This is a low cost tip I haven't yet seeen discussed on the forums: before the advent of household refrigerators it was common to have a tub or urn filled with WATERGLASS aka sodium silicate, into which fresh eggs would be placed to preserve their freshness longer.... how long, I do not know. Sodium silicate is sclear and gloppy, looking like very viscous or gelatinous water. You should have no trouble ordering it or finding it through your pharmacist, or maybe their are other sources. the stuff is virtually inert, non-toxic, and impermeable to oxygen .... so your fresh eggs placed in it keep well for ???? months I would think. Old Git or some of the other down-toearther's should be familiar with this. My father said his family always had a ceramic jug filled with waterglass that they kept their eggs in.

Squirrel Hunter >"<

-- SH (squirrl@huntr.com), November 23, 1999

Answers

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California

I'm redirecting folks from Tim Zigler's thread at the TB2K Classic Forum on How long do eggs keep? to here.

I've been happy with the dehydrated eggs that I bought from The Egg Store.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), November 23, 1999.

I purchased some water glass (Rutland Silicate Sealer from Lehman's, page 150 of their catalog, $21.95, will preserve 50 dozen eggs.) I mixed it with water (11 to 1) and put it in a 5-gal ceramic crock. Then I put 2 dozen eggs in it and covered it with a cloth to keep out any dust. Two months later (today), we ate fried eggs for brunch. They were fine. No problems, except one. The waterglass has started to solidify. A crust had formed on the top which almost caused me to break the eggs, while trying to remove them. Apparently, the water evaporation out of the crock has caused this problem. I re-read the directions on the container and it says to keep the container covered to prevent drying out. I had followed some internet instructions received earlier, to just cover with a cloth. I suppose if I had added some additional water every 2 weeks or so, I might have avoided this problem. However, now that I have replaced the solution in the crock, I am now going to cover it with a plastic bag to prevent future evaporation. Yes, I had to dump the old solution. I tried to add water to it, but the chucks of waterglass would not dissolve. So I dumped it all, cleaned the crock, added new solution and 3 dozen eggs. Then I placed a plastic bag over it, which fits tight enough to prevent evaporation. This should be good for 4 months, barring any other unforeseen problems!!

-- cora (cjohnson@seidata.com), November 26, 1999.