Homesteading: About Those Winter-Frozen Eggs!

For those of us who live in higher latitudes, or up in mountains, one feature of life is a few eggs we can’t collect from our coops in time that freeze.  Typically, they will exhibit a wide crack down the longitudinal space of the egg, because as the very aqueous whites freeze, they expand and crack the egg.  Sometimes this will happen on both sides of an egg

If the crack is dirty for whatever reason, I toss the egg. This one was not dirty.

Unfortunately, the act of freezing denatures the yolk interior some.  And thus you are limited to uses for eggs that end up this way.  They won’t blend well, or if at all, into baked goods.  They won’t scramble or make decent omelets, as the yolk won’t let you mix it in well.  Obviously, hard or soft cooking these eggs is not going to work, considering the cracked shells.

You could save just the whites for meringue or froth or some such.  If you are really desperate, you can make an egg-white omelet, which is something I’ve eaten once back in the day, and Never Again!  (The supposed and false health benefits of egg-white omelets don’t outweigh the (lack of) taste that comes with such omelets).

Your options are few:  poach or pan-fry them in a skillet.

As you may notice above, when adding the egg to the skillet, the yolk stays round and does not flatten down.

I cooked this egg once thawed as if it were mostly sunny side up with a cover, flipping it over for less than a minute. Plated and served.

With the above preparation, yolk from this egg would have oozed all over the place were this egg cooked never frozen.

Slicing into the egg for eating, I discover that the yolk has a creamy soft texture, almost like a gelatin  It does not quite taste like a medium-boiled egg, even if it resembles this.

I have yet to try poaching such an egg, but no reason why this wouldn’t work!

Happy Homesteadings!!!

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