Twenty-seven of this year's eggs made it to the refrigerator -- there were some accidents involving eggs inadvertently laid in the open, and attacked by the chickens -- and one of these I broke while getting the egg-blowing routine down right. Every year I have to learn all over again -- the margin of error, with the high-speed grinder and the basketball pump, is relatively small. I'm sure there are better ways to go about this, but this is what we do:
We gather up containers for the freezer, and a Sharpie for writing on the container, spread out some newspaper, find a round toothpick, an old-fashioned milk bottle or a glass carafe, the basketball pump, the high-speed Dremel-style tool, and a bowl of soapy, salty water.
With the little cone shaped grindstone, we zip off a bit of shell at each end, about as big as the head on a six-penny box nail, and punch through the membrane with the toothpick, stirring up the yolk, then place the egg on top of a suitably wide-mouthed bottle and gently pressurize the contents with the basketball needle. You can see a small rubber gasket here, cut from a flat rubber band, to seal the contact between egg and needle.
Every second egg we pour off the eggs into a freezer container, so that if we get into a bad egg (never has happened) we won't waste a lot. Mark the container Goose '09. Wash the eggshell inside and out (draw some soapy salt water into the shell and shake vigorously, then blow out). Repeat. Freeze containers, sun-dry shells.In a few days they are ready to decorate or sell to Psanky painters ... whatever suits ya. I like to just sit by the table and look at them.
Hi - I followed you here from your comments on Sharon Astyk's blog. Oh, please tell me this will work with chicken eggs, and you will have made my day! How long can they last when frozen? What do you have to do with them to use them? i.e. thaw at room temperature, hack off an eggs' worth and throw it in a recipe, or what? Is it better to package in smaller amounts for this? Sorry to ask so many questions, I'm new at all this egg stuff.....
ReplyDeleteWell -- we never tried it with chicken eggs as it is the goose egg shells that people like to get. As we are now down to 2 people currently, we pack in 8-oz. containers, as you can see, and they thaw fine in the refrigerator after being taken from the freezer. (We always try to thaw in the refrigerator as the icy food helps hold down the cost of electricity, ever so briefly, that the fridge uses. For some items, this can day a couple of days.)
ReplyDeleteSo, you may have to experiment; YMMV. We use the thawed eggs much like fresh, though most often they go into baking or maybe pancake batter.
"TAKE o couple of days." Drat the non-editable Blogger commenter!
ReplyDeleteI give up. But you get the idea.
ReplyDeleteTry a well cleaned 1/8th" drill bit. Use on one end, allow bit to go through and into the egg. Use the drill to "mix-up" the egg. Then drill out the other end with your grinder technique, insert clean basketball needle and gently blow out the mixed up egg.
ReplyDeleteThat's the method used by Deacon Lazarus at one of the Orthodox Churches here. He makes chicken, duck and goose egg Pysanki to sell.
He freezes the eggs in a plastic icetray. Each "cube" = 1 chicken egg in a recipe.
Cheerio!
Windy
I have been stirring with a bit of kinked wire, or sometimes a toothpick.. I didn't happen to have a proper drill bit at the time I did this. Deacon Lazarus definitely has a good technique. I think we have over a hundred eggshells on hand but alas I am 3000 miles from them at present.
ReplyDelete