Tips from experienced poultry farmers: how many days do homemade eggs last in the refrigerator?
The refrigerator is no longer a luxury item, but an indispensable unit for storing food.
Owners of domestic poultry farms actively use refrigeration chambers to store the collected “harvest” of eggs.
How long do homemade eggs last in the refrigerator? The rules and duration of storage of food products can be found in the article.
Content
How long can it be stored?
Shelf life in the refrigerator depends on several factors:
- initial freshness of the product;
- the integrity and purity of its outer shell;
- cleanliness of the internal space of the refrigerator (active gas exchange of the contents with the external environment occurs through the porous shell);
- proper operation of the unit (frequent shutdown and restart of the refrigerator is not allowed).
Raw
Fresh raw homemade chicken eggs will not spoil in the refrigerator up to 3 weeks, provided a clean environment is maintained.
The packaged product must not be shaken or transferred from shelf to shelf, creating temperature fluctuations.
It is not recommended to keep foods with strong aromas (smoked meats, marinades) without tight packaging near eggs.
Boiled
Hard-boiled (boiled in salted water for at least 10 minutes) eggs in the shell Can be eaten 6 weeks after harvesting for storage. Without the shell, they will remain edible for up to 5 days. Boiled eggs in the shell can be kept in open bowls, peeled eggs can be kept under a lid.
Read about how long boiled eggs last in the refrigerator. Here, without shell - here, quail - Here.
Fried
Scrambled eggs are usually fried in oil, which is an excellent breeding ground for bacteria. Leftover food, transferred to a clean container, can be stored for no more than a day at a temperature not exceeding +4 degrees.
Can it be frozen?
Homemade fresh raw eggs can be frozen in a household freezer after removing the shell. The contents (you can immediately separate the whites from the yolks, if this is necessary for further preparation) are poured into plastic portioned containers or bottles, without filling them to the top.
Recommended storage temperature from -18 degrees. The maximum shelf life is 1 year. The product cannot be frozen and thawed multiple times!
Before cooking, defrost the whites and yolks by placing them in the refrigerator or at room temperature. Thawed raw materials are suitable for making sponge cakes, omelets, egg cream, scrambled eggs, and casseroles.
Hard-boiled and shelled eggs can also be frozen.. They are crushed to the desired size and placed in containers. Then the raw material is used as a filling for pies.
Will tell you about egg freezing this article.
Features for chicken, quail, duck and others
There are no differences in storing eggs from different types of poultry.However, it is not advisable to put product from land birds (chicken, turkey, quail) and waterfowl in one container.
Approximate shelf life raw eggs in the refrigerator from various poultry:
- Quail up to 45 days (eggs that have been lying around for a long time become lighter due to the drying out of the contents).
- Duck, goose about 50 days.
- Turkey 20-25 days.
- Guinea fowl over 4 months old.
- Ostrich 8-11 months.
The indicated periods are valid for a product of ideal quality and subject to storage conditions. Read about storing quail eggs Here, goose - here.
Differences from store-bought ones
As practice shows, homemade eggs remain fresh longer, unlike store-bought ones, under equal storage conditions.
Reasons for this phenomenon:
- absence of antibiotics and artificial stimulants in the poultry diet;
- short path from demolition to storage;
- minimum contact with potential contaminants.
It is not recommended to remove a product purchased from a store from its packaging before cooking, since eggs at poultry farms undergo special disinfection immediately before being placed in boxes.
How to increase shelf life?
The refrigerator, by maintaining a low temperature, itself extends the shelf life of the product. You can increase it even more if you cover the shell with an airtight compound. By isolating the internal contents of the egg from the external environment, bacteria are not given the opportunity to multiply.
For this use:
- melted butter;
- liquid goose, chicken or pork fat;
- candle paraffin;
- beeswax.
Immediately after laying by the chicken, clean eggs are coated with a brush on all sides or immersed in a protective liquid. After the films have dried, they are removed for storage. Before cooking, the shell is cleared of its coating by washing in soapy water or scraping off the paraffin with a knife.
How can you tell if a product has gone bad?
If you exceed the recommended storage period, be sure to check the quality of the egg before cooking. The raw contents of the shell gradually dry out, decreasing in volume. If you illuminate the shell with a powerful flashlight or using an ovoscope, the enlarged air chamber at the blunt end of the egg is clearly visible.
If you have no experience in enlightenment, you can do it easier, dip the raw egg into clean or salted water.
The freshness of a hard-boiled product is determined by the smell after peeling. High-quality food has no odor, but spoiled food smells of hydrogen sulfide.
Useful tips
Sometimes in winter the temperature in the barn drops to 0 or below. An egg brought indoors and placed in the refrigerator, where the temperature is slightly higher, forms condensation - droplets of water appear on the shell. Do not wipe off the liquid! It is blotted with a paper towel.
Nests where birds fly must be kept clean: change the litter in time, remove droppings. Layed eggs should be collected every 2 hours, preventing them from remaining in the barn for a long time.
To keep the shell strong, and therefore impenetrable to microbes, you should enrich the poultry diet with vitamins and minerals (shell, chalk).
You cannot wash the shell with water, much less use detergents; you cannot scrape the shell with hard objects before storing it! Its integrity is compromised and liquid enters through the pores, causing the proliferation of harmful bacteria.
Conclusion
Keeping homemade eggs in a household refrigerator is the simplest and most affordable storage method. It does not require special preparation of the product and allows you to keep food fresh for up to a month.
