise as I have 10 ducks and we are getting between 8 and 10 eggs per day.

I have frozen in bags of 4 beaten eggs so that they will keep me going for baking, quiche, scrambled egg etc throughout the winter when the laying drops off.

Ideally use within 6 months of freezing.

Janette

[HeyWayne]

I thought this post was going to be about something completely different!

[Polly Fouracre]

If you can find it ,Isinglass is a wonderful way of preserving eggs.
You will need an enamel (NOT plastic) bucket and isinglass dissolved in water. put eggs in bucket as they are gathered and make sure they are covered in the liquid at all times.They will keep all winter like this and will be good for cakes or scrambling but not so good for fried eggs.
My mother's Springer Spaniel,Jimmy Giblets (dead for forty years now) would hunt out eggs laid in hedgerows and bury them in the veg. garden. Ma,digging them up in the winter would find them good enough to eat so I suppose it's the lack of air that keeps them fresh.

[Hilary B]

If you can find it ,Isinglass is a wonderful way of preserving eggs.
You will need an enamel (NOT plastic) bucket and isinglass dissolved in water. put eggs in bucket as they are gathered and make sure they are covered in the liquid at all times.They will keep all winter like this and will be good for cakes or scrambling but not so good for fried eggs.
My mother's Springer Spaniel,Jimmy Giblets (dead for forty years now) would hunt out eggs laid in hedgerows and bury them in the veg. garden. Ma,digging them up in the winter would find them good enough to eat so I suppose it's the lack of air that keeps them fresh.

I used to call it isinglass, but as I got told, the substance you need is WATERGLASS. Isinglass comes from fish, waterglass is a weird mineral. Some (old-fashioned?) chemists may still sell it.
It is very effective (I've done it a few times, when we had hens) but make sure you only use eggs which are naturally clean and dry. It is a good idea to write the 'collected' date on each egg (with ordinary pencil) and try to use them up in the same order you put them in the pot.

[PAULW]

WATERGLASS
Sodium silicate was also used as an egg preservation agent in the early 20th Century with large success. When fresh eggs are immersed in it, bacteria which cause the eggs to spoil are kept out and water is kept in. Eggs can be kept fresh using this method for up to nine months. When boiling eggs preserved this way, it is well advised to pin-prick the egg to allow steam to escape because the shell is no longer porous.