Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dehydrating Eggs at Home (2015)

backwoodshome.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 61 posts

Re: Dehydrating Eggs at Home (2015)

#51

Post by pnut »

anonu wrote: post #39

That was oddly a fun read. And I got a chuckle from the conclusion: So is it worthwhile to dehydrate eggs? From a cost standpoint, the answer is unequivocally “yes,” but only if you keep your own hens to begin with

That statement really confused me.

The cost difference between those two scenarios is the purchase price of the eggs, which are what, $2/dozen?

How can such an immaterial expense provoke an unequivocal conclusion?

And how can one ignore the cost of feeding & housing chickens vs just going to the store and purchasing eggs? Store-bought eggs are almost certainly cheaper in absolute terms.

Re: Dehydrating Eggs at Home (2015)

#52

Post by itronitron »

pnut wrote: post #51
anonu wrote: post #39

That was oddly a fun read. And I got a chuckle from the conclusion: So is it worthwhile to dehydrate eggs? From a cost standpoint, the answer is unequivocally “yes,” but only if you keep your own hens to begin with

That statement really confused me. The cost difference between those two scenarios is the purchase price of the eggs, which are what, $2/dozen? How can such an immaterial expense provoke an unequivocal conclusion? And how can one ignore the cost of feeding & housing chickens vs just going to the store and purchasing eggs? Store-bought eggs are almost certainly cheaper in absolute terms.

Maybe a less time intensive approach for benefiting from an egg surplus is to feed the eggs to a pig.

Re: Dehydrating Eggs at Home (2015)

#53

Post by lifeformed »

205guy wrote: post #10

Another way to preserve eggs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg I've never had the chance to try them, and they don't look appetizing, but now I'm kinda curious how they taste.

They're delicious! In congee, or on cold tofu. It's creamy inside and firm outside. I think people might get grossed out because they are expecting something egg-like. I don't really think about them as eggs... they're just their own thing.

Re: Dehydrating Eggs at Home (2015)

#54

Post by rad_gruchalski »

airstrike wrote: post #18
205guy wrote: post #10

Another way to preserve eggs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg I've never had the chance to try them, and they don't look appetizing, but now I'm kinda curious how they taste.

That looks... absolutely disgusting, and I considered myself a fairly adventurous eater coming into this thread Read through the article and found that it's served along with "Head cheese" on special occasions, so I clicked on that only to find out I'm certainly not as adventurous as I thought https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_cheese

That head cheese thing is really delicious. It’s simply chunks of meat with veggie in a jelly. What can be disgusting about it? I do wonder though, when you say you consider yourself an adventurous eater, what are the things you’d eat to call yourself like that? Not trying to discredit anything, just generally curious.

Re: Dehydrating Eggs at Home (2015)

#55

Post by shalmanese »

pnut wrote: post #51
anonu wrote: post #39

That was oddly a fun read. And I got a chuckle from the conclusion: So is it worthwhile to dehydrate eggs? From a cost standpoint, the answer is unequivocally “yes,” but only if you keep your own hens to begin with

That statement really confused me. The cost difference between those two scenarios is the purchase price of the eggs, which are what, $2/dozen? How can such an immaterial expense provoke an unequivocal conclusion? And how can one ignore the cost of feeding & housing chickens vs just going to the store and purchasing eggs? Store-bought eggs are almost certainly cheaper in absolute terms.

You don't get to control output if you own your own hens. If you buy eggs and you have too many eggs, just stop buying eggs. If you own hens and you don't sell/give away eggs, there's no equivalent solution, thus preservation.

Re: Dehydrating Eggs at Home (2015)

#56

Post by mattmaroon »

rootusrootus wrote: post #49
mattmaroon wrote: post #48

"Eggs dehydrate easily, and most online sources suggest keeping the eggs at 135° F to 145° F for about 10 hours. However this temperature is not sufficient to keep salmonella from forming during the dehydration process, because this leaves eggs in the food safety danger zone for too long." Umm, no. The food wouldn't be in the danger zone very long, and even if it were the following 9 hours would be more than enough t…

Yeah that's what I was thinking. 135F will kill salmonella in under an hour. From how it's worded in the article, I assume they're just ignorant of how pasteurization works at different temperatures so they're going by the over-simplified recommendation from FDA. I see this same misunderstanding happen periodically on the sous vide forums.

Yeah. Probably lots of people who don't know what they're talking about said that and he just assumed they are correct. A thin layer of egg in what is essentially a convection oven is going to heat up very fast.

Re: Dehydrating Eggs at Home (2015)

#57

Post by ghaff »

ebg13 wrote: post #50
ghaff wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, ATK recommends half-and-half. https://www.americastestkitchen.com/articles/1055-how-to-mak... As I recall, the underlying science is that this helps alleviate the fact that the various proteins in eggs coagulate at different temperatures so adding some fat means that there's less of an issue with some of the proteins drying out while waiting for others to solidify.

Why half-and-half and not cream or butter?

Half-and-half is cream. They prefer that level of fat to milk or heavier cream.

Probably enough butter to make a difference would change the flavor.

Re: Dehydrating Eggs at Home (2015)

#58

Post by jbd0 »

edoo wrote: post #4

"Despite the concerns in recent years about cholesterol and other issues" I grew up in the era where the egg lobby had billboards up saying it was OK to eat eggs once a week. This was after cholesterol and saturated fat was demonized after some docs found peoples arteries stuffed with it. It turned out to be fake science. My parents fed me poisonous partially hydrogenated margarine instead of butter because of that c…

Oxidized cholesterol, on the other hand, is not healthy. I would not eat dehydrated egg yolks.

Re: Dehydrating Eggs at Home (2015)

#59

Post by ganafagol »

mattmaroon wrote: post #56
rootusrootus wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah that's what I was thinking. 135F will kill salmonella in under an hour. From how it's worded in the article, I assume they're just ignorant of how pasteurization works at different temperatures so they're going by the over-simplified recommendation from FDA. I see this same misunderstanding happen periodically on the sous vide forums.

Yeah. Probably lots of people who don't know what they're talking about said that and he just assumed they are correct. A thin layer of egg in what is essentially a convection oven is going to heat up very fast.

She

Re: Dehydrating Eggs at Home (2015)

#60

Post by stickfigure »

pnut wrote: post #51
anonu wrote: post #39

That was oddly a fun read. And I got a chuckle from the conclusion: So is it worthwhile to dehydrate eggs? From a cost standpoint, the answer is unequivocally “yes,” but only if you keep your own hens to begin with

That statement really confused me. The cost difference between those two scenarios is the purchase price of the eggs, which are what, $2/dozen? How can such an immaterial expense provoke an unequivocal conclusion? And how can one ignore the cost of feeding & housing chickens vs just going to the store and purchasing eggs? Store-bought eggs are almost certainly cheaper in absolute terms.

I have a few hens roaming around my property and just picked up another dozen chicks yesterday.

$2/dozen are eggs from chickens living in questionable circumstances. Pasture raised eggs are usually $6-12 per dozen. You can see the difference in the yolks - chickens that eat a monodiet of grain lay eggs with yellow yolks, chickens that eat bugs lay eggs with orange yolks.

Aside from fresh eggs, it's nice to have chickens around because they keep the tick population down. The cost of feeding and housing is near zero, and with an automatic door they pretty much take care of themselves. Kids love them.

Post reply on HN