Number one way for Preserving eggs.

[cruisersfarm]

If you want eggs to last 2 years, you are in the "survival" range of food storage and should be buying your eggs dehydrated:

Powdered Whole Eggs | Dried Eggs | honeyville.com

If you are eating fresh eggs, buy them fresh/unwashed like Lizzy says and just leave them out.

2 years worth of eggs would take up many cubic feet/meters and if you are storing eggs this long, you have 2 years worth of other food too and would need a 70'+ monohull to carry the payload. And where will your vegetables come from for 2 years?

An impractical, implausible question.

What you do is buy eggs when you provision, which will end up being every month or 2.

[roverhi]

Can't remember whether we varnished or vaselined our eggs bought straight from the egg ranch. In any. In any case, they lasted 6 months in the tropics though wife only used ithem in baking at the end.

Some people don't cruise from one Kroger supermarket to the next. Carrying a six month or longer supply of basic survival food is a must for the more adventurous. If you are going off the beaten path, you need to have ways to preserve foods and refrigeration isn't one of them. A reefer is a nice to have item but it seemed the biggest headache and often cruise ender for those who were addicted.

[Franziska]

As others have stated, if they have never seen a fridge and are not washed they will last comfortably several weeks to few months.

Turning them over once in a while helps, as does waxing/greasing/oiling their outside.

Learned that from a guy working for www.oneegg.org with whom I flew to Europe one day.
He said that they do not need fridges to keep the eggs. Even in Africa.

www.ladyrover.jimdo.com

[Sea Dreaming]

Actually, I think the biggest eason you refrigerate eggs in the US is marketing to prevent litigation. We US consumers are drilled to believe EVERYTHING is unsafe and must be refrigerated or cooked to carbon or its not safe to eat. The various food councils (lobbiests) spend big bucks to "educate" the population as a protective measure against lawsuit. Lawsuit, like American foot ball, is a national pastime.

[Seman]

Try to buy fresh eggs that haven't been refrigerated, coat them in Vaseline & turn them upside down every 3 days. They lasted in the tropics for over 3 month.

[misfits]

We used to have a farm & in addition to selling lamb, free range pork, & broilers, we had 100 laying hens.
If your eggs are sold in a "store", USDA regulations require them to be washed before being packaged & sold. Can't be selling eggs that have chicken poop on them I used to know how to read the code on the containers, (not the best sale date put on them by the stores) but it escapes me at the moment. I've seen eggs in supermarkets being sold that were laid 6 months ago because they've refrigerated.

If you going to coat you eggs in oil use vegetable or canola, not olive oil.
If you can buy eggs direct from a local farmer or at a farmers market most of the time they will not be washed. Just keep them in a cool place, they'll last for months.

How do you know if your eggs are really fresh? It's a PIA to near impossible to peel the shell off one when they're hard boiled. Which in itself is a whole other subject. Another place to research the unrefrigerated egg question may be Mother Earth News.

[Franziska]

Oh.By the way, if you keep the unwashed eggs, try to keep them away from any food processing items or other food to avoid possible salmonella infection due to contaminated shells.
Salmonella will not get inside the undamaged eggs, but when you open them they might contaminate the egg yolk.
Briefly wash and scrub them directly before use.
Dispose cleaning paper and water separately from food processing areas.

www.ladyrover.jimdo.com

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by Franziska

Turning them over once in a while helps, as does waxing/greasing/oiling their outside.

I once found one crew member turning over each egg in the carton. Just turn over the whole carton.

[mainsil]

I believe the US Navy submarine service's eggs are coated in wax to last the length of patrol.

[crazyoldboatguy]

Many years ago Mother Earth News did a fairly extensive study on various ways of preserving eggs. The end result seemed to show that eggs can go quite well on their own - don't clean them, store in cool dark place, etc.

How to Store Fresh Eggs - Real Food - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

[Jsta_Rebel]

Originally Posted by sparrowhawk1

I know there's other threads on this but I did a search and couldn't find them. but I just watched a YouTube video on18th century food preservation and they said using quicklime will preserve fresh eggs up to two years. One ounce of lime to 1 quart of water, he also put a handful of lime into the Container first. It's readily available at hardware stores and it's also called hydrated lime.

The eggs in lime is a Spanish thing. Also, in the DR, local eggs are not refrigerated. Just imports. Even without lime, a flat of never refrigerated eggs will last two weeks outside refrigeration that I'm sure of.

[Comix Bay]

I read in Pacific Yachting a long time ago that keeping/storing eggs below the water line on a vessel also preserves them. This came from a long time power boat cruiser. I don't have any storage problems with eggs, they get eaten to fast. Sunny side, soft, please!! Also remember that my folks kept ours unwashed down the water well along with the cream and milk.

[sparrowhawk1]

Originally Posted by crazyoldboatguy

Many years ago Mother Earth News did a fairly extensive study on various ways of preserving eggs. The end result seemed to show that eggs can go quite well on their own - don't clean them, store in cool dark place, etc.

How to Store Fresh Eggs - Real Food - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

Thanks for that link. I know this has been discussed before that's why I did a search. The study was done in 1977 and they only had 36 eggs per each method. They also started out with all unwashed eggs, which are almost impossible to get in the USA and I live in Florida, the warm temperatures make eggs start being runny after a week . flipping them every day doesn't seem to make much difference with previously refrigerated eggs in that short of time span.

[wrwakefield]

It is difficult where we sail to find fresh eggs that haven't been refrigerated. [As previously mentioned by others, these have the longest shelf life...]

And having too many eggs around is a pain and a risk [what a clean-up mess if you crush some...]

Therefore, we keep several envelopes of Ova Easy Egg Crystals. [4.5 oz/Bag = 1 dozen eggs]

These are not the powdered eggs of the past... you won't be able to tell them from fresh, but they don't hard boil worth a darn...

Cheers!

Bill

[hamburking]

Eggs will keep for a very long time with no refrigeration...if you flip them daily.
Read the book MY OLD MAN AND THE SEA for an example.

Its all about moving the small bubble of air inside the shell before the nasties can start to grow.