Preserving Eggs - Southeast AgNET

Cathy Isom tells us how farm fresh eggs in the early days stayed fresh without refrigeration. That’s coming up on “This Land of Ours.”

Download Preserving Eggs

We know that chickens have been around for hundreds of years – but refrigeration hasn’t. So exactly how did all of those farm fresh eggs keep their shelf life without an icebox? History buffs like Jonathan Townsend created a You Tube video detailing the top six historical egg preservation techniques – straight out of the 18th century.

Those methods included:

*burying eggs in wheat bran.

*covering them in shellack or varnish

*coating them with oil – like butter – or an oil-like substance or rendered animal fat.

*People also use to bury their eggs in wood ash. In almost all of those methods, more than half of the eggs went bad after eight months and had the musty aftertaste of wheat bran – or those in the wood ash resembled the last of a campfire.

But probably the most successful method for preserving eggs was using slaked lime and a bucket of water. He noted that after eight months, 100 percent of the eggs were still good.

Video from: Jas. Townsend and Son, Inc.

In this video, we explore six egg preservation methods that were used in households from the 18th century to well into the 20th century. Early tests reveal that some of these methods were incredibly effective. You won’t believe how successful the top-rated method worked!

Caveat: This video is intended to only present the methods and tests results outlined in historical texts. We have not tested these methods ourselves, and we cannot guarantee similar results.