Food Preservation

With more and more people looking to become sustainable food storage is a huge topic. Eggs are a great frugal addition to your diet. While many of you are looking for eggs and finding them hard to find others are about to see a rush of eggs from home chickens or sales that often hit around easter when egg production ramps up. When you find eggs on sale it is a good idea to store eggs for later. You can freeze eggs to make them last longer. Eggs make a lot of hard boiled eggs for the kids to munch and also take advantage of easy egg dishes for meals we still get a lot more eggs than our family can use at a time when the prices are so low. A great way to take advantage of these sales is to freeze eggs. A common question asked in my cooking groups is can you freeze eggs? The truth is yes you can freeze eggs both in pre-cooked egg dishes and ready for cooking with later. Eggs can last quite a long time. Most fresh eggs will last 5-6 weeks without going bad or losing quality. If you get your eggs fresh from the farm without removing the bloom they can even be stored outside of the refrigerator so having limited space really shouldn't stop you from taking advantage of a good deal. We once managed to find farm fresh pasture-raised eggs at only $1 a dozen and well we stocked up. We have also been known to take advantage of big sales on eggs in store like when Walmart had cases of eggs for $1.18 a box. When we end up with more eggs than even our large family can handle we move the extras to the freezer for later. Yes, you can freeze eggs. Snag a large batch of eggs when you find a deal and freeze them for later. Frozen eggs work well in baking or even scrambled eggs. Freezing eggs does limit what you can use them for later. If you are going to need separate eggs to freeze them that way as they do not separate well once frozen and thawed. How to freeze eggs. You can use any freezable container for freezing eggs. I like to use silicone cupcake liners because they are very easy to remove the frozen eggs from the container. Simply crack the eggs into the cups and freeze. If you are separating the egg whites from yokes for freezing separate and freeze in sets of 2 or in a classic ice cube tray for single eggs worth. You can pre scramble your eggs before freezing or even freeze in larger batches for thawing and making family size scrambled eggs. How to thaw frozen eggs. When you are ready to use your frozen eggs take them out of the freezer and place into your refrigerator overnight. If you need them quickly place in a ziplock back and soak in warm water to thaw. How to use frozen eggs. Egg yokes and whole eggs can be sued right away once thawed. This is perfect for using in your baking or whipping up a quick breakfast. If you need to use egg whites and are looking to beat them up into a fluffy texture you will need to treat them a bit differently. Egg whites will beat into a fluffier texture if you make a point to bring them up to room temperature before beating. How long can eggs be frozen? Eggs can be frozen for up to a year. The main concern with frozen eggs is that they freeze-burn really easily and take on a rubbery texture. To prevent this make a point to seal your frozen eggs well. If you have a deep freezer store them there where it is far too cold to freezer burn. I prefer to store large batches inside a vacuum sealer for long-term storage and place the bag into a zipper-style freezer bag once I open the sealed bag for use. What do you do if your eggs freeze in the refrigerator? When your refrigerator is very full it is not uncommon for the top shelf to freeze over. For many families, this space is used for eggs and other smaller containers. If your eggs freeze over simply allow them to thaw and use them as normal. If the eggs cracked when they froze move to a small bowl while they thaw and use as soon as possible.