The real scoop on preserving eggs

I know that during the winter our egg production slows down so much that we don't have enough for daily or sometimes even weekly consumption.  There are other times that I have so many I can't seem to give them away fast enough.  How do I save them?  I've frozen them before.  That works.  Three ice cubes of egg equals one egg when I use my ice cube trays.  But freezing takes up freezer space which I'd rather not take up if I can dry them.  I tried dehydrating them once.  That was a failure.  There are two ways to dry eggs.  I only tried one.  At least until this week.  I am pleased to write that this way worked. 

 

 I had read on the Internet that there were two ways to dry eggs, slowly cooked then dried and raw dried. I tried the slowly cooked first.  Let's recap my first experience http://whatifitistoday.blogspot.com/2010/10/eggs.html  I can't find the blog where I said they were horrible but they were horrible.  I'd rather never eat eggs than use those.  In my first try at dehydrating I slowly cooked the eggs then I dried them and powdered them.  I've read several places in blogs that you could do it that way.  DON'T!  I'm sure they never tried eating them! 

 

The other way to dry them worked.  I took the raw eggs, blended them up really well, then poured them into the dehydrator.  This is tricky since I don't own special fruit roll trays, which I'm assuming have a short lip on them.  I took plastic wrap and laid one piece across my tray.  It didn't completely cover the tray so I had to be really careful when I poured the egg onto the tray.  If I put on too much it would run off the plastic wrap.  I Mixed up a dozen eggs and ended up with about 2 eggs per tray.  I dried them at 135.  They dried pretty quickly on the edges.  Some of the middle still looked pretty shiny.  The eggs have a slick greasy feel because they have fat in them. 

 

I turned the dehydrator off in the morning.  They just sat in the dehydrator all day/night/day because I was busy.  Last night I remembered about them and they looked pretty good.  I crumbled them up and then decided to dry them a little more, just in case the thicker pieces weren't quite dry.  I crumbled up all the eggs and laid them on two trays.  I turned the dehydrator on to 85 and let it run all night. At 85, the only thing that will happen is take the last bit of moisture out.  It won't over dry them at all.

 

This morning they looked perfect.  They smell good. I even took a taste (yes, raw!). I didn't powder them, I just put them into the jar in crumbles.  I'm sure powdering them would be better.  I can't wait to use these eggs.  Even chunky, my dozen eggs fits into a pint canning jar.  I'm sure if they were powdered they'd only take a cup of space.  That sure would save space compared to an egg carton with dozens of eggs taking up space in the refrigerator all winter.  I don't know how long they would last powdered since they do seem to have a high fat content.  But, if my intent isn't keeping them for the long term since I do have chickens, instead to only tide us over the winter, I think dehydrating RAW eggs is an excellent solution to our food storage program.