No Rotten Eggs Here!

One of those mystery foods in my fridge always seems to be eggs.  We eat them sometimes, and sometimes we don't.  Often a carton of eggs will go unnoticed until I am not sure how long they have been sitting there. Thank goodness for the freshness date on the carton!  Somehow no matter how hard I try to prevent it, eggs are one of the foods that go to waste a lot of the time in my household. 

But one of the best things I learned on the first season of National Geographic's Doomsday Preppers is how to preserve eggs.  One of the best things about preserving eggs is that you don't need to go out and buy a secondary fridge for your egg storage needs.  When you preserve eggs, you can store them unrefrigerated with the rest of your dry goods! I have heard that preserved eggs can last up to a year, but I only keep them around for about 9 months just to be safe. 

When a chicken lays an egg it is not exactly as you see it from the carton in your fridge.  There is a coating on it called bloom.  This coating keeps bacteria and other harmful environmental elements out, but it also keeps air out.  Basic food storage skills tell us that air is our enemy.  Once eggs are processed and washed at the factory, they no longer have the bloom on them and thus are vulnerable to spoilage through air getting into them. 

So how do you replace this coating naturally found on eggs?  Mineral oil!  Heat up some mineral oil for a few seconds in the microwave (10 seconds or so should be good) and give the eggs a good coating of it.  This will mimic the bloom and protect your eggs as if they just came out of the chicken. 

If you want to store them for a few weeks, on the kitchen counter out of extreme heat or direct sunlight is fine.  To store them for extended periods, it is best to put them in a cool place, at 68 degrees or lower. 

A little more information on eggs:
Did you know that there is no nutritional difference between white and brown eggs?  In our health conscious society which is currently obsessed with whole grain products, we are trained to believe that if it is brown it is healthier.  This might hold true for bread, but it does not for eggs.  The only difference between white and brown eggs is the chicken they came from.  Despite their color and higher price, brown eggs are not nutritionally different than white eggs.