Is This Egg Still Good? Testing Your Eggs for Freshness and Preserving Them for Future Use

A good friend called me a while back, wanting to know if there was some trick or something special about using home-raised eggs, as opposed to store-bought.  Her neighbor would give her some of his excess every once in a while, but she wasn't impressed with their strong smell.  I finally asked if she had ever done the float test.
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This woman knows just about everything when it comes to cooking and baking, and she'd never heard of such a thing.  So I explained it to her, and she conducted her test as we chatted on the phone.  The eggs from the neighbor, who was so generous as to share his bounty, were floating.

To conduct your own float test, place the eggs in a bowl of cool water, with enough water to cover the eggs by about two inches.  If they sink, they're good.  If they stand on end, they are probably still good.  Eat them very soon.  If they float, they're bad.  Treat as if you are handling an extremely fragile container of hazardous waste. 


As sometimes happens when you have your own chickens, the hens produce more than you can reasonably consume.  And then they decide to go through a molt or take the winter off, and you're left scrambling to get some eggs for breakfast.

As luck would have it, there are a few ways to preserve an overabundance of eggs.

The first is one we've been using for nearly a century now, good old refrigeration.  Keeping eggs nice and cool will keep them fresh for months.  As the saying goes, you can eat an egg at Easter that was laid on Christmas.

Freezing is another option that works extremely well.  You can freeze whole eggs, just the white, or just the yolk.  They can be frozen in freezer bags, canning jars, plastic containers, or ice cube trays.  Freezing eggs individually in ice cube trays makes it super easy to thaw and use the exact number of eggs necessary, rather than having to thaw and measure them out if they're frozen in the other types of containers.

Here's a general guide for using frozen eggs:

• 1 egg cube equals 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons frozen egg, thawed, equals 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons frozen egg white, thawed, equals the white of 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon of frozen yolk, thawed, equals the yolk of 1 egg

Then we have the dehydrating option.  Some people caution that dehydrating eggs is not something that should be done at home, that they should only be purchased commercially.  You'll have to decide for yourself here.  Life is full of risks.  Personally, I don't understand the fuss.  Eggs are really easy to dehydrate.  First, decide whether to beat the yolks and whites together, or keep them separate.  Run them through the blender and then pour onto dehydrator trays.  Dehydrate at 135 degrees for 6-8 hours, turning once halfway through dehydrating.  When the eggs are fully dehydrated, let them cool.  Then crumble them up in a blender and blend to a fine powder.  One dozen dehydrated eggs will fit in a pint jar.

Believe it or not, dehydrated eggs can be reconstituted and used the same as fresh.  No, they will not taste exactly the same, but they'll work for baking at the very least.  To reconstitute your eggs, use 1 tablespoon of egg powder and 1 tablespoon of water to substitute for one fresh egg.

These three options all require electricity, something our forebearers did not have.  And yet, they also preserved eggs for future use.  Following are a couple of off-grid methods.  They begin with using farm-fresh eggs.  Do not try this with store-bought eggs.

Eggs are covered by a substance commonly referred to as bloom.  This bloom extends the shelf life somewhat, but it is not as effective as a coating of oil.  To preserve your eggs with oil, first wash them well and pat them dry.  Then dip them in a food-grade liquid oil or rub them with a solid oil.  Stored in an egg carton in a cool, dry place, they will keep for up to 6-9 months.  Food-grade mineral oil yields the best results and longest shelf life.  However, eggs preserved this way do not work so well in baking cakes--the leavening action of the eggs in this situation is diminished. 

To further extend the shelf life of your oiled eggs, pack them in salt.  Pour about two inches of salt in a food-grade bucket.  Stand the eggs in the salt with the narrow end down.  Do not let the egg touch the sides or bottom of the bucket or any other eggs.  Add salt to cover the eggs and begin another layer.  Continue until the bucket is full or you run out of eggs.  Flip the eggs monthly and then store again, with the narrow side always down.  Stored this way in a cool dry place, they will keep for 9-24 months.

Another method is to use hydrated lime.  This substance is available in places like Lowe's or Home Depot or through Amazon.  Mix a solution of 1 ounce (by weight) of hydrated lime to 1 quart of distilled or boiled water.  Scale this mixture up or down as needed.  Pour the solution into a wide-mouth canning jar.  Add the clean, unwashed, farm-fresh eggs and cover to prevent evaporation of the solution.  Store in a cool, dark place.  While eggs preserved this way are best used within nine months, there are reports of the eggs being perfectly acceptable for use up to two years later.