Amy in the Garden

People that have chickens sometimes have the terrible problem of having too many eggs.

E.B. White bought 84 chicks for his salt-water farm, expecting to end up with a dozen; however, he was a better farmer than a psychic and he ended up with 81 hens, producing about 20 eggs each day. He described his wife trying to keep up with the production, making all kinds of egg dishes, including “…all sorts of rather soft, disagreeable desserts, the kind convalescents eat doggedly and without joy.”

What a terrible fate for an overabundance of eggs!

I don’t have chickens (yet), but I do have a lot of time on my hands because it is winter in Maine. So when I discovered a blog and related article about preserving eggs yolks in salt, I was delighted – both at the prospect of something nice to eat in the future, and an interesting project to explore. The blog is Practical Self Reliance, by Vermont homesteader Ashley Adamant.  She’s on the internet, Facebook, and Instagram.  Here’s a link to her article on preserving eggs:  https://practicalselfreliance.com/salt-cured-egg-yolks/.  I can’t recommend her work highly enough.  I took one of her projects: preserving yolks in salt, and this is what happened:

It seems that eggs yolks can be preserved for a future date, to be finely grated over any dish you would otherwise grate Parmesan cheese over. In addition to this being an intriguing taste to try, it presents an option for lactose-intolerant folks. If you preserve the yolks in a 50-50 mixture of salt and sugar, you have a grate-able substance for desserts – I’m thinking chocolate pudding, or the like.

Salt preserves egg yolks in the same way it preserves meat: it inhibits the growth some types of bacteria that would otherwise spoil the food.

Here’s how I spent an hour yesterday:

1. I assembled my ingredients. I decided to preserve 3 yolks in salt, and 3 yolks in a 50-50 mixture of salt and sugar. I figured this would give me a few to give away to adventurous friends, and not too many to waste if it turns out I don’t have any adventurous friends.

Here’s a photo of my kitchen table, with everything ready to go:

2. I filled one plastic container with kosher salt, and the other with the 50-50 mixture, both to a depth of ½”. My research told me that I should not use table salt, as it contains additives, and anti-caking agents.

3. I used the back of a spoon to make 3 shallow divots in each container, carefully separated 6 eggs, and slipped a yolk into each divot. You will see I failed with one yolk, breaking it. I’m going to give it a go, however, and see what happens. Life doesn’t always have to be in a circle, right?

4. I covered the yolks with more of the stuff they were sitting in: all salt in the first, and the 50-50 mixture in the second, again to a depth of about ½”.

5. I labeled and dated each container. I will let them rest in the refrigerator and will take them out in one week, on March 13^th. And then I will tell you what comes next!

If you have read my blog before, you know that I will tell you if I fail. I hope not to, because it is winter in Maine, and I try to limit my trips to the store. I like to do big shops and then burrow in. But as I do love to eat, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I make nasty tasting salt-preserved eggs and have to drive to get some Parmesan. I’ll live.