Pages

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Freezing Eggs for Long Term Storage

We have chickens and ducks.

They lay eggs.

It's what they do.

In the spring and summer, they lay lots of eggs.

Lots. Of. Eggs.

We have eggs coming out our ears.  

We can't eat that many and we're not really interested in selling them so last summer, I decided to freeze them to see if they'd keep that way.    It totally worked!

First we beat three eggs and measured about how much that made:   3 eggs = 1/2 cup-ish of beaten egg goo.  2 eggs = 1/3 cup-ish.   Ish - because eggs are different sizes.  

Then we cracked a whole lot more eggs and beat them.  

Then we labelled some ziplock type freezer bags clearly so we'd know how many eggs were in a bag.    We did some 3 egg bags and some 2 egg bags.  

Then we measured them into the bags.  [It was messy.]   Make sure they're closed tightly.

Then we stacked the bags so they'd be flat.

Then we froze them.

Freezing was easy, the big question was how they'd work when thawed.

A word about thawing eggs:  do not thaw these things in a microwave - they'll cook.   You don't want that.  

Thaw them in the fridge or maybe in hot water if you need them faster.   

Frozen eggs thaw thick.   [Thounds like I'm lithping.]  What I mean is that when they thaw, the eggs don't get thin and runny - they stay sort of custardy.     It turned out not to be a big deal.    They incorporate just fine in cakes and cookies and even a dutch pancake.  

Bottom line - this was a great way for us to preserve the egg bounty of May and June in the freezer to use now when we're lucky to get a few eggs a week.