Before we left for Texas, one of Rick's clients gave us a bunch of Asian pears. He pressed a lot of them into cider last week (unfortunately his little helper wasn't the best on quality assurance and some bad ones slipped through, resulting in some "off" batches), but there were still some left. Last night while Brian and I were on the "sheep run," Rick loaded our dehydrator with slices. Having never dried or tasted dried Asian pears before, we didn't know how they'd turn out. I am happy to report that they are DELICIOUS! There's a stockpot full of fresh ones left, so we'll dry those, too. They will join the dried cherries and dried prunes already in our freezer. Next week I need to start canning applesauce to join the tomatoes and condensed tomato soup in the pantry.In other culinary news of the day, I made deviled eggs for potluck at church tomorrow. I set a dozen eggs aside at least two weeks ago (a couple may have only been a week and a half old), and most of them were STILL hard to peel. I am here to tell you that there is NO GOOD WAY to make fresh eggs easy to peel! Not salt in the water, not ice and or baking soda in the afterbath, not picking holes in both ends and blowing - NOTHING. Sure makes me wonder just how old those store-bought eggs are - you know, the ones that are easy to peel? Since I don't plan to buy eggs again in the foreseeable future, I'm just going to give up on hard-boiled eggs. No big deal.
I THINK that's the last post for today from . . .
9 comments:
Scary, isn't it? My egg customers sometime ask if it is OK to keep eggs for a week in their fridge, and I chuckle...then I tell them that eggs can actually keep for months, and they think I'm telling a story! If they only knew...
Sorry to hear about the hard-boiled situation - it might also be the breed. We had two Golden Laced Hamburgs that laid the cutest medium sized eggs (Perfect for deviled eggs, I thought) and in over year I was never able to peel one of those neatly...(sigh)
Hi! You've been busy since leaving Texas! Grandpa read the GoCart blog and got a big kick out of it! Keep on blogging!
Do you keep your eggs in the refrigorator? I don't refrigorate my eggs or put them in cartons. The cartons and refrigoration will help the egg retain it's moisture inside. The loss of moisture inside the egg is what makes the older eggs easy to peal. The more moisture leaves the egg through it's pores, the larger the airpocket inside the egg. That is why a bad(old) egg floats in water.
We have very dry air here and during the summer I can boil eggs that are only a couple of days old, and most will peal fine. Again, I don't refrigorate them, or put them in cartons. I just leave them on the counter in their collecting basket.
Store baught eggs I think are coated with wax to help prevent moisture loss so they can be kept longer.
Eggs also have a natural protective covering on their shell, and when you wash them it comes off. So this is why they coat them with wax to. I think the eggs natural protective covering helps keep the egg from spoiling. If I remember right, the egg can absorb certian things through the pores that can make them bad.
Another tip to successful egg peeling is to turn your eggs while in storage once a day. If you don't turn them the yoke will settle to the botton of the egg and your white will be thin on that side. So to keep the yoke more centered so that the white has a thick wall all the way around when you peal turn the eggs each day.
-Susan
-Susan
Yes, you can apparently keep eggs (in the refridgerator) for up to 7 months. The ones in the stores average at about 3 months old. I just keep a carton of old eggs - more than a month for sure, for hard boiling. I just replace and mark the eggs as I use them with a pencil and after a while you will always have a dozen (or more if you want) eggs for hard boiling. If you leave them on the counter they are good for 7 days at room temperature. Each day at room temp is one less month in the refridgerator, if that makes sense. I read all that in Storey's guide to chickens when I first started with chickens years ago.
Did you try taking the cold, refrigerated HB egg and dip them in boiling water for a few seconds? That's supposed to create a steam barrier between the shell and the membrane to make peeling easier. Yeah, right. I seem to remember I had pretty good uck with that.
I can't wait to see lambs from Franjean next spring...I really like his coloring! I have been getting 4-5 eggs a day though this week production is done, perhaps due to a lack of sun? I have done that the large brown eggs make the best hard boiled eggs. I can't believe some of my friends who prefer to only eat eggs from the store as opposed to fresh farm eggs..they think the store ones are "safer"....whatever floats their boat:)
We also rarely refrigerate our eggs. I have heard that the store bought ones sometimes are in cold storage up to a year before they show up on the store shelves....sounds a bit extreme....but give me fresh eggs ANY day over an old store bought egg!
I was having problems with pealing my eggs as well, it is interesting reading the other comments, it shocks you to think how old are the eggs in the shop are!
Sue
Thanks to Google, I found an easy way to peel fresh eggs. Once they are cooked, pour the hot water out, immediately put the lid back on the pot and shake like crazy (the way you would shake popcorn). Then add cold water to the pot and peel away. It really works.
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