Name: To Preserve Eggs
Ingredients: 1 pailful of soft water; 2 pints of fresh unslaked lime; 1 pint of common salt

To Preserve Eggs

Ingredients

1 pailful of soft water
2 pints of fresh unslaked lime
1 pint of common salt

Directions

Prepare the brine

Mix the soft water, unslaked lime, and common salt well.
Fill a barrel half full with this mixture.

Preserve

Place the eggs in the mixture any time after June.
Store in a cool place; they will keep for two years.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Unslaked lime: Makes the water strongly alkaline, which slowly changes the egg white and yolk as they preserve.
Common salt: Seasons the eggs and helps limit spoilage in the brine.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.