Before I start, I want to say that this is above all an experiment, that I posted in the Recipes section because it involves food and at least one experimental recipe. If BYC managers disagree with the placement of this article, please inform me of where it would be better posted so I can move it there at once. Thank you!
What is Water-Glassing?
Water-glassing is an age-old technique used to preserve eggs, that does not require processing beforehand to ensure success. The eggs are put in a bucket of water mixed with hydrated lime, and when taken out they’re as fresh as the day they were laid. The secret to this method is the high amount of calcium in the hydrated lime – the powder will keep the egg’s air supply intact by plugging the eggshell’s pores, thus preventing it from expiring. The calcium also prevents bacteria from thriving, so the eggs have little to no chance to rot.
This technique was used by our ancestors for as long as people could remember, though the knowledge of it almost got lost in the last century as the world took a technological turn. Thankfully, there were determined folks who refused to forget it, so while most people today do not water-glass their eggs, the technique is still present, waiting to be re-discovered.
What drove me to try this?
I’ve decided to find a way to preserve eggs because:
- Botulism in canned food terrifies me, so I don’t do home-canned food;
- I’m too sensible to kill anything beside mosquitoes (so no raising cattle for meat)
- I don’t live on agricultural lands, thus lack the necessary space to have self-sufficient vegetable gardens;
- All of the above are energy, money, equipment and time-consuming, a bad thing if my job doesn’t center around them;
- The crazy thought that despite all of these hurdles, there still had to be a way out there that let someone with no farming experience and a tiny wallet to become self-sufficient. Generations of people managed to survive the centuries with even less money and means than I did, so if they could do it, so could I.
Why Chickens?
Chickens are small, don’t take too much backyard space, have very affordable prices and are even accepted in some urban areas. They’re great garden allies, clucking beauties, therapeutic animals, entertaining table scrap eaters and their poop make excellent compost. The eggs they lay are fresh and tasty, and they can provide meat if their owner fancies it.
The chicken coop and its enclosure can be easily built from recycled materials. A bag of bedding and a 25kg bag of feed are easily stacked in the shed, the basement or even a room inside the house if space is counted; the bag of feed can last for weeks if dumped in a no-waste-no-spill DIY feeder. Same for the water.
Chickens are all around useful, entertaining and versatile, and their care-taking needs are something I can manage, so I could ask for nothing better than them to help me take my first steps towards self-sufficiency. But there was just one problem: most chickens stop laying during the winter months.
As I counted on those eggs to keep me fed during wintertime if a repeat of 1998’s Ice Storm happened, I looked up ways to preserve all those extra eggs my overstuffed fridge couldn’t contain during the warmer months. After a thorough research, I chose to try water-glassing as it was the popular choice of our ancestors, needed no fridge, freezer, electricity or processing to work, and was said to deliver very good results.
How I water-glassed my eggs:
Now that you know the reasons behind my choices for this adventure, let me show you what I used to preserve my eggs.
- A pencil + a sheet of paper (for noting down the date and number of eggs sent into preservation, that's super important)
- A pair of plastic gloves (medical ones, though brand-new yellow toilet gloves could probably do too)
- A pair of goggles (can be substituted with underwater goggles)
- A mask (can be substituted with a scarf warped around the nose)
- A scoop (I used an old plastic flour scoop bought at the flea market)
- Two bowls (I used an empty margarine bowl for measurements, and a cut up 11L water bottle to mix liquids)
- An electric scale (for precise measurements)
- A stirring rod (I sacrificed one of my kitchen beaters to the cause)
- A 5 gallon bucket (brand-new)
- Clean water (I took distilled water because my tap water was limestone-heavy)
- A sac of hydrated lime (usually sold in 22kg sacs at hardware stores, mine will last me for years)
Note: I did not put my items back in the kitchen for every day use after I used them for water-glassing. I will explain why a few paragraphs below.
Water-Glassing Experiment: Start!
The web said the bucket that would preserve my eggs had to be kept in a cold, dark room. My home had no cold room, so I sought the darkest corner I could find and ultimately placed my buckets between the living room couch and the firewood rack that stood beside the fireplace.
This spot, while not ideal, would prevent my water-glassed eggs from freezing in wintertime if a snowstorm knocked out the power, as I would use the fireplace to keep warm. Plus, the living room was glued to the kitchen, so the short distance made for an easy retrieval of eggs when I needed them.
Now that I'd placed my buckets, it was time to fill them. My quest for hydrated lime took an unexpected turn when I looked it up on the web though, as that was when I found out there existed more than one type of lime. Which one was the right one to preserve eggs with?
It took me a while to piece together the different sorts of lime that could be found at my local hardware store. Especially as information on the web was not always clear about which type of lime was used to do the water-glassing. The limes I found were:
Dolomitic lime: Grey colored, powdered or in pebbles, meant for agricultural uses. Dolomitic lime is calcium carbonate mixed with magnesium carbonate. It is often used to make hydrated lime, and the only way to tell short of breaking open the bag is to carefully read the labels to check the calcium to magnesium ratio. If the bag contains more than 5% magnesium, this is Dolomitic lime. Dolomitic lime is safe to handle.
Magnesian lime: Unknown color and texture, has 5-35% magnesium, not sure if it's safe to handle. I didn’t see Magnesian lime at the hardware store, though I’m pretty sure they sold it.
Quicklime (calcium oxyde): Non-hydrated lime. Gives volatile results when mixed with water. I gave that one a wide berth.
Calcitic lime: Limestone with high amounts of calcium carbonate deposits, and little to no magnesium carbonate deposits (less than 5%). Calcitic lime is the main ingredient behind hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide) when mixed with water by professionals. The hydrated lime made from calcium carbonate has a powdery white appearance (like flour) and is caustic, so it must be handled with caution.
Had I not carefully watched this video on youtube for pointers about how to go about water-glassing, I would have mistakenly bought dolomite lime, as people (especially farmers) from my area associate dolomite lime with hydrated lime. The powdery white flour (and mentions of it being used for buildings rather than agricultural fields) are what clued me in to look for hydrated lime made only from calcium carbonate. This is the bag I bought to try my experiment.
As hydrated lime was not safe to eat, touch or breathe, I used goggles, a mask and gloves to ensure minimal contact with the powder. (I might have overdone it, but I prefer to be safe than sorry.) Like flour, the powdery lime easily got airborne whenever disturbed, so it took a lot of delicate handling to avoid messes.
The lime-to-water ratio for water-glassing is 29g hydrated lime per 1 liter (quart) of clean water. I started with 3 liters of water, as I wanted the water level of my bucket base to fully cover the eggs when I put them in.
I needed 87g of lime for my three liters of water. My margarine bowl weighted 23g alone, so I added that number to 87 and filled the bowl up until the scales showed me 110g total.
That done, I very carefully tipped the margarine bowl into the water bottle...
... and took my kitchen beater to it for a thorough mix-up of the contents. Then I emptied the water bottle into the bucket. The eggs must be put in with the tip down, as in a box of eggs.
What is Water-Glassing?
Water-glassing is an age-old technique used to preserve eggs, that does not require processing beforehand to ensure success. The eggs are put in a bucket of water mixed with hydrated lime, and when taken out they’re as fresh as the day they were laid. The secret to this method is the high amount of calcium in the hydrated lime – the powder will keep the egg’s air supply intact by plugging the eggshell’s pores, thus preventing it from expiring. The calcium also prevents bacteria from thriving, so the eggs have little to no chance to rot.
This technique was used by our ancestors for as long as people could remember, though the knowledge of it almost got lost in the last century as the world took a technological turn. Thankfully, there were determined folks who refused to forget it, so while most people today do not water-glass their eggs, the technique is still present, waiting to be re-discovered.
What drove me to try this?
I’ve decided to find a way to preserve eggs because:
- Botulism in canned food terrifies me, so I don’t do home-canned food;
- I’m too sensible to kill anything beside mosquitoes (so no raising cattle for meat)
- I don’t live on agricultural lands, thus lack the necessary space to have self-sufficient vegetable gardens;
- All of the above are energy, money, equipment and time-consuming, a bad thing if my job doesn’t center around them;
- The crazy thought that despite all of these hurdles, there still had to be a way out there that let someone with no farming experience and a tiny wallet to become self-sufficient. Generations of people managed to survive the centuries with even less money and means than I did, so if they could do it, so could I.
Why Chickens?
Chickens are small, don’t take too much backyard space, have very affordable prices and are even accepted in some urban areas. They’re great garden allies, clucking beauties, therapeutic animals, entertaining table scrap eaters and their poop make excellent compost. The eggs they lay are fresh and tasty, and they can provide meat if their owner fancies it.
The chicken coop and its enclosure can be easily built from recycled materials. A bag of bedding and a 25kg bag of feed are easily stacked in the shed, the basement or even a room inside the house if space is counted; the bag of feed can last for weeks if dumped in a no-waste-no-spill DIY feeder. Same for the water.
Chickens are all around useful, entertaining and versatile, and their care-taking needs are something I can manage, so I could ask for nothing better than them to help me take my first steps towards self-sufficiency. But there was just one problem: most chickens stop laying during the winter months.
As I counted on those eggs to keep me fed during wintertime if a repeat of 1998’s Ice Storm happened, I looked up ways to preserve all those extra eggs my overstuffed fridge couldn’t contain during the warmer months. After a thorough research, I chose to try water-glassing as it was the popular choice of our ancestors, needed no fridge, freezer, electricity or processing to work, and was said to deliver very good results.
How I water-glassed my eggs:
Now that you know the reasons behind my choices for this adventure, let me show you what I used to preserve my eggs.
- A pencil + a sheet of paper (for noting down the date and number of eggs sent into preservation, that's super important)
- A pair of plastic gloves (medical ones, though brand-new yellow toilet gloves could probably do too)
- A pair of goggles (can be substituted with underwater goggles)
- A mask (can be substituted with a scarf warped around the nose)
- A scoop (I used an old plastic flour scoop bought at the flea market)
- Two bowls (I used an empty margarine bowl for measurements, and a cut up 11L water bottle to mix liquids)
- An electric scale (for precise measurements)
- A stirring rod (I sacrificed one of my kitchen beaters to the cause)
- A 5 gallon bucket (brand-new)
- Clean water (I took distilled water because my tap water was limestone-heavy)
- A sac of hydrated lime (usually sold in 22kg sacs at hardware stores, mine will last me for years)
Note: I did not put my items back in the kitchen for every day use after I used them for water-glassing. I will explain why a few paragraphs below.
Water-Glassing Experiment: Start!
The web said the bucket that would preserve my eggs had to be kept in a cold, dark room. My home had no cold room, so I sought the darkest corner I could find and ultimately placed my buckets between the living room couch and the firewood rack that stood beside the fireplace.
This spot, while not ideal, would prevent my water-glassed eggs from freezing in wintertime if a snowstorm knocked out the power, as I would use the fireplace to keep warm. Plus, the living room was glued to the kitchen, so the short distance made for an easy retrieval of eggs when I needed them.
Now that I'd placed my buckets, it was time to fill them. My quest for hydrated lime took an unexpected turn when I looked it up on the web though, as that was when I found out there existed more than one type of lime. Which one was the right one to preserve eggs with?
It took me a while to piece together the different sorts of lime that could be found at my local hardware store. Especially as information on the web was not always clear about which type of lime was used to do the water-glassing. The limes I found were:
Dolomitic lime: Grey colored, powdered or in pebbles, meant for agricultural uses. Dolomitic lime is calcium carbonate mixed with magnesium carbonate. It is often used to make hydrated lime, and the only way to tell short of breaking open the bag is to carefully read the labels to check the calcium to magnesium ratio. If the bag contains more than 5% magnesium, this is Dolomitic lime. Dolomitic lime is safe to handle.
Magnesian lime: Unknown color and texture, has 5-35% magnesium, not sure if it's safe to handle. I didn’t see Magnesian lime at the hardware store, though I’m pretty sure they sold it.
Quicklime (calcium oxyde): Non-hydrated lime. Gives volatile results when mixed with water. I gave that one a wide berth.
Calcitic lime: Limestone with high amounts of calcium carbonate deposits, and little to no magnesium carbonate deposits (less than 5%). Calcitic lime is the main ingredient behind hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide) when mixed with water by professionals. The hydrated lime made from calcium carbonate has a powdery white appearance (like flour) and is caustic, so it must be handled with caution.
Had I not carefully watched this video on youtube for pointers about how to go about water-glassing, I would have mistakenly bought dolomite lime, as people (especially farmers) from my area associate dolomite lime with hydrated lime. The powdery white flour (and mentions of it being used for buildings rather than agricultural fields) are what clued me in to look for hydrated lime made only from calcium carbonate. This is the bag I bought to try my experiment.
As hydrated lime was not safe to eat, touch or breathe, I used goggles, a mask and gloves to ensure minimal contact with the powder. (I might have overdone it, but I prefer to be safe than sorry.) Like flour, the powdery lime easily got airborne whenever disturbed, so it took a lot of delicate handling to avoid messes.
The lime-to-water ratio for water-glassing is 29g hydrated lime per 1 liter (quart) of clean water. I started with 3 liters of water, as I wanted the water level of my bucket base to fully cover the eggs when I put them in.
I needed 87g of lime for my three liters of water. My margarine bowl weighted 23g alone, so I added that number to 87 and filled the bowl up until the scales showed me 110g total.
That done, I very carefully tipped the margarine bowl into the water bottle...
... and took my kitchen beater to it for a thorough mix-up of the contents. Then I emptied the water bottle into the bucket. The eggs must be put in with the tip down, as in a box of eggs.
(Yeah, I had one extra egg that refused to stay round tip up, hopefully that one will keep...)
**Note: hydrated lime does not easily dissolve in room temperature water. It is heavier than water, and sinks to the bottom of the bottle like sand. I had to stir the water until the last moment and then quickly empty the bottle into the bucket in a fast yet careful manner to transfer the hydrated lime. Despite my caution I still had wet lime leftovers hanging at the bottom of my bottle. Through trial and error, I learned that the best way to proceed was to mix my 87g of lime in 2 liter of water, and use the remaining 1 liter of water to fetch the lime leftovers through a second stirring and dumping of the bottle’s contents. I also learned to aim the stream of water at the bucket walls rather than at the submerged eggs, as the spray displaced them willy-nilly and threatened to crack their shells.
How I selected my eggs for preservation:
Both the web and the woman from the video were clear that only fresh, clean, unwashed eggs could go into the bucket. The rest all went into the fridge, no exceptions. This is because the eggs need their bloom fully intact before they go into the hydrated lime, and if anything interferes with it, whatever bacteria strong enough to survive the hydrated lime could sneak into the egg, and the lime itself could invade the yolk, both results making it inedible in the long run.
So I made sure to keep the nest bedding clean, cut out any soiled feathers on the butts of my hens, and started checking which eggs qualified for the bucket and which eggs went to the fridge. Sorting them was an amusing job, all things considered.
Failed egg visuals:
- Dirty/soiled eggs
- Speckled eggs (the speckles made it difficult to see if the egg was dirty, and sometimes a chunk missed from a speckle, leaving a hole in the bloom for lime and bacteria to go through). This brown egg has holed bloom and scratches on its surface, which coupled with the speckles made it a triple fail in my eyes.
(Note: Speckled eggs are also the reason why I have not tried to water-glass Quail eggs.)
- Extra spots of calcium on the eggshell (my reasoning being that the bloom would not adhere correctly in all the spots)
(I write the date of lay on the tips of my eggs to keep track of their age when they go to the fridge, otherwise I don't always eat the oldest first and get expired eggs down the line.)
- Cracked eggs (yet to have any)
- Malformed eggs (yet to have any)
- Soft-shelled eggs (yet to have any)
Two of my hens laid speckled eggs, so most of their eggs went into the fridge. My other hens all laid non-speckled eggs though, so my bucket mainly got filled with theirs. Some of my girls paused in their lay to brood, but nonetheless I managed to send 221 eggs into preservation from the 1210 eggs they laid through 2020.
That’s 18 dozen egg cartoons my fridge was spared from hosting, and 221 commercial eggs I didn’t need to buy at the grocery store during wintertime while my hens were on break. All of my flock save my Plymouth stopped laying in January and started again mid-February 2021, so I had roughly 6 weeks to try out my water-glassed eggs. Time to see if it worked.
How I retrieved my water-glassed eggs:
I used a glove to safely place the eggs into the hydrated water, and used said glove again to pluck the eggs out. I also washed those eggs under some tap water to take off any leftover lime water, wearing my glove the whole time. Only once were the eggs thoroughly washed and dried did I take my glove off to handle them with my bare fingers.
If the bucket’s water level becomes too high for me to get my eggs safely, I will use a plastic cup to empty some of the water until it safe for me to plunge my hand into the liquid without it submerging the edges of my glove.
**Note: Some sort of pale crust will appear at the surface of the lime water when the egg-filled bucket is left undisturbed for several weeks. It resembles barely frozen slush, and apparently it’s a normal reaction from the lime in the water, so don’t panic if you see it in your own experiment.
Side-Notes about the water-glassed eggs:
1. A good way to tell if a fresh egg is rotten is to place it in a cup of water. If the egg sinks, it is edible; if the egg floats, it is inedible. I tried the same thing with my several months old water-glassed eggs to see if their air sacks had changed during their conservation: they both sunk to the bottom like fresh eggs, hinting that they were edible.
2. I took up the hobby of noting down the weights of my fresh eggs to see which of my hens gave me the biggest, heaviest eggs of the flock. I weighted my water-glassed eggs to see if that weight had changed after spending several months underwater, and found out they matched the general weight of my fresh eggs.
3. After ending up with an unexpected rotten egg in the frying pan once, I grew the habit of cracking my eggs in a small bowl to check and sniff them for anything amiss before cooking them. I used the same principle to check each of my water-glassed eggs.
Test 1:
The blue egg is water-glassed (7 ½ months old), the brown one is hours fresh.
As noted on the web, the water-glassed egg has a ‘runny’ texture, meaning its overall consistency is more liquid than a fresh one. The WG egg yolk breaks very easily, and the egg drips through the eggshell like water when cracked open. (Thank god I’d held my egg above the bowl instead of beside it when I cracked the shell, otherwise I would have made a mess of the counter top.)
In comparison, a fresh egg yolk will not break easily, and the whole egg will stick together like jello when cracked open. I will feel the thickness of the egg as I empty it into the bowl, and the yolk is firmer, less likely to break.
Odor-wise, neither eggs smelled different. At all. The only odor I smelt came from the WG eggshell, and it was a very faint odor of what I can only call ‘hydrated lime’. Hydrated lime has no smell when utterly dry, but once wet it seems it can smell slightly musty. (I’m not sure how else to call it; it is a unique smell.)
Color-wise, the fresh egg yolk has a brighter yellow than the water-glassed egg.
Test 2:
I wanted to know if all WG eggs were pale yellow, and if all fresh eggs had bright-colored yolks. So I took one more WG egg and one more fresh egg for comparison.
I changed spots for better lightening, but it also paled all the yolks so I apologize.
The WG eggs (both of them) had no odor and both had the same ‘runny’ consistency, though I managed to crack open WG egg n.2 without breaking the yolk. They both had paler yolks than the fresh ones.
That still left the million dollar question though: Were those water-glassed eggs edible???
Cooking time!
To solve that mystery, I took out my frying pan and started cooking. My water-glassed egg with the broken yolk went first; I used deodorized coconut oil to fry it and spiced it with chives and parsley plus a bit of salt because that’s how I like my breakfast eggs.
WG egg #1 (the broken yolk)
The egg’s runny consistence left it prone to tear in the pan when turned, so I had to handle it carefully with my spatula to keep it whole. It was a slight adjustment that didn’t give me much trouble, and this is the result.
The one bite I took from the cooked WG egg did not taste differently than a fresh egg. Alas, my mischievous mother (big egg eater and n.1 fan of my cooking) got drawn in my the scent of food and made away with the rest of the egg while my back was turned. In the ensuing realization, I forgot all about my experiment in favor of chasing my laughing parent through the house for her little stunt.
She was very surprised to hear that this wasn’t a fresh egg, but a water-glassed one. She’d tasted absolutely no difference, told me it was as delicious as all the other eggs we’d eaten from our hens in the past, and that I was very much welcome to cook more eggs for breakfast, be they fresh or several months old.
So, after waiting a good while for potential food poisoning and seeing none (thank god), I went and cooked the second WG egg.
WG egg #2 (the unbroken yolk)
As my water-glassed eggs were meant to be used as survival food (like in a time of famine where food is scarce), I simulated a breakfast where they were my only main available ingredient. Here is a list of what I used:
3 fresh eggs (since I had some on hand)
1 water-glassed egg (checked and sniffed in a separate bowl before mixed with the fresh eggs)
a bit of deodorized coconut oil (~1 tea spoon)
dried chives
dried parsley
salt for taste
I let the oil melt and spread it out in the frying pan (which was set at HI).
(I realized after the eggs were cooked that maybe some people would want to know what size of frying pan I used, so, um. Here it is in all its oiled glory?... Don't worry, it's easy to clean!)
Once the pan was properly oiled, I took it off the stove, I put all four eggs in it and thoroughly mixed the yolks together to get a nice, even yellow mixture. I added some dried parsley and chives for taste and looks, used a glass lid from one of my glass cauldrons to retain cooking moisture, and put the pan back on the stove with its heat lowered to 4. (The white arrow points to the WG egg.)
I did not upturn the omelet once, or add anymore oil. I let the underside cook in the pan and the upside cook from the released moisture. Several minutes in, I lowered the stove heat from 4 to 2 (did by eye), and kept it that way so the upside could finish cooking without the underside getting cripsy-burned.
The result was a delicious-looking donut quiche.
I never had such a result in any of the omelets I made before, so the only thing I can think of to explain the round, flat middle is the water-glassed egg. Fresh eggs have all of their spongy properties, but perhaps they lose that trait after being water-glassed for several months. I do not make bread (utterly suck at it), so I can’t say for sure if the spongy properties of a water-glassed egg are present or absent.
When I sampled the quiche, I tasted no oddity and munched on no odd bits. Mom took her own bite and told me my donut quiche was very delicious. Neither of us caught food poisoning, so we get to go through our water-glassed eggs with gusto.
WG egg #3 & #4
Our experimenting caught the interest of the two other house occupants, who decided to try their own WG egg. So I went and plucked two more of them from the bucket.
As I mentioned above, I now crack my eggs in a small bowl for inspection before cooking them. It was a good thing I did this for WG eggs 3 and 4, because they smelled slightly off when I checked them over. It is difficult to describe the scent I smelled, as I have nothing to compare it to, not even the ‘musty’ smell of hydrated lime on the eggshells. Mom took several whiffs of the eggs at my askance, and she smelt the otherness too, so we both agreed I should throw those eggs and start over with new ones. (I haven’t found anything on the web that says smelly WG eggs are edible, so we didn’t take any chances).
WG eggs #5 & #6
These two did not smell oddly, so I cooked and spiced them as I did WG egg #1. They were both fully eaten and declared delicious by their test-eaters, who told me the same thing mom and I noticed: there were no differences in the overall taste (or the texture, now that I think back on it). Neither person reacted negatively in the upcoming hours and days of having eaten their WG egg.
Theories/Observations:
Yolk color: I couldn't settle over the color difference in the yolks, so I looked up my notes to try and explain it. I saw that the WG eggs from the top of the bucket (the last ones to fill it) were laid in autumn, while the fresh eggs I compared them to were laid in springtime. I suspect that the yolk color difference stems from a higher concentration of nutrients in the springtime eggs as it is the optimal mating season for birds, which also coincides with the start of laying season for hens. They’ve had a good rest and stocked up on reserves in preparation for the next laying season, and this shows in the eggs they’re laying.
As the autumn eggs were laid several months into the laying season, on smaller nutrient reserves, with diminishing temperatures and fewer hours of sunlight, they would understandably have paler yolks. Autumn is also not the best time of year to have newborn chicks; they barely have time to grow before winter hits, much less fatten up for the cold season. (I remember hearing a few years ago from a farmer that spring chicks were stronger, healthier and more vigorous than autumn chicks, so it would support my theory.)
Yolk Color 2: Going with the above theory, the eggs laid in the beginning of the year are at the bottom of the bucket. Should I reach the bottom, I’ll try and see if I can compare the yolk colors with early-year laid fresh eggs. If both yolks are the same shade, I’ll have my answer.
Yolk Color 3: If there truly is a difference in the amount of nutrients found in spring and autumn eggs, that’d also mean the springtime eggs are the best candidates for water-glassing, as a person needs all the nutrients they can get to survive when stuck in a time of famine. There is also the possibility that springtime WG eggs will keep longer (several years longer) than autumn WG eggs, as they have more nutrients to last through conservation. I don’t have the scientific equipment or enough laying hens to experiment with a spare bucket of springtime WG eggs though, so I can’t put that theory to the test.
Smelly eggs: I did not fully obey the ‘fresh egg’ rule when I did my experiment. This is because there was mention somewhere that opening the bucket lid too many times while the WG eggs were inside could compromise their conservation. To avoid this, I let my clean eggs accumulate on the counter (no place in the fridge) and sent them into the bucket every time I hit a minimum of 5-6 eggs, which was every 2-4 days. My guess is that those 2-4 days spent on the counter affected the air sack and decreased the egg freshness, leading them to keep less well once dumped in hydrated lime. If I do this experiment again, I will open the bucket lid every day to put all qualifying eggs inside, hopefully without compromising the conservation of those already there.
Observations: I am glad I did not put the bucket in the basement when I started this experiment. Going down the stairs and up again to fetch my eggs demands energy (a dangerous move if food is scarce) and takes a toll on my aging knees. My cat also uses those stairs as an obstacle course and could easily trip me into dropping my eggs if I’m not careful. Lastly, had I broken a leg or foot, going down those stairs and up again with a handful of eggs would have been a challenge. Keeping the bucket on the same floor as the kitchen is an all-around more practical idea, even if doing so means my eggs are being kept at room temperature.
Observations n.2: My WG eggs did successfully keep at room temperature, even if some of them did not make it. I’m not sure if WG egg 3 and 4 soured because of room temperature, my opening the bucket lid one too many times, them being autumn eggs, or because they were a few days old when I placed them in said bucket, so I’ll have to experiment more in the future to see which of those causes is the culprit behind the expiration of some of my eggs.
Observations n.3: After a lot of thinking, I’ve decided not to feed the eggshells of my water-glassed eggs to my hens. Hydrated lime is not safe for human consumption, so I won’t expose my hens to it either. Due to lack of information on whether or not water-glassed eggshells can be safely composted (what did our ancestors do with all those eggshells???), I’ve chosen to send mine to the garbage bin… for now. I’ll switch to an eco-friendly alternative as soon as I find one.
Conclusion:
Going by my own experience, I find water-glassing to be an efficient method for preserving eggs without being a money, energy and time-consuming project. My inexperience in the matter no doubt affected the results, but I have the rest of my life to test this technique and improve its success rate.
Right now, I’ll say I’m pretty content with the results I did get, as it allowed me to un-stuff my fridge, made me learn how our ancestors kept their food without technology, and I can now stay fed if famine breaks out in my region.
I am not self-sufficient in all the ways someone should be to call themselves such, but having one source of food to fall back on at all times is already a big step in that direction, and I don’t intend to stop there either. I will find other ways to meet that goal, and if there are none, I’ll brainstorm for new ideas with people stuck in similar situations that want to change their lives for the better.
That said, I know a lot of people have tried to find clear information on water-glassed eggs along with documented results, so I hope this report will answer a few questions. Do NOT take this article for granted however; if you try this at home then your results may differ from mine, just like a hen’s laying capacity may not match your expectations due to her being hosted in a different coop, region and climate than the breeder she comes from. The hydrated lime might also come from a different source depending on where it is bought, and have a different quality to it that could also affect the egg preservation. The key points in this instance are to take notes, keep an open mind and exercise due caution, as anything can happen in an experiment.
For the future:
My hens started laying again before I could get through my WG buckets from 2020, so I’m letting the leftover eggs sit for another year. It was noted on the web that someone successfully preserved their eggs for up to 2 years with water-glassing, so I’m angling for my own two year preservation, and possibly a third year if I haven’t gone through my buckets by the time my hens reach their third laying season in 2022. How long can water-glassing truly preserve an egg? Only time will tell.
Thank you for reading this, and I wish you the best of luck if you decide to try your own experiments at home!
How I selected my eggs for preservation:
Both the web and the woman from the video were clear that only fresh, clean, unwashed eggs could go into the bucket. The rest all went into the fridge, no exceptions. This is because the eggs need their bloom fully intact before they go into the hydrated lime, and if anything interferes with it, whatever bacteria strong enough to survive the hydrated lime could sneak into the egg, and the lime itself could invade the yolk, both results making it inedible in the long run.
So I made sure to keep the nest bedding clean, cut out any soiled feathers on the butts of my hens, and started checking which eggs qualified for the bucket and which eggs went to the fridge. Sorting them was an amusing job, all things considered.
Failed egg visuals:
- Dirty/soiled eggs
- Speckled eggs (the speckles made it difficult to see if the egg was dirty, and sometimes a chunk missed from a speckle, leaving a hole in the bloom for lime and bacteria to go through). This brown egg has holed bloom and scratches on its surface, which coupled with the speckles made it a triple fail in my eyes.
(Note: Speckled eggs are also the reason why I have not tried to water-glass Quail eggs.)
- Extra spots of calcium on the eggshell (my reasoning being that the bloom would not adhere correctly in all the spots)
(I write the date of lay on the tips of my eggs to keep track of their age when they go to the fridge, otherwise I don't always eat the oldest first and get expired eggs down the line.)
- Cracked eggs (yet to have any)
- Malformed eggs (yet to have any)
- Soft-shelled eggs (yet to have any)
Two of my hens laid speckled eggs, so most of their eggs went into the fridge. My other hens all laid non-speckled eggs though, so my bucket mainly got filled with theirs. Some of my girls paused in their lay to brood, but nonetheless I managed to send 221 eggs into preservation from the 1210 eggs they laid through 2020.
That’s 18 dozen egg cartoons my fridge was spared from hosting, and 221 commercial eggs I didn’t need to buy at the grocery store during wintertime while my hens were on break. All of my flock save my Plymouth stopped laying in January and started again mid-February 2021, so I had roughly 6 weeks to try out my water-glassed eggs. Time to see if it worked.
How I retrieved my water-glassed eggs:
I used a glove to safely place the eggs into the hydrated water, and used said glove again to pluck the eggs out. I also washed those eggs under some tap water to take off any leftover lime water, wearing my glove the whole time. Only once were the eggs thoroughly washed and dried did I take my glove off to handle them with my bare fingers.
If the bucket’s water level becomes too high for me to get my eggs safely, I will use a plastic cup to empty some of the water until it safe for me to plunge my hand into the liquid without it submerging the edges of my glove.
**Note: Some sort of pale crust will appear at the surface of the lime water when the egg-filled bucket is left undisturbed for several weeks. It resembles barely frozen slush, and apparently it’s a normal reaction from the lime in the water, so don’t panic if you see it in your own experiment.
Side-Notes about the water-glassed eggs:
1. A good way to tell if a fresh egg is rotten is to place it in a cup of water. If the egg sinks, it is edible; if the egg floats, it is inedible. I tried the same thing with my several months old water-glassed eggs to see if their air sacks had changed during their conservation: they both sunk to the bottom like fresh eggs, hinting that they were edible.
2. I took up the hobby of noting down the weights of my fresh eggs to see which of my hens gave me the biggest, heaviest eggs of the flock. I weighted my water-glassed eggs to see if that weight had changed after spending several months underwater, and found out they matched the general weight of my fresh eggs.
3. After ending up with an unexpected rotten egg in the frying pan once, I grew the habit of cracking my eggs in a small bowl to check and sniff them for anything amiss before cooking them. I used the same principle to check each of my water-glassed eggs.
Test 1:
The blue egg is water-glassed (7 ½ months old), the brown one is hours fresh.
As noted on the web, the water-glassed egg has a ‘runny’ texture, meaning its overall consistency is more liquid than a fresh one. The WG egg yolk breaks very easily, and the egg drips through the eggshell like water when cracked open. (Thank god I’d held my egg above the bowl instead of beside it when I cracked the shell, otherwise I would have made a mess of the counter top.)
In comparison, a fresh egg yolk will not break easily, and the whole egg will stick together like jello when cracked open. I will feel the thickness of the egg as I empty it into the bowl, and the yolk is firmer, less likely to break.
Odor-wise, neither eggs smelled different. At all. The only odor I smelt came from the WG eggshell, and it was a very faint odor of what I can only call ‘hydrated lime’. Hydrated lime has no smell when utterly dry, but once wet it seems it can smell slightly musty. (I’m not sure how else to call it; it is a unique smell.)
Color-wise, the fresh egg yolk has a brighter yellow than the water-glassed egg.
Test 2:
I wanted to know if all WG eggs were pale yellow, and if all fresh eggs had bright-colored yolks. So I took one more WG egg and one more fresh egg for comparison.
I changed spots for better lightening, but it also paled all the yolks so I apologize.
The WG eggs (both of them) had no odor and both had the same ‘runny’ consistency, though I managed to crack open WG egg n.2 without breaking the yolk. They both had paler yolks than the fresh ones.
That still left the million dollar question though: Were those water-glassed eggs edible???
Cooking time!
To solve that mystery, I took out my frying pan and started cooking. My water-glassed egg with the broken yolk went first; I used deodorized coconut oil to fry it and spiced it with chives and parsley plus a bit of salt because that’s how I like my breakfast eggs.
WG egg #1 (the broken yolk)
The egg’s runny consistence left it prone to tear in the pan when turned, so I had to handle it carefully with my spatula to keep it whole. It was a slight adjustment that didn’t give me much trouble, and this is the result.
The one bite I took from the cooked WG egg did not taste differently than a fresh egg. Alas, my mischievous mother (big egg eater and n.1 fan of my cooking) got drawn in my the scent of food and made away with the rest of the egg while my back was turned. In the ensuing realization, I forgot all about my experiment in favor of chasing my laughing parent through the house for her little stunt.
She was very surprised to hear that this wasn’t a fresh egg, but a water-glassed one. She’d tasted absolutely no difference, told me it was as delicious as all the other eggs we’d eaten from our hens in the past, and that I was very much welcome to cook more eggs for breakfast, be they fresh or several months old.
So, after waiting a good while for potential food poisoning and seeing none (thank god), I went and cooked the second WG egg.
WG egg #2 (the unbroken yolk)
As my water-glassed eggs were meant to be used as survival food (like in a time of famine where food is scarce), I simulated a breakfast where they were my only main available ingredient. Here is a list of what I used:
3 fresh eggs (since I had some on hand)
1 water-glassed egg (checked and sniffed in a separate bowl before mixed with the fresh eggs)
a bit of deodorized coconut oil (~1 tea spoon)
dried chives
dried parsley
salt for taste
I let the oil melt and spread it out in the frying pan (which was set at HI).
(I realized after the eggs were cooked that maybe some people would want to know what size of frying pan I used, so, um. Here it is in all its oiled glory?... Don't worry, it's easy to clean!)
Once the pan was properly oiled, I took it off the stove, I put all four eggs in it and thoroughly mixed the yolks together to get a nice, even yellow mixture. I added some dried parsley and chives for taste and looks, used a glass lid from one of my glass cauldrons to retain cooking moisture, and put the pan back on the stove with its heat lowered to 4. (The white arrow points to the WG egg.)
I did not upturn the omelet once, or add anymore oil. I let the underside cook in the pan and the upside cook from the released moisture. Several minutes in, I lowered the stove heat from 4 to 2 (did by eye), and kept it that way so the upside could finish cooking without the underside getting cripsy-burned.
The result was a delicious-looking donut quiche.
I never had such a result in any of the omelets I made before, so the only thing I can think of to explain the round, flat middle is the water-glassed egg. Fresh eggs have all of their spongy properties, but perhaps they lose that trait after being water-glassed for several months. I do not make bread (utterly suck at it), so I can’t say for sure if the spongy properties of a water-glassed egg are present or absent.
When I sampled the quiche, I tasted no oddity and munched on no odd bits. Mom took her own bite and told me my donut quiche was very delicious. Neither of us caught food poisoning, so we get to go through our water-glassed eggs with gusto.
WG egg #3 & #4
Our experimenting caught the interest of the two other house occupants, who decided to try their own WG egg. So I went and plucked two more of them from the bucket.
As I mentioned above, I now crack my eggs in a small bowl for inspection before cooking them. It was a good thing I did this for WG eggs 3 and 4, because they smelled slightly off when I checked them over. It is difficult to describe the scent I smelled, as I have nothing to compare it to, not even the ‘musty’ smell of hydrated lime on the eggshells. Mom took several whiffs of the eggs at my askance, and she smelt the otherness too, so we both agreed I should throw those eggs and start over with new ones. (I haven’t found anything on the web that says smelly WG eggs are edible, so we didn’t take any chances).
WG eggs #5 & #6
These two did not smell oddly, so I cooked and spiced them as I did WG egg #1. They were both fully eaten and declared delicious by their test-eaters, who told me the same thing mom and I noticed: there were no differences in the overall taste (or the texture, now that I think back on it). Neither person reacted negatively in the upcoming hours and days of having eaten their WG egg.
Theories/Observations:
Yolk color: I couldn't settle over the color difference in the yolks, so I looked up my notes to try and explain it. I saw that the WG eggs from the top of the bucket (the last ones to fill it) were laid in autumn, while the fresh eggs I compared them to were laid in springtime. I suspect that the yolk color difference stems from a higher concentration of nutrients in the springtime eggs as it is the optimal mating season for birds, which also coincides with the start of laying season for hens. They’ve had a good rest and stocked up on reserves in preparation for the next laying season, and this shows in the eggs they’re laying.
As the autumn eggs were laid several months into the laying season, on smaller nutrient reserves, with diminishing temperatures and fewer hours of sunlight, they would understandably have paler yolks. Autumn is also not the best time of year to have newborn chicks; they barely have time to grow before winter hits, much less fatten up for the cold season. (I remember hearing a few years ago from a farmer that spring chicks were stronger, healthier and more vigorous than autumn chicks, so it would support my theory.)
Yolk Color 2: Going with the above theory, the eggs laid in the beginning of the year are at the bottom of the bucket. Should I reach the bottom, I’ll try and see if I can compare the yolk colors with early-year laid fresh eggs. If both yolks are the same shade, I’ll have my answer.
Yolk Color 3: If there truly is a difference in the amount of nutrients found in spring and autumn eggs, that’d also mean the springtime eggs are the best candidates for water-glassing, as a person needs all the nutrients they can get to survive when stuck in a time of famine. There is also the possibility that springtime WG eggs will keep longer (several years longer) than autumn WG eggs, as they have more nutrients to last through conservation. I don’t have the scientific equipment or enough laying hens to experiment with a spare bucket of springtime WG eggs though, so I can’t put that theory to the test.
Smelly eggs: I did not fully obey the ‘fresh egg’ rule when I did my experiment. This is because there was mention somewhere that opening the bucket lid too many times while the WG eggs were inside could compromise their conservation. To avoid this, I let my clean eggs accumulate on the counter (no place in the fridge) and sent them into the bucket every time I hit a minimum of 5-6 eggs, which was every 2-4 days. My guess is that those 2-4 days spent on the counter affected the air sack and decreased the egg freshness, leading them to keep less well once dumped in hydrated lime. If I do this experiment again, I will open the bucket lid every day to put all qualifying eggs inside, hopefully without compromising the conservation of those already there.
Observations: I am glad I did not put the bucket in the basement when I started this experiment. Going down the stairs and up again to fetch my eggs demands energy (a dangerous move if food is scarce) and takes a toll on my aging knees. My cat also uses those stairs as an obstacle course and could easily trip me into dropping my eggs if I’m not careful. Lastly, had I broken a leg or foot, going down those stairs and up again with a handful of eggs would have been a challenge. Keeping the bucket on the same floor as the kitchen is an all-around more practical idea, even if doing so means my eggs are being kept at room temperature.
Observations n.2: My WG eggs did successfully keep at room temperature, even if some of them did not make it. I’m not sure if WG egg 3 and 4 soured because of room temperature, my opening the bucket lid one too many times, them being autumn eggs, or because they were a few days old when I placed them in said bucket, so I’ll have to experiment more in the future to see which of those causes is the culprit behind the expiration of some of my eggs.
Observations n.3: After a lot of thinking, I’ve decided not to feed the eggshells of my water-glassed eggs to my hens. Hydrated lime is not safe for human consumption, so I won’t expose my hens to it either. Due to lack of information on whether or not water-glassed eggshells can be safely composted (what did our ancestors do with all those eggshells???), I’ve chosen to send mine to the garbage bin… for now. I’ll switch to an eco-friendly alternative as soon as I find one.
Conclusion:
Going by my own experience, I find water-glassing to be an efficient method for preserving eggs without being a money, energy and time-consuming project. My inexperience in the matter no doubt affected the results, but I have the rest of my life to test this technique and improve its success rate.
Right now, I’ll say I’m pretty content with the results I did get, as it allowed me to un-stuff my fridge, made me learn how our ancestors kept their food without technology, and I can now stay fed if famine breaks out in my region.
I am not self-sufficient in all the ways someone should be to call themselves such, but having one source of food to fall back on at all times is already a big step in that direction, and I don’t intend to stop there either. I will find other ways to meet that goal, and if there are none, I’ll brainstorm for new ideas with people stuck in similar situations that want to change their lives for the better.
That said, I know a lot of people have tried to find clear information on water-glassed eggs along with documented results, so I hope this report will answer a few questions. Do NOT take this article for granted however; if you try this at home then your results may differ from mine, just like a hen’s laying capacity may not match your expectations due to her being hosted in a different coop, region and climate than the breeder she comes from. The hydrated lime might also come from a different source depending on where it is bought, and have a different quality to it that could also affect the egg preservation. The key points in this instance are to take notes, keep an open mind and exercise due caution, as anything can happen in an experiment.
For the future:
My hens started laying again before I could get through my WG buckets from 2020, so I’m letting the leftover eggs sit for another year. It was noted on the web that someone successfully preserved their eggs for up to 2 years with water-glassing, so I’m angling for my own two year preservation, and possibly a third year if I haven’t gone through my buckets by the time my hens reach their third laying season in 2022. How long can water-glassing truly preserve an egg? Only time will tell.
Thank you for reading this, and I wish you the best of luck if you decide to try your own experiments at home!
