Some weeks ago, you advised on storing eggs and I think one of your
answers was a yes to using water as a storage medium. Can you please re
post what you said about storing eggs please?

Dave

On 06/07/2008 22:19, Dave wrote:

Some weeks ago, you advised on storing eggs and I think one of your
answers was a yes to using water as a storage medium. Can you please re
post what you said about storing eggs please?

Water glass?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_g...d_preservation

On Jul 6, 7:47*pm, Andy Burns wrote:
On 06/07/2008 22:19, Dave wrote:

Some weeks ago, you advised on storing eggs and I think one of your
answers was a yes to using water as a storage medium. Can you please re
post what you said about storing eggs please?

Water glass?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_g...d_preservation

Isinglass??? Seem to remember something about that after WWII.

Andy Burns wrote:

On 06/07/2008 22:19, Dave wrote:

Some weeks ago, you advised on storing eggs and I think one of your
answers was a yes to using water as a storage medium. Can you please
re post what you said about storing eggs please?


Water glass?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_g...d_preservation

Not quite what I was looking for though.

Dave

Dave wrote:
Andy Burns wrote:

On 06/07/2008 22:19, Dave wrote:

Some weeks ago, you advised on storing eggs and I think one of your
answers was a yes to using water as a storage medium. Can you please
re post what you said about storing eggs please?



Water glass?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_g...d_preservation


Not quite what I was looking for though. Mary's descriptin took it a bit further.

Dave

In message , Dave
writes
Andy Burns wrote:

On 06/07/2008 22:19, Dave wrote:

Some weeks ago, you advised on storing eggs and I think one of your
answers was a yes to using water as a storage medium. Can you please
re post what you said about storing eggs please?
Water glass?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_g...d_preservation

Not quite what I was looking for though.

You can use very strong brine


--
geoff

"Dave" wrote in message
...
Some weeks ago, you advised on storing eggs and I think one of your
answers was a yes to using water as a storage medium. Can you please re
post what you said about storing eggs please?

Dave

a) I can't remember advising on egg storage, sorry, we just keep ours in
boxes in the pantry for months.

b) if I did say anything it wouldn't have been just 'water', but
waterglass - sodium metasilicate. This is dissolved in water in a container
(a friend used buckets but she had a lot of hens) and the eggs placed in it
and taken out when they were needed.

I've heard of people using wax for the same purpose but that would be
difficult and messy, imo.

I think the principle is that the pores of the eggs are sealed by this
method and bacteria can't enter.

I almost certainly will have said that keeping eggs in the fridge isn't a
good idea.

Sorry I can't help further, I've stopped keeping my sent posts :-(

Mary

On 6 Jul, 22:49, terry wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_g...d_preservation

Isinglass??? Seem to remember something about that after WWII.

Isinglass and waterglass are totally different things.

Neither is easy to obtain these days. I can't recommend waterglass for
egg preservation (a traditional use) because it's just such a pig to
get hold of. My last supply was cold-war surplus (it's useful for
decontaminating mustard gas contamination on concrete, by sealing it
in) and four of the six cans in the box had already rusted through and
leaked. It's still excellent as a stabiliser for dusty concrete.

On 07/07/2008 11:57, Andy Dingley wrote:


On 6 Jul, 22:49, terry wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_g...d_preservation
Isinglass??? Seem to remember something about that after WWII.

Isinglass and waterglass are totally different things.

Neither is easy to obtain these days.

What's used for beer finings instead?

Andy Dingley wrote:

On 6 Jul, 22:49, terry wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_g...d_preservation

Isinglass??? Seem to remember something about that after WWII.

Isinglass and waterglass are totally different things.

Neither is easy to obtain these days.

I can supply waterglass if anyone is desperately interested, there's no
need to go ferreting around for war surplus stuff in rusting tins.

On 7 Jul, 13:05, Andy Burns wrote:

Isinglass and waterglass are totally different things.

Neither is easy to obtain these days.

What's used for beer finings instead?

Still called "Isinglass", which seems to have stretched its meaning
from "swim bladders of sturgeons" to "boiled fish innards, of sundry
origin". Much of this is the gills of farmed salmon AFAIK, on account
of still being cheap as a waste product.

As there's a growing demand for vegan beer too, as well as cost
issues, an increasing number of artisan brewers are switching to non-
animal finings such as carragheen.

Dave wrote:

Some weeks ago, you advised on storing eggs and I think one of your
answers was a yes to using water as a storage medium. Can you please re
post what you said about storing eggs please?

Eggs can be stored in waterglass, which is sodium silicate solution.
It's supplied for home use as a liquid which you dilute 1+9 (eg 250ml -
2.5 litres).

It's fairly straight forward to use. Check the eggs over carefully for
cracks. Don't attempt to preserve cracked eggs. The cracked eggs will
contaminate the rest. Use clean eggs, you don't want droppings on them,
nor do you want to have to wash them. Washing eggs makes them difficult
to preserve.

Place the eggs into a ceramic or glass container. Layering them
carefully. Choosing an appropriate container is difficult since the size
of the eggs affects the packing density. Have a few dry runs with some
likely containers to find the best fit. Ikea sell some glass jars which
are wide, have vertical sides and have an alloy push-fit lid. These are
ideal. You should put the containers through the dishwasher before use
or wash them in hot water. With ceramics you can scald them.

Make up the waterglass solution. Some prefer to half fill the container
then add the eggs, others to pack the egss then pour the solution over
the eggs. Cover the container (this is where the Ikea lid comes in
handy) and move somewhere cool, somewhere that you are not going to have
to disturb the eggs. Cellars are ideal, and I suspect the fact that few
people have a cellar nowadays is one reason that this sort of
preservation isn't used as much as it used to be.

Check the container for evaporation and top up wth distilled or boiled
water as necessary.

To use the eggs remove them from the solution, rinse in cold water.
Crack the eggs into a cup before use, one by one, to ensure that if one
of them does go off it doesn't contaminate the rest. They aren't really
suitable for use for boiling because the waterglass seals the pores in
the egg and they explode when boiled. You could try making a needle hole
in the big end of the egg before boiling.

Generally the eggs are OK for about six months for boiling, then they
can be used for another two months for frying. After that the yolk
membrane breaks down and they're only good for cakes/scrambling.

Andy Dingley wrote:

On 7 Jul, 13:05, Andy Burns wrote:

Isinglass and waterglass are totally different things.

Neither is easy to obtain these days.

What's used for beer finings instead?

Still called "Isinglass", which seems to have stretched its meaning
from "swim bladders of sturgeons" to "boiled fish innards, of sundry
origin". Much of this is the gills of farmed salmon AFAIK, on account
of still being cheap as a waste product.

Much of what is sold as "isinglass" is plain old cow-derived gelatin,
the better stuff is made from swim bladders of various fish, including
salmon. Apparently for some uses Russian sturgeon derived isinglass is
still used, which must cost a bloody fortune.

On 7 Jul, 14:31, (Steve Firth) wrote:

Eggs can be stored in waterglass, which is sodium silicate solution.
It's supplied for home use as a liquid which you dilute 1+9 (eg 250ml -
2.5 litres).

Where do you get yours? Roughly what does it cost these days?

And how do you best dilute it? I've often had trouble with it
refusing to mix.

Andy Dingley wrote:

On 7 Jul, 14:31, (Steve Firth) wrote:

Eggs can be stored in waterglass, which is sodium silicate solution.
It's supplied for home use as a liquid which you dilute 1+9 (eg 250ml -
2.5 litres).

Where do you get yours?

I run a small biochemistry lab, so I can get it through the chemical
supplier that we get all the rest of our stuff through.

Roughly what does it cost these days?

About £11/Kg.

And how do you best dilute it? I've often had trouble with it
refusing to mix.

Well, I cheap and use a lab mixer which whangs the solution and DI water
together at high speed, like a large stick blender.

Steve Firth wrote:

Well, I cheap

Or cheat, no hang on I am cheap. Oh whatever.

"Steve Firth" wrote in message
.. .
Andy Dingley wrote:

On 7 Jul, 14:31, (Steve Firth) wrote:

Eggs can be stored in waterglass, which is sodium silicate solution.
It's supplied for home use as a liquid which you dilute 1+9 (eg
250ml -
2.5 litres).

Where do you get yours?

I run a small biochemistry lab, so I can get it through the chemical
supplier that we get all the rest of our stuff through.

Roughly what does it cost these days?

About £11/Kg.

And how do you best dilute it? I've often had trouble with it
refusing to mix.

Well, I cheap and use a lab mixer which whangs the solution and DI water
together at high speed, like a large stick blender.


Steve
£11 a kilo from where and how many pints/galls would that mix into

And
This is the same stuff that grows 'Magic Gardens' isn't it

Many thanks

Peter

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On 7 Jul, 14:31, (Steve Firth) wrote:

Eggs can be stored in waterglass, which is sodium silicate solution.
It's supplied for home use as a liquid which you dilute 1+9 (eg 250ml -
2.5 litres).

Where do you get yours? Roughly what does it cost these days?

And how do you best dilute it? I've often had trouble with it
refusing to mix.

I never had any trouble diluting it, you must start with a small amount of
water to a larger amount of waterglass and go from there. Try the other way
round and you'll have a problem.

Mary

Peter wrote:

Steve
£11 a kilo from where

From me.

and how many pints/galls would that mix into

About 10Kg of water, 17.5 pints, a bit over two gallons.

And
This is the same stuff that grows 'Magic Gardens' isn't it

Yes, it's the same stuff.

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On 6 Jul, 22:49, terry wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_g...d_preservation

Isinglass??? Seem to remember something about that after WWII.

Isinglass and waterglass are totally different things.

Neither is easy to obtain these days. I can't recommend waterglass
for
egg preservation (a traditional use) because it's just such a pig to
get hold of. My last supply was cold-war surplus (it's useful for
decontaminating mustard gas contamination on concrete, by sealing it
in) and four of the six cans in the box had already rusted through
and
leaked. It's still excellent as a stabiliser for dusty concrete.

Dead easy to source, look for any Foundry supplies house - it's used
in in making sand moulds - I have several gallons in store at the
moment

AWEM

On Mon, 7 Jul 2008 19:39:28 +0100, "Peter"
wrote:


This is the same stuff that grows 'Magic Gardens' isn't it

ISTR 'chemical gardens' -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_garden


--
Frank Erskine

Steve Firth wrote:

Dave wrote:


Some weeks ago, you advised on storing eggs and I think one of your
answers was a yes to using water as a storage medium. Can you please re
post what you said about storing eggs please?


Eggs can be stored in waterglass, which is sodium silicate solution.
It's supplied for home use as a liquid which you dilute 1+9 (eg 250ml -
2.5 litres).

It's fairly straight forward to use. Check the eggs over carefully for
cracks. Don't attempt to preserve cracked eggs. The cracked eggs will
contaminate the rest. Use clean eggs, you don't want droppings on them,
nor do you want to have to wash them. Washing eggs makes them difficult
to preserve.

Place the eggs into a ceramic or glass container. Layering them
carefully. Choosing an appropriate container is difficult since the size
of the eggs affects the packing density. Have a few dry runs with some
likely containers to find the best fit. Ikea sell some glass jars which
are wide, have vertical sides and have an alloy push-fit lid. These are
ideal. You should put the containers through the dishwasher before use
or wash them in hot water. With ceramics you can scald them.

Make up the waterglass solution. Some prefer to half fill the container
then add the eggs, others to pack the egss then pour the solution over
the eggs. Cover the container (this is where the Ikea lid comes in
handy) and move somewhere cool, somewhere that you are not going to have
to disturb the eggs. Cellars are ideal, and I suspect the fact that few
people have a cellar nowadays is one reason that this sort of
preservation isn't used as much as it used to be.

Check the container for evaporation and top up wth distilled or boiled
water as necessary.

To use the eggs remove them from the solution, rinse in cold water.
Crack the eggs into a cup before use, one by one, to ensure that if one
of them does go off it doesn't contaminate the rest. They aren't really
suitable for use for boiling because the waterglass seals the pores in
the egg and they explode when boiled. You could try making a needle hole
in the big end of the egg before boiling.

Generally the eggs are OK for about six months for boiling, then they
can be used for another two months for frying. After that the yolk
membrane breaks down and they're only good for cakes/scrambling.

Brilliant. That is the answer I was looking for, but failed to remember.
Perhaps it wasn't Mary that posted that then. Well, I am getting on in
years :-(

Dave

Mary Fisher wrote:

"Dave" wrote in message
...

Some weeks ago, you advised on storing eggs and I think one of your
answers was a yes to using water as a storage medium. Can you please re
post what you said about storing eggs please?

Dave


a) I can't remember advising on egg storage, sorry, we just keep ours in
boxes in the pantry for months.

b) if I did say anything it wouldn't have been just 'water', but
waterglass - sodium metasilicate. This is dissolved in water in a container
(a friend used buckets but she had a lot of hens) and the eggs placed in it
and taken out when they were needed.

I've heard of people using wax for the same purpose but that would be
difficult and messy, imo.

I think the principle is that the pores of the eggs are sealed by this
method and bacteria can't enter.

I almost certainly will have said that keeping eggs in the fridge isn't a
good idea.

Sorry I can't help further, I've stopped keeping my sent posts :-(

Many thanks for that Mary. Steve Firth has answered this question.

Dave

"Dave" wrote in message
...
Steve Firth wrote:

Dave wrote:


Some weeks ago, you advised on storing eggs and I think one of your
answers was a yes to using water as a storage medium. Can you please re
post what you said about storing eggs please?


Eggs can be stored in waterglass, which is sodium silicate solution.
It's supplied for home use as a liquid which you dilute 1+9 (eg 250ml -
2.5 litres).

It's fairly straight forward to use. Check the eggs over carefully for
cracks. Don't attempt to preserve cracked eggs. The cracked eggs will
contaminate the rest. Use clean eggs, you don't want droppings on them,
nor do you want to have to wash them. Washing eggs makes them difficult
to preserve.

Place the eggs into a ceramic or glass container. Layering them
carefully. Choosing an appropriate container is difficult since the size
of the eggs affects the packing density. Have a few dry runs with some
likely containers to find the best fit. Ikea sell some glass jars which
are wide, have vertical sides and have an alloy push-fit lid. These are
ideal. You should put the containers through the dishwasher before use
or wash them in hot water. With ceramics you can scald them.

Make up the waterglass solution. Some prefer to half fill the container
then add the eggs, others to pack the egss then pour the solution over
the eggs. Cover the container (this is where the Ikea lid comes in
handy) and move somewhere cool, somewhere that you are not going to have
to disturb the eggs. Cellars are ideal, and I suspect the fact that few
people have a cellar nowadays is one reason that this sort of
preservation isn't used as much as it used to be.

Check the container for evaporation and top up wth distilled or boiled
water as necessary.

To use the eggs remove them from the solution, rinse in cold water.
Crack the eggs into a cup before use, one by one, to ensure that if one
of them does go off it doesn't contaminate the rest. They aren't really
suitable for use for boiling because the waterglass seals the pores in
the egg and they explode when boiled. You could try making a needle hole
in the big end of the egg before boiling.

Generally the eggs are OK for about six months for boiling, then they
can be used for another two months for frying. After that the yolk
membrane breaks down and they're only good for cakes/scrambling.

Brilliant. That is the answer I was looking for, but failed to remember.
Perhaps it wasn't Mary that posted that then. Well, I am getting on in
years :-(

Our eggs keep longer than six months with no special care, just being put in
boxes in the pantry. Good job they do, we don't buy them when the hens don't
lay.

We're getting on in years too and are advised not to eat soft boiled eggs or
raw ones. And we always take advice from Our Glorious Leaders.

Home made mayonnaise keeps in the fridge for a few days too - it never lasts
longer than that.

Ooops! Hope OGLs aren't reading this :-)

Mary

Mary Fisher wrote:

"Dave" wrote in message
...

Steve Firth wrote:


Dave wrote:



Some weeks ago, you advised on storing eggs and I think one of your
answers was a yes to using water as a storage medium. Can you please re
post what you said about storing eggs please?


Eggs can be stored in waterglass, which is sodium silicate solution.
It's supplied for home use as a liquid which you dilute 1+9 (eg 250ml -
2.5 litres).

It's fairly straight forward to use. Check the eggs over carefully for
cracks. Don't attempt to preserve cracked eggs. The cracked eggs will
contaminate the rest. Use clean eggs, you don't want droppings on them,
nor do you want to have to wash them. Washing eggs makes them difficult
to preserve.

Place the eggs into a ceramic or glass container. Layering them
carefully. Choosing an appropriate container is difficult since the size
of the eggs affects the packing density. Have a few dry runs with some
likely containers to find the best fit. Ikea sell some glass jars which
are wide, have vertical sides and have an alloy push-fit lid. These are
ideal. You should put the containers through the dishwasher before use
or wash them in hot water. With ceramics you can scald them.

Make up the waterglass solution. Some prefer to half fill the container
then add the eggs, others to pack the egss then pour the solution over
the eggs. Cover the container (this is where the Ikea lid comes in
handy) and move somewhere cool, somewhere that you are not going to have
to disturb the eggs. Cellars are ideal, and I suspect the fact that few
people have a cellar nowadays is one reason that this sort of
preservation isn't used as much as it used to be.

Check the container for evaporation and top up wth distilled or boiled
water as necessary.

To use the eggs remove them from the solution, rinse in cold water.
Crack the eggs into a cup before use, one by one, to ensure that if one
of them does go off it doesn't contaminate the rest. They aren't really
suitable for use for boiling because the waterglass seals the pores in
the egg and they explode when boiled. You could try making a needle hole
in the big end of the egg before boiling.

Generally the eggs are OK for about six months for boiling, then they
can be used for another two months for frying. After that the yolk
membrane breaks down and they're only good for cakes/scrambling.

Brilliant. That is the answer I was looking for, but failed to remember.
Perhaps it wasn't Mary that posted that then. Well, I am getting on in
years :-(


Our eggs keep longer than six months with no special care, just being put in
boxes in the pantry. Good job they do, we don't buy them when the hens don't
lay.

We're getting on in years too and are advised not to eat soft boiled eggs or
raw ones. And we always take advice from Our Glorious Leaders.

Home made mayonnaise keeps in the fridge for a few days too - it never lasts
longer than that.

Ooops! Hope OGLs aren't reading this :-)

Printed, noted and stored.

Thanks Mary