One quick note before we start this video all the results are based upon 19th century tests
with modern materials you may not be able to get the same kind of results. Today we're covering the
top six historical egg preservation techniques you will not believe how well number one works.
We're so excited about this primitive and historic food preservation series and I know many of you
asked for this so this series is going to be great we just did a salted beans so check that episode
out if you haven't already seen it and also in the past we've done salted pork, pemmican, and even
the standing crust pie episode. Those are those all relate to historic food preservation so make
sure to go back and check out those old episodes. Today's episode came about because so many of you
viewers out there asked specifically about egg preservation techniques. Okay I can't help but I
just love this basket I use in what I'm going out to the garden or mushroom picking they are great
for all the round use even harvesting your apples these are these are great if you're interested you
can check them out on our website I'll put a link down than this the description section. Chickens
in the 18th century were a good bit different than the chickens we have today in fact the the
two most common breeds are endangered species or endangered breeds these days. So the result
of modern chicken breeding techniques results in much larger eggs and eggs being laid throughout
the year unlike 18th century chickens so as a result if you have a recipe that uses a lot of
eggs in it you'll probably want to use medium eggs instead of the standard large or extra-large eggs
to better replicate and and get those ratios right in the recipe. So before we get started with these
preservation methods we need to talk a little bit about the chicken egg itself and specifically the
shell. The shells on chicken eggs are all eggs for that matter are porous and that means bacteria and
mold spores can get into your egg and ruin it and that moisture can evaporate out of your egg
and now neither one of these things we want to happen. So infection and evaporation are really
the two big issues here now when an egg is late it naturally has a coating that protects from
both of these things. Most store-bought eggs today have been washed with so and water and while these
clean eggs sell better it shortens the shelf life on the other hand farm-fresh eggs that have never
been washed can last a relatively long time at room temperature provided they aren't cracked,
you keep them cool, and that they come out of a clean nest. So eggs that are cracked or dirty
should be washed and used right away consider only the cleanest and freshest eggs for your
long-term storage or preservation. There are some there's some 20th century texts that talk about
the biggest problem with spoilage in eggs really has to do whether the nest is dirty or damp food a
egg preservation it starts in the nest. So you've waited long enough here are the top six historic
egg preservation methods from the least effective to the most effective so number six burying your
eggs in salt Mrs. Frazier's cookbook references burying themselves burying the eggs in salt she
actually says is one of the best methods but it doesn't work for very long. Well the salt inhibits
the the bacteria does really good at that but the salt also draws the moisture out of the eggs
and it makes them bad in a fairly short period of time from lack of moisture. Another version
of this would be storing your eggs in brine in a salt solution and while that works - it only works
for a short period of time because it makes the eggs tremendously salty the water lets the salt
go into the egg. Number five storing your eggs in wheat bran wheat bran in the eighteenth century
was a very common byproduct very easy to come by not so easy today. But the main idea behind the
wheat bran was to keep your eggs dry it does have a disadvantage in that wheat bran kind of has a
musty smell or musty flavor and it would impart that flavor into the eggs fairly rapidly so that
was one of the disadvantages. In the early 19th century they did a number of experiments on egg
preservation and they tested this method and they found that after eight months they had a failure
rate of about 70 percent so 70 percent of them went bad. But thirty percent of them were still
goods and thirty percent is better than nothing method. Number four is coating your egg there are
references to both shellac or varnish varnishing your eggs but the big problem with varnishing or
shellacking and egg is okay you've painted it now what do you do with it if you set it down
any place it sticks to whatever you've stuck it to or whatever you you've placed it so there's it's
very difficult to dry so they would suggest that you wrapped the egg in paper and this let that
the coating dry without sticking to anything. And this method can also be supplemented with what are
these other methods like taking these eggs that are already coated and putting them in the bran
or the salt. So that brings us to number three and that is also coating but coating your eggs with an
oil or oil like substance you can either coat them in butter as the many of the texts suggest
or a rendered animal fat the problem with butter is that the butter goes bad it goes rancid after a
little bit of time but the rendered suet that this stuff will last indefinitely at room temperature
so this is a great solution. If you're interested in rendered suet make sure to check out our video
that covers that and I'll put a link down in the description that will take you directly to this
product. The early 19th century experiments using coatings like these and generally they had a 60
percent success rate so only 40 percent went bad after eight months. Number two is pretty amazing
wood ashes bury your eggs and wood ashes is so simple and wood ashes are such a common thing to
have at least definitely in the time period and really the best most are they really a stunning
idea here is that with their experiments they had a success rate of 80% only 20% of the eggs went
bad after eight months it does have a little bit of a problem in the eggs would take on a bit of an
ashy taste so there's a little bit of disadvantage there. A lot of the methods that we've covered so
far have been mentioned in comments on YouTube and on Facebook but this last method nobody has
mentioned yet and it's straight out of the 18th century you'll find it in cookbooks and
on patents and it has astounding results. So the number one 18th century egg preservation method
is what is this white stuff it's slaked lime what do you think the success rate is for eggs in lime
water at 8 months you get an astounding 100% of the eggs that are still good. That is amazing
no refrigeration no crazy stuff all you need is slaked lime and a bucket of water so let me show
you how to use this to preserve your eggs. So just a word or two about lime before we
get started lime was a very common product in the 18th century used for building techniques
and other things. Lime was made by burning oyster shells or limestone in these lime kills and that
would create a quick lime and quick lime once you added it into water would create slaked lime and
then slaked lime actually when you when you paint that on a wall or make it into say mortar mix the
slake lime absorbs carbon dioxide from the air and creates lime stone again and that's what's
so great about lime is this great circle of useful things you can do with it. I buy my slaked lime at
a building supply store or say a masonry supply store ask for hydrated lime this is not the same
thing as the lime you would find in the garden supply section of your store that's actually
just ground-up limestone. So to get started we're going to need a watertight vessel I'm
not doing very many eggs today so I'm going to use this 2 quart jar these are available in our
website. If you're doing a lot more eggs you'll want a bigger vessel something like a keg or
anything that really holds water in a much bigger way so to start we're going to put a little bit of
this powdered lime into the bottom of our vessel here I'm just using a couple of ounces if you're
using something bigger using the appropriate amount and now before we poured anything in
let's just fill our vessel up with eggs so you want to make a solution I'm using one quart of
nice clean tap water along with one ounce of hydrated lime if you're using a bigger thing
just use that same kind of ratio one quart to one ounce 1 ounce of this hydrated lime
is about three tablespoons and then let's just pour the solution right over the top of our eggs.
So the recipes call for protecting this from evaporation and most of the recipes suggested
something like a layer of oil maybe olive oil on top and that will keep the water from evaporating
this jar happens have a nice tight lid the waters right up here to the surface so I don't think
I need a layer on this particular one so all of these techniques continue to be used from the 18th
century all through the 19th century and right into the 20th century until home refrigeration
became very very common and there were only a few little additions. In the 19th century you see the
addition of say water glass being used that wasn't used earlier but really they were essentially the
same. There are some 18th century references that refer to this technique and said the eggs
will keep up to two years that is incredible. You know this this little experiment or this technique
methods these are all it's really neat it would be great to use in your historical presentation if
you're at a historic site or something like that it would also be really really good to connect
with kids if you've got a kids looking for a project to do a science project this would be
a great project to play around with it's kind of long term but it's a it's a great project
it's a great way to connect with your kids to do a project like this and to see whether you can
get the same kind of results that they did. Now I know I can hear some of you out there already
saying wait wait Jon you haven't covered pickling eggs while picking eggs is isn't is a little bit
different than this so we're going to cover that in a in a totally different episode so make sure
to stay tuned for that. Also if you're interested in more on egg preservation there's more and we've
got some extra supplementary material we're going to put this together and I've got a special link
down in the description text of this video to take you to that great supplementary material to
really kind of fill this out but I really want to thank you today for coming and sharing this
great information with me it's so much fun make sure to share this video with your friends and
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the button right up here also check out our related videos thanks so much for watching.