Mineral oil and egg shells

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  • Swampninja

    Member
    April 15, 2023 at 1:23 pm

    How well does the mineral oil keep the eggs?

    I’ve heard of using oil but have only glassed so far.

    I’ve noticed with the glassed eggs the yolks don’t stay intact.

    • Angus-Byars

      Member
      April 15, 2023 at 4:58 pm

      I’ve gotten 3 months so far. I do check them before use as well by setting them in a cup of water to see if they float, stand on end, or just lay there.

  • Redcap

    Member
    April 15, 2023 at 1:44 pm

    I would not add mineral oil to the compost. That brings up another issue I’ve been thinking about lately.

    There’s a really cool scientist lady who has done YouTube food stuff for years and she explained that the bloom on eggs doesn’t cover 100% of the egg. There’s always a spot or two that is bare open pores. She was talking about preserving eggs and folks had been asked about water glassing in hydrated lime.

    Her opinion was to not use the lime because some could be absorbed over the time it’s sitting in the lime water in those spots not covered by the bloom. But then she suggested using mineral oil which surprised me.

    If the lime can be absorbed, then I sure wouldn’t want the petrochemicals from mineral oil in there either!

    I did research the biology of egg bloom and she’s right. As the bloom is laid onto the eggs, there is frequently an area that doesn’t get entirely covered.

    So now I dehydrate my eggs and I’ve also frozen some. I never had any problem with the water glassing in lime – which I did for three years, but I might not do it this year and I definitely wouldn’t coat my eggs with a petrochemical knowing it could be absorbed into the egg.

    I don’t mean to put down your method. I know people do both just fine, but now that I have this new information, I just thought I’d share it and let you make your own best choice.

    But no, don’t put mineral oil eggshells in your compost. Now the lime shells are fine in compost as long as your chickens aren’t going in there and eating them right away. And neither should be fed back to the chickens in any case.

    • Woodsman

      Member
      April 15, 2023 at 4:51 pm

      You need not apologize for your fact based knowledge. Emotions do not matter. There is no room for them or politics when providing good, honest fact based information.

      Sure, it is nice to be nice, but it shouldn’t be a all controlling / all consuming importance when providing information.

      We are all here to teach, learn and benefit from one another. Let not this platform and content shared become one more “walking on egg shell” echo chambers plate form of unstable emotion “woke” idiots who call people with good info. A troll?

      I appreciate your wisdom and thank you for sharing it.

      • Angus-Byars

        Member
        April 15, 2023 at 5:06 pm

        Right on.

      • Redcap

        Member
        April 16, 2023 at 1:54 pm

        I’m also autistic and I have to remember that many other people are feelings based so I try to share facts without stomping on anyone’s toes. I do believe in informed choice. As long as you have information, then I don’t care what you choose. I just like to make sure people have choices. My best friend from high school and I reconnected big time when I moved back to the area after 45 years away. She has a medical background and is very level-headed. She knew darned well the masks weren’t going to help because people used ineffective cloth or paper masks AND they did not know aseptic technique for replacing them. We both came from liberal families but are both rather conservative, certainly compared to them. (My husband and I still laugh at the lunacy of the term “mostly peaceful” regarding the Portland burning riots.) But she took the inoculation. No matter that information I shared. Luckily, we love each other very much and after talking about it, we had to just happily agree to disagree and move on. I think the more you love people and want them to be happy, the more you “love one another as I have loved you”. I am not a Christian, but Jesus was right. He never turned his back on anyone no matter what they did. He still loved them even if he didn’t agree with them. And he gave everything to help them. That’s real love.

      • Woodsman

        Member
        April 16, 2023 at 5:45 pm

        I love you too!

      • Redcap

        Member
        April 16, 2023 at 7:14 pm

        🙂

    • Angus-Byars

      Member
      April 15, 2023 at 5:00 pm

      I do appreciate all of what you said here. Haven’t tried water glassing yet, read mixed reviews. Going to try freezing them in ice trays.

      • CALLINTHEWILD

        Member
        April 23, 2023 at 2:53 pm

        Has anyone here tried to waterglass store eggs? With mineral oil first? Always looking for new ideas on food preservation!

  • JerseyGiantChick

    Member
    April 15, 2023 at 2:15 pm

    Hiw do you hydrate your eggs, scrabble and then hydrate? Or can you boil them first and hydrate, but with first you can still bake en cook with the eggs right?

    • Redcap

      Member
      April 16, 2023 at 1:36 pm

      I’ve dehydrated my fresh raw eggs over the wood stove and in an electric dehydrator just fine. To rehydrate you mix 1 TBSP of the powdered egg with 1/5-2 TBSP water and whisk until smooth. Then they scramble up just fine or you can use them in French toast, to make omelets, or in baking or quiche. Any way you’d use whisked up eggs.

      Most of the videos I’ve seen of people who cooked them first and then dehydrated them didn’t like the results when rehydrated. I have not tried it.

      • JerseyGiantChick

        Member
        April 16, 2023 at 2:01 pm

        Thank you just the info I need, have not found powdered eggs here so really need to do it myself.

      • Redcap

        Member
        April 16, 2023 at 2:06 pm

        I looked up freeze-dried/powdered eggs to buy but they were just too expensive. Then Heidi of Rain Country did some videos about dehydrating eggs and I was totally on board. I’m always looking for efficient ways to preserve food that also require fewer machines or ingredients. Because I’m always thinking – yeah, but what if I can’t get lime? or what if my freezer goes? We happened to get eggs over winter and I wish I’d started a lot sooner because I only did about 3 dozen over the wood stove before it got warm out. So I bought a used Nesco dehydrator and am doing some more now.

      • JerseyGiantChick

        Member
        April 16, 2023 at 2:41 pm

        My thoughts to great way to preserve without power.

  • Durgan

    Member
    April 15, 2023 at 2:34 pm

    I doubt seriously it will do any harm. Yes, it’s a byproduct of distilling petroleum, but mineral oil is used by some orally for such things as constipation. (not for more than a week, as the body becomes dependent on it for that purpose). You’re not dumping a quart of Quaker State on your veggie food. However, I’d cut out the mineral oil step by other methods of preservation. You can freeze eggs, dehydrate, water glass, and other methods. Hell, crack the eggs into an icecube tray to freeze them and there you have portion control. This is ‘Merica, you have options.

    • This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Durgan.
    • Angus-Byars

      Member
      April 15, 2023 at 5:05 pm

      Haven’t tried freezing them yet, but will this week. I also need to look into dehydration. So far so good though on the use of the mineral oil, and yes I do understand the concern. Going to put the crushed shells into a Mason jar of water to see if I get a oil film, just now thought if that.

    • Redcap

      Member
      April 16, 2023 at 1:41 pm

      Thank you for the reality check “You’re not dumping Quaker State in your food”. LOL That’s good! Still I personally prefer to not use petrochemicals in my body if I can avoid it. Not that I’m perfect about eating “clean”. I might as well pour Quaker State in my cup for the Coca-Cola or Mountain Dew I like to have when we go out for a burger which definitely does me no good at all. 😜

  • DeeDee

    Member
    April 15, 2023 at 3:02 pm

    I would love to dehydrate my eggs, we give so many away I’d like to dehydrate a few for later use. Thank you

  • FrostmourneFarm

    Member
    April 15, 2023 at 3:26 pm

    Have you tried selling your eggs at a local farm store? Or get involved with a Farmers Market? Make a little money to help pay for feed or other supplies for the birds. It took me a while to find a read the local rules on it but it has kept my expenses down.

  • Summerhat-n-Chicks

    Member
    April 15, 2023 at 5:07 pm

    I have kept my eggs in a cardboard egg karate in the basement for up to four months. Yes, the change their consistency, but they’re still taste good and I’ve heard that they keep even longer like that. I don’t keep my eggs that long anymore, because I just don’t need to, because I have a steady supply of eggs. I give what I don’t want to the local food pantry.

    • Redcap

      Member
      April 16, 2023 at 1:37 pm

      👍

  • Redcap

    Member
    April 16, 2023 at 1:43 pm

    I will say I have water glassed my eggs in lime for three years and they seemed fine if not a bit runny if I didn’t use completely fresh eggs. But I do hear the mineral oil method works very well. Maybe you can do a few methods and see which one you like best. Test them out in January after they’ve been stored awhile.

    • Schnickelfritz

      Member
      April 19, 2023 at 8:34 pm

      So glad to be doing that, also! I have eggs from last summer in hydrated lime and have had no issues at all. The yolks do get runny in most of them, but they look and taste very fresh! I try to take the eggs from the nest as is and place them in the lime water right away. If there are any bare spots from the natural bloom, I have not noticed anything different so far.

  • Summerhat-n-Chicks

    Member
    April 17, 2023 at 1:42 am

    Found something for you about preserving eggs.

    https://youtu.be/yUYgguMz1qI

    • Angus-Byars

      Member
      April 17, 2023 at 12:33 pm

      Great channel, been watching him for a few years. Hadn’t thought of using lard instead of mineral oil, may have to give that a try.

    • Redcap

      Member
      April 21, 2023 at 9:59 pm

      I love the Townsends. They have been a real blessing as we’ve moved to a more colonial/medieval style of living. Super simple means and foods. It’s made our lives and prepping so much easier to design.

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