real eggs in a bag: for how long?

[Rob Mcrae]

Hey all- Hoping to bring eggs with me to cook the first morning out.
Maybe the second morning?
How long will eggs last when broken into ziploc bags? I will be in Northern Ontario with sub-zero nights and days that may get mild and only rarely warm (max 17 C, 63 F).
Any guesses?

[Steven Evans]

Hey Rob! My Ontario buddy, where ya been hiding?

I kept eggs last summer (Killarney) for one night and they were good the next morning…that's all I can offer.

[Laurie Ann March]

Rob – if you buy farm fresh eggs they will last for days (even over a week) as long as they don't break. Often, more so than not, grocery store eggs are a few weeks old.

We often coat them lightly with oil and tissue or a little vaseline.

Hey – Ontario… I live there too!

[Joe Clement]

A least a week when coated with vaseline. Or get some of this stuff – http://happyhovelfoods.com/oxy_keypeg_prices.htm

[John Fry]

i think he was asking if they are already broken into a bag, presumably to save space?

i am also curious about this question, never thought of it as an option before, but if they are no good after a day, then its kinda worthless….easier to just carry the eggs.

curious…what does the vaseline do?

[. .]

Joe: that is an interesting product concept. Have you used it before? What about the water purifier/chlorine remover above it: "Aerobic Oxygen Plus"?

Rob: I doubt that real eggs would last very long once exposed to oxygen. However, I think those "Egg Beaters" (or equivalent) in the supermarket would do much better in the bag, since they are stabilized and repackaged with the expectation of the package being open & closed again on a somewhat regular basis, albeit in the refrigerator.

I think the best thing, from a culinary perspective, would be to pack the whole eggs. With that in mind, what have all y'all found as the best UL way to do this?

[Mark McLauchlin]

I have packed eggs, unbroken a few times. My solution is to cut off the end two egg holders from a full carton ( I only take two eggs with me), place the eggs in there then wrap in tissue, tape shut and stick in a ziplock bag. Works well and is as UL as I can get it.

Cheers

[Roger Caffin]

> How long will eggs last when broken into ziploc bags?

Probably no more than a few hours. The contact with oxygen/air destroys them.

Cheers

[Laurie Ann March]

John – Vaseline or Oil can help block air from penetrating through the shell of the egg. Just remember to wipe it off before you crack the egg.

[James D Buch]

I carry eggs with me on bicycle camping trips, mostly in the original carton with a few empty plastic bags folded inside for shock protection, and a plastic bag overwrap on the carton "just in case".

I have had good luck with them up to 4 days being careful to have them packed where they don't get hot from the sun beating down on the panniers or the trailer haul bag.

Old people will remember when eggs were sold in the stores with no refrigeration. If I remember correctly, refrigerators were pretty rare during the early days of the settlement of the USA and people still ate eggs on farms and in towns.

While refrigeration is plentiful today, it wasn't always so. People have eaten food for a long time, a fact we sometimes overlook.

[N. F.]

I've noticed in South America, people don't refrigerate eggs even if they have fridges. If they're fresh when you buy them, you can store them at room temp and eat them two weeks later and not notice any difference.

[Cayenne Redmonk]

I keep farm fresh eggs at room temperature. Under normal healthy conditions the eggs will dehydrate before they will become infected with bacteria. The eggs at the supermarket have been washed and scrubbed, to the detriment of the natural membrane that protects the eggs.

As far as carrying broken eggs in a bag, I wouldn't use it after 4 hours, and I'd be happier if I had used them up by two or three hours. Eggs are a nutrient rich environment, once expose to air and bacteria, the timer is ticking.

[Franco Darioli]

I only have hard boiled eggs with me, but for fresh ones I would try to get them from a market or a farm (fresher and see Cameron's comment) and use one of those plastic egg holders or just wrap them with crinkled newspaper and store them in my pot ( filling it with my kitchen cloth, maybe even a spare sock…)
Eggs out of their shell would provably last the same as a banana out of it's skin.
http://www.rei.com/product/696008
BTW I grew up eating eggs from our chooks, never refrigerated…
James "old people" ?
The markets here still sell farm fresh eggs unrefrigerated, and yes you can tell they have not been cleaned.
Franco

[Jeremy Greene]

Those plastic containers are too small to fit the large to extra extra large eggs available here. If you can find eggs graded small or medium this may be a solution for you.

[Rob Mcrae]

Thanks for the replies.
Steve, I ended up having a health meltdown at the end of summer last year, and was way out of commission for many months. I started working again in January, and am heading out on my annual canoe trip to Algonquin this weekend – feeling really good.
My question was about eggs in a bag – broken. I know a guy who does it regularly, but it must not be for long. I can't imagine keeping them unbroken, but I guess you could wrap them up really cozy-like and that might last … a day as well.
We'll see.
That egg preservation product is absolutely bizarre. I have never heard of that, but it is totally neat-o. Can't wait to mention it to my Mennonite egg supplier…

I'm heading out in the morning..(dance, dance, chuckle)

[Laurie Ann March]

Mennonite egg supplier eh? I grew up near Inverhaugh (Ariss) and we always had farm fresh mennonite eggs. I miss them now that we are further away.

Have fun on your trip to Algonquin – I love that place.

[Aida Martinez]

Eggs in their shell actually last pretty long without refrigeration at those temperatures. For years, my family kept eggs on the counter in San Francisco during the week.

However, if you dont want deal with broken shells my recomendation is to put the eggs into a hard liquid container (like nalgene bottle or something smaller). I have heard that you can freeze the eggs in those containers, take hiking, and have them defrost for the next morning but have never tried that. As someone mentioned, another option is an egg beaters – but then you have to deal with the packaging (perhaps you can burn most of it, except for the plastic pour spout?)

[stefan hoffman]

There are styrofoam 6 packs of eggs sold in some places. I would think thats the lightest way to carry them.

I eat my eggs hard boiled or raw just to avoid doing dishes, and i would never eat an egg that wasnt freshly extracted from its shell. But for those that would, what about freezing a container of Egg Beaters? Might that last a day or two? Also, those come in "just the whites", which i would think keeps longer.

[Anton Koliev]

I also was curious about fresh eggs and did some tests on myself.
I wash two eggs, break them separately into two ziploc bags in around 6pm. First was examined and then prepared approximately 10am next day. It smells OK as well as taste was quite normal.
(It was boiled with its ziploc bag)
Second egg was not used one more day and was examined in 10am next day. It was not so good. Of course, if this will be question of survival – I will eat this egg, but not just for test..
I got mild night( around +6C) and quite warm days(around +16C).
I believe, that better will be to take non-broken boiled eggs – you may eat them after 2-3 days without any problem with such outdoor temperatures.

[Rob Mcrae]

Ok – so in the end I chickened out and brought whole, not broken, eggs. I just brought a few eggs and wrapped them in paper, left them in their carton, and tied it together. I was mindful of them and ate them the second morning, when they were a filling breakfast before my 5.6 km portage. (ugh!)
In the end, I learned not that eggs will last when broken into bags, but that when packed with care, can remain unbroken in a pack without too much worry. However, boiling them in a bag was something I will not do again – not very appetizing at all!
At any rate, the trip was good – we had mostly mild, clear weather, with a day of rain and a morning of brief snow flurries – but all in all, the 7 of us did just fine. One of our canoes got a hole in it when we tried to paddle through a suggested portage area that had whitewater and rocks. Hey- we figured the water was high enough, ok? But, unbelievably, we used duct tape to patch the canoe hole and it held fast for the next 2 days!! Red Green would be proud…

Thanks for your input. have a great day!

[Frank Deland]

Hard boiled eggs will last two weeks!

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