long term egg and cheese storage

[Jori]

I was watching Doomsday something or other last night, and the lady was rubbing mineral oil on eggs to make them shelf stable. Ummmmmm???? This isn't recommended, is it? Or did I miss that one?

 

Also, she was storing cheese in wax to make it shelf stable, I think she said something like 30 or 40 years. Again, um, is this really recommended?

[sassenach]

with what I have been reading about cheesemaking today, is that you can store wax sealed cheeses 2 yrs and eat them.

Originally cheese often was made and wasn't covered while it dried and cured on shelves and it would form molds on it, this was part of what was preferred. I am talking the middle ages and pre refrigeration techniques here.

We have been brought up today to buy generically , aesthetically looking cheeses today, in other words but also would probably have less tolerance , and the practices today in preparation probably keep our weakened bodies, which have resulted from this over the generations of regulatory treatments.... require us to take much greater care.

I imagine you might have some cheese makers with waxed cheeses in their cheese cellars and deep caves that might be 30 yrs old and considered a real delicacy right now but I wouldn't eat them past 2 years or so at best myself for every day usage. Bleu Cheeses and some others use certain molds of course.

 

Caves tend to be about 55 degrees year round temp, but humidity varies also depending on whether there is water inside the cave.

 

I saw that show too. I thought she said 2 to 4 yrs, not 30-40 yrs but I could have that wrong!

 

Cheese making books suggest 2 yrs from what I can see.

 

Even the large rounds of cheeses that were made and sold would be eaten within a year if not sooner most of the time to anyone in the past, the majority of the time anyway.

 

As for the eggs, using mineral oil, yes it replaces the natural coating that commercial eggs are washed to get rid of in cleaning them. But regarding guidelines that may be considered more guerilla technique rather than USDA regs these days.

 

I buy powdered eggs. I eat more oatmeal for breakfast or other proteins than eggs are just as easy as far as fixing something with protein for breakfast. I use the powdered eggs in my baking. It would be the only way to have eggs where I am, considering I have no chickens and don't think anyone does in this town anymore. What is in the stores would be quickly cleaned out in a crisis here.

 

I might consider a flat of eggs fixed this way but those will only last so long.

I recommend having the dehydrated eggs in the number 10 cans for baking needs. I tried making scrambled and omelettes with them. They were worse than anything I ate in bootcamp years ago, although some eat them that way , here from what I have observed on posts. I just prefer to use them for baking instead.

 

Some folks here do freeze them, after breaking them out of the shell, putting the eggs in to ziploc freezer bags and freezing them flat. But that only lasts if they can keep that stack of eggs frozen.

[Mt_Rider]

I use cheese wax [or a combination of beeswax and parafin] but I also store it in the fridge.

 

For eggs, I store eggs long term [6-8 months] IN MY VERY COOL BASEMENT in a bucket of waterglass solution. It's an old time method.

 

What she's doing is sealing the permeability of the egg shell with the oil. Which is what the gloopy waterglass solution does too. But I'm quite sure that the watery, gloopy solution would help to keep it cooler too. Not sure I'd try setting an oiled egg in the kitchen cabinet. But oiled egg in fridge MIGHT help prolong the freshness...?????

 

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These mention 'waterglass'.

 

NOTE -- I've only GLANCED at these links but they give a bunch of ways folks have used for egg preservation. I'm NOT necessarily agreeing with any or all of the methods..... !!

 

http://www.georgiaeggs.org/pages/preservation.html

 

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2009/04/preserving-eggs-otherwayes.html

 

 

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MtRider [ the above sites might be more value for historical interest than for food safety...keep that in mind ]

[Violet]

No, we do NOT suggest either storing eggs or cheese in those manners.

[Jori]

Thanks everyone!

 

Violet~ I was pretty sure we didn't recommend it but wanted to check.

 

Arby ~ she could have said 2 years. I was amazed with all of her food stores for she and her husband. We've talked about buying the powdered eggs for baking/cooking just haven't done it, yet.

 

I remember eating cheese in red wax when I was little but I think my mom had it in the fridge.

 

So a HUGE downfall to these shows are people might not be giving great information to others. I haven't seen anyone actually canning so I'm not sure what they are saying/doing/teaching.

Edited March 21, 2012 by Jori

[sassenach]

I know Violet, thats why I said Guerilla type food preps on these items.

[sassenach]

Springhouse instructions.

 

If you don't have a way to refrigerate in a crisis, a springhouse at a convenient creek may be a choice you would like to consider.

 

http://www.brighthub.com/environment/green-living/articles/116158.aspx

[Midnightmom]

I was watching Doomsday something or other last night, and the lady was rubbing mineral oil on eggs to make them shelf stable. Ummmmmm???? This isn't recommended, is it? Or did I miss that one?

 

 

OK everybody, try not to laugh toooooooooooooo hard. I priced bottles of mineral oil to use on preserving the 9 doz eggs I bought on sale (.99/doz), but it was way more expensive than I wanted to pay for the little bit I was going to use. Wouldn't you know it, there were enemas on the same shelf, and guess what the main (I should say ONLY) ingredient in the bottle was? You guessed it. Mineral oil!!! So, for $1.49 I bought an enema to treat my eggs with!!!

[Midnightmom]

No, we do NOT suggest either storing eggs or cheese in those manners.

 

Violet-do you mean the 'par-boiling' or the water-glass? What about coating with mineral oil and keeping cool, or in the fridge?

[CrabGrassAcres]

Fridge is the best storage. I wouldn't bother with any of the other ways. I don't have the article at hand, because it was in a paper magazine some yrs back and I don't remember which. The gist of it was that the authors got a large quantity of fresh eggs to test for a yr's storage. They used every method they heard of, including water glass and mineral oil, etc. At the end of each month they tested a certain number of eggs from each method to see how long each would keep the eggs. After a yr, they did the totals and refrigeration was best by far. So I've never even considered the other methods again.

[TurtleMama]

I've heard of "waterglassing" eggs, but wouldn't try it myself for long-term storage. The best idea is to get your own flock of layers and a rooster....then you don't have to worry about preserving them!

[Violet]

None of those are safe to do. The eggs are pourous. If you want eggs you need your own chickens or buy commercially dried eggs. You can freeze eggs, too, for a while.

[Jeepers]

Would coating the eggs with oil AND storing them in the refridgerator prolong their life span? Even by a couple of weeks? Sealing in the good and sealing out the bad? Or do they need to breathe?

[CrabGrassAcres]

I don't know about oil, but if you get fresh UNWASHED eggs they will have a bloom that keeps out a lot of nasties.

 

I keep poultry and nearly always have enough fresh eggs so I don't really try to store any unless I have a huge glut. Then I scramble and cook them and put them in the freezer to feed the dogs later.