More detail on preserving eggs with parafin, please!

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I must be slow, but I need some details on this. Doesn't the hot parafin cook the egg? Does the spot where the egg meets the container (egg carton) get compromised? How long will they keep once they're coated? D'ya suppose the waxy egg-shells will be okay in the compost heap later on?

Help, please!

thanks :)

-- Arewyn (isitth@latealready.com), November 24, 1999

Answers

My grandmother use to coat fresh eggs with Vaseline to keep out the air. This might be an alternative if you have no power and have lots of eggs in the fridge.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), November 24, 1999.

For those who use the word paraffin for the sibstance Americans call kerosene, please note the paraffin referred to here is paraffin wax.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), November 24, 1999.

Flipping the eggs on their tips once a month extends life to 6 months so I've heard, any comments or clarifications? Also coffee tins once a month, to keep the oils evenly distributed. Parrafin wax melts at a very low temp, and when we were kids we'd dip our hands in over and over to build "monster hands", so clearly the egg would not be cooked.

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), November 26, 1999.

I dipped about 15 dozen eggs a week or so ago. Melted some paraffin in a regular sized (~15oz.) can which I sat in a pan with water on the stove. When the paraffin was melted I used a little wire dipper - like for dying Easter eggs - to dip the eggs. The thin wax coat solidifies very quickly. I set a few in the lid of the egg container just to make sure the wax was solid before I put them back in their holes.. so they wouldn't stick to the container.

One dozen was colder than the others (had gone back to the store to get more) and the wax cracked on the eggs because of the difference in temp. I thought it was the shell that cracked and so decided to use those eggs first, but it was only the wax coating that cracked. I would recommend letting the eggs warm a bit to near room temp. to avoid it.

Having just used those cracked-wax eggs, I found that the wax coating peels off easily... so I put the flakes back in the can of paraffin... ready for the next melting. Reusable.

When oil or vasolene is used it supposedly renders the eggs unfit for beating as some of the oil gets into the egg and the whites will no longer fluff up. Doesn't seem like that would happen with the paraffin coating, but I'm a newbie at this and don't actually know how paraffin eggs compare with oiled eggs for storage length or cooking properties.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), November 30, 1999.


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