Sharp County record., 1880-10-14
Preserving Eggs.

"a I6duCl uoho INV OSSo may w PIN-
served when handled in considerable
quantities. The following method was
indorsed by the National Butter, Cheese
and EGG Association. In npickling small
quantity of eggs all that is necessary is
to reduce the quantities relatively of the
articles used:
To make pickle use stone lime, fine
salt and water in the following proper
tions: One bushel of lime, eight quarts
salt, twenty-five ten-quart pals of water.
The lime must be of the finest quality,
free from sand and dirt-lime that will
slack white, fine and clean. Have the
salt clean and the water pure and sweet,
free from all vegetable or decomposed
matter.
Stake the lime with portion of the
water, then add the balance of the water
and the salt. Stir well three or four
times at intervals and then let it stand
until well settled and cold. Either dip
or draw off the clear pickle into the
cask or vat in which it is intended to
preserve the eggs. When the cask or
vat is filled to depth of eighteen inches
begin to putin the eggs, and when they
lie, say about one foot deep, spread
around over them some pickle that is a
little milky in appearance, made so by
stirring up some of the very light lime
particles that settle last and continue
doing this as each foot of eggs is added.
The object of this is to have the fine
lime particles drawn into the pores OF
the shells, as they will be by a kind of
inductive process, and thereby COM
pletely seal the eggs. Care should be
taken not to get too much of the lime in,
that is, not enough to settle and stick
to the shells of the eggs and render
them difficult to clean when taken out
I believe that the chief cause of thin,
wattry whites in lined eggs is that they
are not properly sealed in the manner
described. OF course, another cause is
the putting into the pickle old stale
eggs that have thin, watery whites.
When the eggs are within about four
inches of the top of the cask or vat,
cover them with factory cloth and
spread on two or three inches of the
lime that settles in making the pickle,
and it is of the utmost importance that
the pickle be kept continually up over
this lime. A thin basin (holding about
six to eight dozen eggs punched quite
full of inch holes, edge muftied with
leather and suitable handle about
three feet long attached, will be found
convenient for putting the eggs into the
pickle. Fill the basin with eggs, put
both under the pickle and turn the eggs
out; they will 60 to the bottom without
breaking.
When the time comes to market the
eggs they must be taken out OF the
pickle, cleaned, dried and packed. To
clean them, procure half of molasses
hogshead, or something like it, filling
the same about half full of water. Have
a considerable number of crates of the
right size (to hold twenty or twenty
five dozen eggs, made of laths or other
stats, placed about three-quarters Of an
inch apart. Sink one of these crates in
the half-hogshead; take the basin used
to put the eggs into the pickle; dip the
eggs by raising it up and down in the
water, and, if necessary to properly
clean them, set the crate up and douse
water over the eggs; then, if any eggs
are found, when packing, that the lime
has not been fully removed from, they
should be laid out and all the lime
cleaned off before packing. When the
eggs are carefully washed, as before
described, they can be set up or out in
q a.suitable place to dry, in the crates,
They should dry quickly and be packed
as soon as dry. In packing the same
rules should be observed as in packing
fresh eggs. Vats built in cellar around
the walls, with about half their depth
below the surface, about four or five
feet deep, six feet long and four feet
wide, are usually considered the best
for preserving eggs in, although many
use and prefer large tubs made of wood. |