How to Store Fresh Eggs

Here’s how to store fresh eggs so they last!

Do you have chickens in your own backyard or you are lucky enough to have a friend that likes to share their overabundance of farm-fresh eggs? Then, you will need to know how to store them properly to get the most from your eggs.

Storing them can range from leaving on the counter for a few days to keeping them more long-term through common food preservation methods.

How to Store Fresh Eggs

Learning how to store farm fresh eggs is easy and means you never have to worry about waste. Eggs will last a long time if they are stored properly.

Read on to learn all about egg storage, washing eggs or not washing eggs, storing eggs at room temperature, ways to avoid any contamination, shelf life of fresh eggs, and lots more!

How fresh farm eggs are different than the ones from the store

Farm fresh eggs that have not been washed still have the bloom that is a natural protective layer around the outside of the egg. This bloom helps to prevent bacteria from entering the egg and starting the decomposition process. Store-bought eggs from the store have been washed removing the bloom. This actually allows bacteria to enter into the pores of the eggshell.

Farm fresh eggs are new and have not been sitting off to the side for a long time. The eggs that are laid by your home chickens or fresh from this past week at the local farm are truly fresh. The eggs from the grocery store can be weeks and even months old. This means they will not last as long before they go bad.

Storing your eggs on the counter

Farm fresh eggs that have not been washed do not need refrigeration. Unwashed fresh eggs can easily last on your counter for about 2 weeks. This means that if you know you can use them up fairly quickly you do not even have to think about moving your eggs to the refrigerator.

To store on your counter, make a point to only store eggs that appear clean without having to wash them. Some dirt and mess is fine as long as you are not storing in an area where you eat or do meal prep.

Be sure to rotate your eggs using the oldest before you use the newer ones. This will help to ensure that your eggs are not sitting for long periods of time. You can find egg holders designed to make it easy to rotate your eggs.

 

Refrigerating farm fresh eggs

While you do not have to store unwashed farm-fresh eggs in your refrigerator, this is an option for storage. If you plan to use your eggs within the next three months and have the room to keep them in your refrigerator you can store them there.

This is the best way to store farm fresh eggs that were not clean enough for on the counter. If you need to wash an egg it should always go right into the refrigerator. This will prevent bacteria from entering the shell and growing.

Like with eggs on your counter, you want to be sure to rotate the eggs that you store in the refrigerator. Rotating will ensure that your older eggs get used before you have to worry about them going bad.

Do not store eggs in the door compartment of your fridge because of temperature fluctuations every time you open the fridge door. Instead, keep your eggs in a carton on a shelf in the fridge.

 

Storing farm-fresh eggs in the freezer

If you want your eggs to last for a long time and have the freezer space you can freeze fresh eggs. You can freeze eggs by placing them into ice cube trays or silicone cupcake molds. Freeze them before moving to an air-tight container. The trick here is to always make sure that you have no air in your container. Vacuum sealing will give you the best result. Air can lead to freezer burn which makes eggs rubbery.

You can freeze as is after removing the eggs from the shell or scramble them up to make it easier to use later. If you need separated eggs you will need to split the yolks and whites before freezing. Yolks will soften when they thaw and can not be easily separated.

 

Water glassing eggs

Water glassing has become a popular new way to store fresh unwashed eggs but it originates from generations ago. It is a simple process done by taking unwashed farm fresh eggs and placing them in a thick mixture of lime and water.

Sodium silicate used to be used for this, but now most people use lime instead.

 

The lime in the water then fills in the pores of your eggs helping the bloom to fully seal your eggs. This keeps them fresh for up to 18 months for long-term storage in your pantry.

Learn more about water glassing eggs here.

 

Dehydrating eggs

If you do not have a lot of space and you find that you get a lot of eggs in the summer but almost none in the winter because there is simply not enough sunlight where you live, you can benefit from storing eggs for the long term. One great way to store a lot of eggs in a small amount of space is to make dehydrated eggs.

This can be done using raw eggs that are scrambled and placed onto a silicone sheet in your dehydrator so you can make scrambled eggs with only water to turn into egg powder. This tends to dry faster and turn into powder more easily.

After drying your eggs completely and conditioning them in a jar to ensure that no moisture is left, you can run them through a coffee grinder to make a powder. Dehydrated eggs can be stored for years in an air-tight container. These powdered eggs can be used for everything from baking to making scrambled eggs and take up only a small fraction of the space.

 

Make Pickled Eggs

You can make pickled eggs, as well, as another way to keep your eggs fresh for a long time. Pickled eggs will last for many months in a refrigerator – plus, they make a fast and healthy snack or lunch!

We store our pickled eggs in quart sized mason jars – here is the recipe for Pickled Eggs.

 

How to tell if farm fresh eggs have gone bad

When storing your eggs you may lose track of how old eggs are from time to time. This is okay because you can test your eggs to see if they have gone bad or are becoming old enough to need to use up right away.

This is done through the float test. Place your eggs in a glass or bowl of ice-cold water. If the egg sinks it is still fresh. If one end of the egg is up they are getting old and need to be used up. if the entire egg is floating your egg should be disposed of because it has gone bad.

Learn How to Store Fresh Eggs

Now you know the different ways to store fresh eggs. If you’re lucky enough to have backyard chickens, be sure to regularly gather any eggs from the chicken coop. Then, choose your egg preservation method from the various ways explained above and store the chicken eggs from your backyard flock.

For us, keeping chickens for eggs from the hen is an important party of homesteading self sufficiency – we get to enjoy the awesome flavor of free range chicken eggs to use in cooking and baking.

 

 

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