The best by date is in 2 days. I know about the water test for egg freshness so I'm not super concerned, but please give me ideas for using them up within a week or so 🥺 I've boiled a few and am planning to make some cookie dough, but that only counts for half a dozen.
My family used to make breakfast casseroles. A dozen eggs, crumbled cooked sausage, cheddar cheese, and bread cut into cubes. Beat eggs together with a little milk, salt and pepper. Pour over the bread cubes and sausage mixed together in a large glass dish. Sprinkle cheese on top, and bake at 325F until done. You can also add onion and peppers, or whatever sounds good. Sorry, don't exactly have a recipe, would just throw together whatever we had around. It was a good way of using up lots of eggs, and it could be cut up and frozen for breakfasts for the week.
Yup, Michigan originally. Hash browns were certainly a good addition. My mom would make casseroles to use up extras in the fridge, and it seemed pretty common with my friends' families as well. She would also do bread pudding, which is like a baked french toast. Lots of bread, eggs, cinnamon and nutmeg, and raisins. Would warm up a piece and eat with maple syrup for breakfast.
I've had eggs easily last a month past the best buy date in the fridge. If you try the water freshness test, check the yolk shape and color, it should be fine. The yolk shape should still be normal, the older eggs will want to flatten out a bit at which point I wouldn't want to eat them.
Best buy dates are meaningless hype to get you to use more.
I keep eggs for months. Average time in my fridge, 1-3 months. Eggs can always be scrambled, then frozen. Texture changes, but can be used in less sensitive dishes - I wouldn't make a cake with them.
That said - Dutch Baby. Chef John's version on Food Wishes works perfectly. It's like breakfast dessert, though nutritionally much better because of the eggs.
Re: Best buy dates.
For decades I've done "informal testing" (forgot about stuff) and have learned most things last far beyond their sell by/best buy date. (I put dates on everything I buy - restaurant inventory management lesson).
I currently have numerous intentional tests going - dozens of cans of different dates, chips, crackers, cookies, boxed meals (cake mixes, hamburger helper, pasta, Mac n cheese, etc.). Pasta lasts forever. As does pasta sauce in a jar or can.
Chips: will last upward of 2 years past sell by date. Oils go rancid eventually from oxygen exposure (I suspect a bag develops a leak).
Cookies:similar
Crackers: these seem to oxidize faster than chips (the oils go rancid, safe to eat just taste bad). I suspect it's because crackers aren't sealed as well as chips.
Peanut Butter: 4 years, no problem.
Canned drinks: 3 years average. Cans are very thin, develop pinhole leaks (especially acidic drinks - cola).
Bottled drinks: indefinitely. Anything in jars will generally last as long as canned goods (technically they're canned too).
Canned goods are indefinite, except acidic things like tomatoes. Over time the acid will degrade the lining, then the can. Though I've gone past two years with tomatoes, and no problems yet.
Of course, all this is stored in a cool, dry, dark location (no sunlight, lights are OK, just keep them off). Anything under 75f is OK, the cooler the better.
There are canned goods over 100 years old (salvaged from shipwrecks) that get tested occasionally. Still safe to eat (even if maybe you wouldn't want to).
Brown up some bacon, potatoes and onion. Doesn't have to be cooked soft, but "al dente" is fine.
Crack some eggs into a casserole dish, add in the browned up stuff. Bake at 325~ F for like 15~ minutes or until the egg is cooked.
Throw some cheese on top for the last 5 minutes of baking if you're feeling adventurous.
No real recipe as the amounts dont matter too much other than using enough eggs to cover the browned filling. If you use a glass dish, with the exception of the very edge, should also be relatively non-stick, so easy clean-up.
I love making huge batches of breakfast wraps (scrambled eggs, veggies, cheese in a tortilla) and freezing them in ziplocks for when I am hungry and too lazy to cook
Separate the whites and yolks. Make a sponge cake or something out of the whites.
In a tupperware container, put down a thick layer of salt. Then place the yolks close but not touching on that layer of salt. Cover everything with salt. Leave it out at room temperature covered but with the ability to breathe. The yolks will harden and dehydrate. You can now use them as a Parmesan substitute in salads, pastas and other things.
If you want to step things up a little bit make sense and cray powder or chili powder (American Curry powder) with the salt to impart some flavor to the yolks.
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There's nothing wrong with a hard egg sandwich. Little bit of mayo. A little bit of mustard. Maybe a tiny bit of horseradish and some dill. Put that on two slices of bread.
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You can make ice cream. Egg sugar, salt, cream.
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If you don't anticipate running into another surplus then you can get some food grade lime and waterglass the eggs for long-term storage as long as they are not washed. If you bought them from a store In America then do not do this. Only do this with farm fresh unwashed eggs.
I run a hard surplus on eggs so I do not do this because I know there will always be more so I'm not looking for ways to save them but ways to you use them.
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Never underestimate the tastiness of shakshuka.
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Breakfast burritos.
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Do you have any urine and wood ash? Maybe it's time to bury some eggs in the backyard.
shakashuka is pretty tasty. My main use for eggs is ice cream tho. You have a good ice cream machine? Check out David Lebovitz's Perfect Scoop for some damn fine recipes.
Not really a recipe, but this is what I'd usually do:
I'll just hard-boil a bunch at once and keep them in the fridge. They should keep for a while after that as long as they're refrigerated. I'll add one or two to every lunch, which is usually some sort of ramen or noodles, so it goes well and adds protein.
Multigrain would be fine - one of the big effects of the casserole is that the eggs end-up fluffing the bead nicely, making it at most as dense as it was originally. I'll edit with a pic of the recipe.
You can boil them to extend shelf life. Once a food is cooked, you have another week (approximately) to use it before it goes off - maybe a little longer for eggs still in unbroken shells. Boil them, store them in the fridge, and add them to meals over the next week.
ingredients:
1/4 cup butter melted and cooled
5 eggs
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of chopped chiles
1 cup cottage cheese
8 ounces of shredded cheese
instructions:
Pour melted butter into 9x9 pan
Mix all ingredients and pour into pan
bake at 350 for 35 minutes
Pickled eggs last a long time and they're easy to prepare. Here's a recipe.
Notes:
The recipe claims that they last for one month, but from experience it's more like 2~3 months as long as the jar is closed. Just make sure to keep them in the fridge.
Don't feel afraid to use more or less sugar or salt than in the recipe, depending on your tastes - they're conserved by the vinegar. You do want some sugar though, to make them taste less sour than they actually are.
Seasoning is up to you. The recipe that I've linked has a few ideas; personally I like to use turmeric (for the colour), peppercorns, dill, and a few drops of my homemade habanero sauce.
Custards and flans come to mind, pickled eggs are also wonderful and keep for a while. I'm partial to shakshuka, though it won't use the eggs up as quickly as a frittata or quiche would.
I might make a custard - I didn't know it was so simple to make. Would whisking be hand still achieve the desired texture, or is this the kind of recipe you need a machine for?
It absolutely can be done by hand, though it may be the dish that convinces you that an electric mixer is worthwhile! 🤣
I'd say if you've made a hollandaise or whipped cream by hand, its a bit less work than that.
I often cheat a bit and make a simple custard from 3 eggs, 1 can of evaporated milk, 1 can of sweetened condensed milk and a teaspoon of vanilla extract, whisked together and baked in a water bath until still jiggly in the center, but otherwise set and that's barely any effort. Make a caramel to coat the bottom of your baking vessel that you add before the custard mixture and call that a flan.
Yeah, I had a bunch of eggs that got cracked from a dropped carton or something. Made a couple of quiches and froze one. Still great when reheated later on.
Make some Pavlova. Kids discovered it after watching Bluey. Stuff is amazing if you make it correctly, it’s like a giant fluffy marshmallow with whipped crème and fruit on top.
I've had luck with this strata recipe when I buy the priced to go eggs. I use six slices of torn up toast in place of the baguette, and it makes four big servings.