Water Glassing Eggs
Water glassing is a traditional, safe way of preserving eggs for long-term storage without the need for refrigeration! The process has been used since the early 1800’s and involves mixing pickling lime in water and submerging the eggs in the mixture.
Equipment
- 1 Food-grade container any size from 1 quart to 5 gallons
Ingredients
- 1 oz Picking lime per 1 quart of water
- fresh, clean, unwashed, unrefrigerated eggs with thick shells (*see discussion above for details) DO NOT use store-bought eggs
- water well, filtered or distillled
Instructions
- Add fresh, unwashed, clean, unrefrigerated, thick-shelled eggs to your food-safe container of choice. Be very careful to add the eggs gently because if one egg cracks, then the entire batch is ruined. Try to position the eggs pointy side down.
- Mix pickling lime in with water using a ratio of 1 oz pickling lime to 1 quart of water. Then, pour it gently over the eggs. Ensure that you have enough liquid to cover your eggs by 2 inches.
- Cover and place your water glassed eggs in storage (cool location out of direct sunlight). They don't need refrigerated!
- Store for 1 year (some say up to 2 years)!
- When you want to use them, pull them out by hand (freshly washed hands or wear a dishwashing glove if you have sensitive skin), being very careful not to drop one. If an egg breaks in the container, the whole batch is technically ruined.
- Rinse the eggs well so there's no lime residue. Then, use them just as you would a fresh egg in the summer.
Notes
What if an egg breaks in the container?
Ohhhhh, this is the golden question, and the technical answer is that the whole batch has been contaminated if that happens and should be thrown out. I know the pain of having to face this situation, especially since I water glass ALL of my eggs in 1 container. Losing them ALL is a hard pill to swallow. What do I do? Thankfully, most of the time, it's just an egg with a hairline crack rather than one that has completely opened up. In those cases, the little bit of egg white and yolk seems to crystallize along the crack and stays contained. No sweat. I remove the egg and move on. If I uncover a fully broken egg (rare, but it can happen), I remove as much of it as possible and dispose of it. If I find that the contents have landed on any surrounding eggs, I remove and dispose of those, too. From then on, I carefully inspect each egg before use by cracking it in a separate dish before it goes into the hot pan or mixing bowl. So far, so good! *DISCLAIMER: This is my personal take on what I do. This is not a recommendation. Please do your own research and do what you feel is safest for you and your family!Do water glassed eggs taste weird?
Nope! Especially if you use them all up within a year or less. There have been reports of them starting to take on a lime taste if they are leftover for more than a year.Why is the lime settling on the bottom?
This is completely normal and OK! Do not attempt to stir it, or you could risk breaking the eggs.Can I water glass store-bought eggs?
Definitely not! Eggs are porous and protected by a naturally occurring bloom coating that the hen secretes on the egg’s exterior just before laying it. All store-bought eggs are washed per the USDA guidelines, so that means that the protective bloom coating is gone. If you tried to water glass store-bought eggs, the lime mixture would quickly leak through the unprotected shell and ruin its contents. You must use fresh, clean, unwashed eggs!Nutrition
Serving: 1eggCalories: 72kcalProtein: 6gFat: 5g
Did you try my recipe?Let me know how it was!