Fresh eggs on the trail

[NC Scouter]

How long is it safe to carry fresh eggs (in the shell) on the trail without refrigeration? Is there a serious risk if our troop leaves Friday afternoon for a backpacking trip and the eggs are used Sunday at breakfast? Let's assume a maximum daytime temperature of 72F.

 

[Buffalo Skipper]

Find a source for fresh eggs. Around here we call them "yard eggs." These are not eggs you buy in the grocery store, but direct from the farm. They have never been refrigerated, and something about the way they are processed and washed.

 

Yard eggs will keep for several days on the the trail. Europeans do not regrigerate eggs and they keep for a week or more.

[SSScout]

What he said.

We would wrap an egg in a slice of bread and pack it in the billy pot of our BSA cook kit. That would be the toast and egg for the next morning on the trail. Bacon wrapped in waxed paper around the bread and egg. Good for at least one day w/o refrigeration.

 

Speaking of fresh eggs...

 

The Ballad of Hard Luck Henry

By Robert W. Service

 

Now wouldn't you expect to find a man an awful crank

That's staked out nigh three hundred claims, and every one a blank;

That's followed every fool stampede, and seen the rise and fall

Of camps where men got gold in chunks and he got none at all;

That's prospected a bit of ground and sold it for a song

To see it yield a fortune to some fool that came along;

That's sunk a dozen bedrock holes, and not a speck in sight,

Yet sees them take a million from the claims to left and right?

Now aren't things like that enough to drive a man to booze?

But Hard Luck Smith was hoodoo-proof- he knew the way to lose.

 

'Twas in the fall of nineteen-four- leap year I've heard them say-

When Hard-Luck came to Hunker Creek and took a hillside lay,

And lo! as if to make amends for all the futile past,

Late in the year he struck it rich, the real pay-streak at last.

The riffles of his sluicing-box were choked with speckled earth,

And night and day he worked that lay for all that he was worth.

And when in chill December's gloom his lucky lease expired,

He found that he had made a stake as big as he desired.

 

One day while meditating on the waywardness of fate,

He felt the ache of lonely man to find a fitting mate;

A petticoated pard to cheer his solitary life,

A woman with soft, soothing ways, a confidant, a wife.

And while he cooked his supper on his little Yukon stove,

He wished that he had staked a claim in Love's rich treasure-trove;

When suddenly he paused and held aloft a Yukon egg,

For there in pencilled letters was the magic name of Peg.

 

You know these Yukon eggs of ours- some pink, some green, some blue-

A dollar per, assorted tints, assorted flavors, too!

The supercilious cheechako might designate them nigh,

But one acquires a taste for them and likes them by-and-by.

Well, Hard-Luck Henry took this egg and held it to the light,

And there was more faint pencilling that sorely taxed his sight.

At last he made it out, and then the legend ran like this-

"Will Klondike miner write to Peg, Plumhollow, Squashville, Wis?"

 

That night he got to thinking of this far-off, unknown fair;

It seemed so sort of opportune, an answer to his prayer

She flitted sweetly through his dreams, she haunted him by day,

She smiled through clouds of nicotine, she cheered his weary way.

At last he yielded to the spell; his course of love he set-

Wisconsin his objective point, his object, Margaret.

 

With every mile of sea and land his longing grew and grew

He practiced all his pretty words, and these, I fear, were few.

At last, one frosty evening, with a cold chill down his spine,

He found himself before her house, the threshold of the shrine.

His courage flickered to a spark, then glowed with sudden flame,

He knocked; he heard a welcome word; she came-his goddess came!

Oh, she was fair as any flower, and huskily he spoke.

"I'm all the way from Klondike, with a mighty heavy poke.

I'm looking for a lassie, one whose Christian name is Peg,

Who sought a Klondike miner, and who wrote it on an egg."

 

The lassie gazed at him a space, her cheeks grew rosy red,

She gazed at him with tear-bright eyes, then tenderly she said,

"Yes, lonely Klondike miner, it is true my name is Peg.

It's also true I longed for you and wrote it on an egg.

My heart went out to someone in that land of night and cold;

But oh, I fear that Yukon egg must have been mighty old

I waited long, I hoped and feared; you should have come before;

I've been a wedded woman now for eighteen months or more.

I'm sorry, since you've come so far, you ain't the one that wins;

But won't you take a step inside? I'll let you see the twins!

 

*From "Ballads Of A Cheechako" Published 1909

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FScouter]

Ain't love grand?

[CalicoPenn]

First - the official position of the FDA - in the name of Food Safety: "All eggs should be stored in a refrigerator".

 

Now that we've got that out of the way - most of us store eggs in the refrigerator, mostly so they remain as usable as possible for as long as possible (and because of fears of salmonella, etc.). Eggs stored properly in a refrigerator tend to last about 2 to 3 times longer than eggs stored without refrigeration. Even then, after about 5 weeks in the refrigerator, eggs start getting too old for breakfast dishes - though they may still be good for baking, or french toast - but sunny side up not so much.

 

Eggs that are bought from the store in a refrigeration case have generally been washed. Washing eggs usually removes a very thin layer of protection on the egg shell that helps retain freshness and helps prevent bacterial contamination. Most cases of egg-borne salmonella are caused by a contaminant getting on the egg surface - a small portion is caused by eggs laid by a chicken that is sick with salmonella. Keep in mind - egg shells are microscopically porous. The thin coating retards gas and liquid exchange for the most part, but never fully stops it. All this being said, in these times, most washed eggs are then sprayed, as part of the washing process, with an artifical coating to replace the coating that got washed out.

 

Farm fresh eggs that aren't washed simply haven't had the coating washed off - if you take it home and wash it, you wash off the coating.

 

It is widely accepted that once an egg was refrigerated, it had to stay refrigerated, and that farm fresh eggs that have never been refrigerated are the only ones you could store unrefrigerated. Refrigeration is a function of longevity in storage. At one time, producers didn't replace the coating they washed off - not because they were lazy or didn't want the expense, but because they didn't know what that coating did. Research showed that the coating helped retard spoilage and since recoating the eggs after washing means the eggs would stay fresher, longer - that meant they could store them longer before shipping. Having both the coating and refrigeration extends the shelf life even longer - good news for egg producers.

 

What I'm about to say is going to be anathema to most everyone who insists on refrigeration. Buying refrigerated eggs from the store and not refrigerating them at home more than likely poses no more risk of salmonella than storing them in the refrigerator. The salmonella risk from eggs is very very low - and since heat kills salmonella, a well cooked egg reduces that risk to almost zero. Sunny side up, over easy has a much greater chance of passing salmonella on than does over hard. Runny scrambled eggs poses a greater risk than non-runny scrambled eggs. Soft boiled eggs poses a greater risk than hard boiled eggs. And it doesn't matter if they've been refrigerated or not - if the salmonella is there, it could affect someone. Nor will it affect the freshness or flavor of the eggs for a reasonable period of time - about 2 weeks for most unrefrigerated eggs - whether bought at the mega market or from the farmer.

 

In other words, for the average healthy person of Boy Scout age or above, taking half a dozen eggs out of the refrigerator on a Friday and putting them into a backpack egg crate, then carrying them around unrefrigerated until Sunday morning, probably poses no more risk than pulling them out of the refrigerator one minute before you use it.

 

With a caveat - provided they remain in their shell, and the shell has no obvious cracks and defects (eggs with cracks in their shell should either be used immediately or discarded - refrigerated or not). That shell is already a near perfect potective container for an egg. Once breached, the egg will start to degrade, aka spoil. Just like peeling a banana or an apple - once you breach the peel, the fruit, now exposed to air, will start to turn brown.

 

But - you need to decide if its a risk you want to take for yourself and your charges. If just one of the lads is immuno-compromised in any way, you may not want to take that risk.

[asm 411]

I worked in a grocery store as a youth. You may find this hard to believe but during Easter week the only time the eggs were refrigerated was when they were on display for the customers. We would sell several palettes of eggs the week before Easter. I worked at the store for years and as far as I know we never had a complaint.

 

So I would not worry about 72 hours at effectively room temperature.

[Buffalo Skipper]

SSScout, thanks for the RWS poem. I am a huge fan of Mr. Service. I can recite the "Cremation of Sam McGee" from memory. My father once went to a recital with RWS reading "Congo." Despite the melodic rhythm to his prose, my father always said RWS's spoken word was disjointed and broken. He remained a fan of his work, but could never understand how the author read his own poetry so poorly.(This message has been edited by Buffalo Skipper)

[Stosh]

I have always applied the rule that air, not temperature has a greater impact on egg spoilage. I dip my eggs in parafin and seal off the air and they tend to last a lot longer, i.e. a week in the BWCA for example. They also resist breakage having the extra layer of wax on them. For a weekend, I wouldn't worry about them.

 

People who lived in Alaska always had "dock eggs" which were eggs that sat out on the dock for a long period of time before they could be dealt with. They said the only appreciable difference between dock eggs and fresh eggs was that the yolk did not round up and tended to be flat like the albumin when fried. Taste was not affected. They indicated that these eggs were 1-2 weeks in transport without refrigeration.

 

If one is worried about salmonella, just scramble, hard boil or over hard should take care of any worries there.

 

Stosh

[Beavah]

Yah, NC, what da others have said, eh? I've had no problems with store-bought eggs for a week to ten days out in summer temperatures. The good Lord made eggs to protect little chicks for longer than that. If da shell is intact and they don't smell funny, should be fine.

 

Only da city folks that get used to storin' eggs and cheese in the fridge all the time. Always laugh thinkin' about what they'd think if they saw how long those eggs and cheese rounds just sit out at room temperature before they make 'em all pretty in the display case.

 

Beavah

 

[GernBlansten]

Having worked in grocery stores and meat markets, the general public is better off not knowing what goes on behind those swinging doors. Trust me.

[NC Scouter]

Thanks to everyone for their replies, especially CalicoPenn whose response was both informative and thorough. I'm now comfortable with fresh eggs for our weekend outings, provided that the eggs are reasonably fresh to begin with, they are kept protected from breakage, it's not ridiculously hot, and they are cooked thoroughly.