Homestead Journal at Fat Turkey Farm

The Great Egg Experiment

I have decided to try to dehydrate eggs.  I have attemped this for a couple of reasons, which I shall let you in on.

1)  I am over run with eggs right now.  There are 10 dozen sitting in my fridge as we speak.  I thought about freezing them, but I don't really have the space for bags or jars of frozen eggs, plus if we lose power, I would lose them anyhow.

2)  Bird flu.  If this hits this country, which I think it will eventually, I stand a good chance of losing my flock.  There most likely won't be any eggs in the store either.  I don't know about you, but I like eggs, so this is my egg insurance policy, so to speak.

I took 1 dozen eggs, cracked them into a mixing bowl, and whipped them up good.  I made sure there were no stingies from the egg white and that it was all well incorporated with each other.  I did not add milk or water to the mixture.  This was poured into a hot pan with no oil and cooked scrambled style.

I broke up the eggs into small chunks for drying.  I think if I do it this way again, I will run them thru a ricer first to make them even smaller.  The eggs were allowed to cool for about 15 mins before being spread out onto the fruit roll trays in the dryer.  I spread them out over 4 sheets.

I dried the eggs at 145 degrees for 9 hours.  Towards the end of the drying time, I noticed the eggs were becoming oily.  I believe this is the fats from the yolk coming out.  The dry chunks were put into a plastic bag and put in the fridge overnight.

I put the chunks into the food processor to turn it into a powder.  Sadly, these chunks were so dry and hard the food processor had a tough time.  It did get it down to the size of small pebbles, or large sand.  So.....

Into the grain mill (thanks Tracie!) they went.  I used a setting slightly larger than I would for flour, and had to keep pushing the eggs down into the grinder part to keep it going thru.  It did make a slightly grainy textured powder.

I mixed 2 1/2T egg powder with 2 1/2T hot tap water to get the above mixture.  It made a thick paste that really wasn't very appealing.  It smelled like fresh cooked eggs and didn't taste bad, but still had that grainy texture to it.  I also mixed egg and boiling water, but only got a mix that was a bit less grainy than before.

This is the egg mixture after cooking again.  They had a grainy feeling in your mouth, but tasted fine and were edible according to my son who scarfed them down. 

I would be storing this powder in a quart jar, vacuume sealed, in the freezer.  The oils that were coming out would prob. make it go rancid if left on the shelf for any length of time.

I have not knowingly eaten powdered eggs before, but I don't think a grainy texture would be normal for them.  My theory on this is that the pre-cooking changed the protein in the eggs to make them grainy.

I am trying this a different way today, and will let you know the results of my next egg-speriment!

Disclaimer:  The USDA does NOT recommend you dry your own eggs due to things like salmonella in the eggs.  I have tried this on my own, using my fresh eggs, from my healthy chickens, in my clean kitchen with safe food handling practices.  If you attempt this on your own, you may be taking your life or your family's down a road you don't want to go down.  If you get sick or kill someone, I bear no responsibility for it.  You attempt this on your own!

good disclaimer and what a

{ 09:28, May 2, 2006 } { Posted by VTLinda }

great idea! I\'m most interested in how your (LOL) eggsperiments turn out! :D Great post!

Cheers!

~Linda in Virginia

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{ 04:06, May 2, 2006 } { Posted by riverrim }

Nice eggperiment! I have read that people pickel eggs too, but I think I would like your dried version a little better. Great tutorial!

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{ 10:42, May 2, 2006 } { Posted by tracie }

Actually, there is some stuff that you rub all over your eggs and it seals them so they stay "fresh" for extended periods of time. This might be an option or if brid flu hits go eggless like us, not quite as fun as topless though...just a little humor from a tired mom.

Drying Eggs

{ 06:24, May 3, 2006 } { Posted by Greenberry }

Very interesting! I used to have so many eggs. If you can refine the technique it should prove very useful!