Homestead Journal at Fat Turkey Farm

The Great Egg Experiment, part 2

Ok, now for part 2 of this egg-speriment.

This time I took 9 eggs, cracked them into a bowl, whipped them up really well and put them straight into the dryer.  I made foil trays so it wouldn't run off the side and make a huge mess.

I used three tray for this, but I think it might work better if I put more egg on each one next time.  These were dried at 145 degrees for 10 hours before the center was completly dry.  There was less oily residue on the egg this time too, I noticed.

All dry! 

My son helped scrape the egg off the foil trays, but I found it worked better if you just use your hands and kind of bend the foil around to get it off.  The spatula kind of flung chunks all over the counter.  It wasn't difficult to get it off the trays, it didn't stick, so to speak.

All ready for a whirl in the food processor.  It worked better this time, but it still didn't get it to the powdered form I am looking for.  So, I tried the grain mill again, and ran into some serious static electricty issues with what came out of the burr.  I had dry egg on anything metal within two feet of the mill.  Maybe if I had run the chunks thru before the food processor bit it might have worked better.  I ended up using this....

The morter/pestle did a pretty decent job, but I still didn't get a powder.  I wonder if my electric coffee grinder would work, so I'll try that next time.

I used 2 1/2T egg with 2 1/2T hot tap water and mixed it up and let it sit for a few mins.  It wasn't very liquidy, so I added another teaspoon of hot water to get what you see above.  It was lots less lumpy than the previous experiment, it made a much smoother mixture.  You can sort of see small grains of dark orange in the picture, these did not absorb into the mix.  I also mixed a second batch using boiling water, but that did not make any difference in it.  The mix smelled like a fresh egg, no nasty odor, and tasted just like an egg.

I tossed the mix into a hot pan and it made an egg pancake instead of scrambling much,  I had to break it up with the spatual.  It didn't make a nice fluffy scrambled egg.  It might make a nicer cooked egg if I had added some milk to the mix before cooking.  The best part of it though is this....

It wasn't grainy!!!!

The texture was very smooth, with no grainy-ness to it at all.  It tasted just like a freshly cooked egg, with a nice fresh smell to it.

I believe that I will be using this method for drying my eggs from now on.  Again, I will be storing it in a canning jar, vac sealed, in the freezer, to keep it from going rancid.

A comment was left yesterday about  a substance used to preserve eggs in the shell (Hi Tracie!).  That substance is called "Water Glass" and its a solution made of sodium silicate. It is said to preserve eggs for up to 9 months.

Disclaimer:  Same as yesterday.  Your on your own.  USDA says "don't".  You get sick, dont call me.

wow!

{ 02:58, May 3, 2006 } { Posted by maidmyown }

Thanks for sharing 'the how to do' on this - what a great start to me reading your blog!

Egg Experiment

{ 03:56, May 3, 2006 } { Posted by Greenberry }

Glad the process went better this time!

way to go!

{ 07:46, May 4, 2006 } { Posted by VTLinda }

This is MOST interesting!! :D And, I always have trouble getting a fluffy scrambled egg (fresh ones!) unless I whip in a little milk right before they go into the skillet ... Just a thought. You are sooo ingenious! Following your progress is such fun.
Cheers! ~Linda in Virginia