KEEPING EGGS.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1258, 30 March 1878, Page 3

KEEPING EGGS.

The following, from the third report of the National Butter and Cheese Association, gives the method of preserving eggs which is practised by large dealers :—" To make the pickle, use stone lime, fine salt and water in the following proportions : One bushel of lime, eight quarts of salt, 25 ten-quart pails of water. The lime must be lime that will slake white, fine and clean. Have the salt clean and the water pure and sweet, free frmn all vegetable or decomposed matter. Slake the lime with a 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 a depth of 15 inches or IS inches, begin to pat in the <-ggs, 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 lot of egg l ! 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 completely seal the 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. (The chief cause of thin, watery whites in limed eggs is that they are not properly sealed in the manner described. Another cause is the putting into the pickle old stale eggs that have thin, weak whites.) When the eggs are within 4 inches of the top of the cask or vat, cover them with factory cloth, and spread on 2 inches or 3 inches of the lime that settles in making the p ; ckle, and it is of the greatest importance that the pickle be kept continually up over this line. A tin basin (holding about six to eight dozen eggs), punched quite full of inch holes, edge mufli.d with leather, and a suitable handle about 3 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 go 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 cban them, secure half of a molasses hogshead, or something like it, filling the same about half full of water. Have a sufficient number of crates of the right size (to hold twenty to twentyfive dozen eggs), made of laths or other slats, placed about £ 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 raiding ib up and down in the water, and if necessary to properly clean them, set the crate up, and douse waterover 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, they can be set up or out in 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 a cellar around the walls, with about half their depth below the surface, about 4 feet or 5 feet deep, 6 feet long, and 4 feet wide, are usually considered the best for preserving eggs in, although many use and prefer large tubs made of wood. The place in which the vats are built, or the tubs kept, should be clean and sweet, free from all bad odours, and where a steady, low temperature can be maintained—the lower the better, that is, down to any point above freezing."