To Preserve Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
Mix 1 pint of coarse sea salt, 2 pints of fresh lime, and 3 gallons of water well.
Submerge eggs in the brine without cracking the shells, ensuring they are covered.
Alternative method
For an alternative method, pour 1 pailful of spring water into a stone jar.
Add 1 pound of lime and 1 pint of Liverpool salt, stirring daily for 3 days.
After 3 days, pour off the liquid and add your eggs to the mixture.
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
- Coarse sea salt
- Salt draws moisture out of the eggs and slows the growth of spoilage microbes.
- Lime
- Alkaline lime helps preserve the eggs while they sit in the liquid.
The step that matters
Submerge the eggs without cracking the shells. An intact shell is the eggs' main barrier against spoilage microbes. A cracked shell lets microbes reach the egg white and yolk, so the eggs can spoil before the preserving liquid does its work.
“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.
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