Learn how to preserve farm-fresh eggs during the summer months to enjoy all year long with my new favorite egg preservation method, freeze-dried eggs. They’ll last on the shelf for over 20 years and still taste as fresh as the day they were laid and I’ll teach you how to easily reconstitute freeze-dried eggs.
One of the things we’re doing throughout the summer is putting up the eggs we collect for long-term storage. Because we don’t like to use artificial lighting to force our hens to lay throughout the winter months, we need to preserve the extra eggs we’re getting now to last us through the winter.
The struggle with preserving eggs is that up until now I haven’t found a method that I actually enjoy the eggs when cooked up fresh.
As I’ve said before in the many different methods of egg preservation, and in this post on preservation methods for meat, dairy, and eggs, I’m fine freezing eggs that I’ll use in the future for baking, but as you can tell in the video below, the frozen then dehydrated eggs when cooked up to eat as scrambled eggs are a bit rubbery in texture.
Why I Love This Method
Not only do freeze-dried eggs taste just like freshly cracked eggs when reconstituted and scrambled, but they take up very little space, I don’t have to use up valuable freezer real-estate, and they’re also shelf-stable for up to 20+ years!
Why Freeze Dried Eggs?
You may be asking yourself, “If eggs are fine in the refrigerator for 3 months or more, why would I need to worry about preserving them?”
Well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t have enough extra refrigerator space to store 3+ months’ worth of fresh eggs. If I did that, I’d have no room left for any other food.
Think about it, if your family eats two dozen eggs per week, that’s 24 dozen eggs for just three months of fresh eating! Who has enough refrigerator space to house all those eggs? Certainly not me!
I also don’t want to rely on the freezer to store food long-term because if (or when) the power goes out, we have to rely on generators to keep them running and I don’t want to risk losing all that food.
Freeze-dried eggs don’t require refrigeration or freezing (other than the initial preserving) and will last for years on my pantry shelf where I have much more storage space than in my freezer. Plus, 48 eggs will fit into two quart-sized mason jars.
To be fully transparent, Harvest Right did sponsor this post and they sent me my freeze dryer as compensation, but all opinions are mine and, now that I’ve used it for about a month, I truly would buy my own freeze dryer had they not sent one to me first.
How to Make Freeze Dried Eggs
Freeze-dried eggs couldn’t be easier to make. You do need to have a freeze dryer, and I’m absolutely in love with my Harvest Right Freeze Dryer. I have the medium-sized unit and have been so pleased with the amount of food I’m able to preserve in one batch.
Pre-Freeze the Trays
When freeze-drying eggs, or anything liquid for that matter, I like to pre-freeze my trays because this will speed up the freeze-drying process. It can actually knock off up 8-10 hours of time in the machine!
I freeze-dry 12 eggs per tray on each of my four trays for a total of 48 eggs per batch.
- Crack your eggs into a blender and blend them up (or whisk well until the yolks and whites are completely combined).
- Pour them onto your freeze dryer trays.
- Repeat until all four trays are filled.
- Carefully place the trays into the freezer and freeze overnight.
Freeze Dry
5. Once the trays are completely frozen (this step can be done in the freeze dryer itself, but will use up more electricity and time than pre-freezing yourself), place them into the freeze dryer.
6. Add the insulating sleeve, securely close the door, and start the machine.
7. My eggs took approximately 22 hours to be fully dry. When checking your eggs, they shouldn’t feel cold to the touch at all, although the trays will feel cold (use a towel or pot holder when handling trays) or use the warm tray function button, and the eggs should crumble with ease when broken up.
8. If your eggs are not fully dried, place them back into the freeze dryer until completely dried through.
Storing Freeze-Dried Eggs
You can easily crumble the eggs by hand and store them in a mason jar. However, to make measuring your eggs easier when you’re ready to use them, I like to run my eggs through the food processor for a few pulses so everything is powdered very finely.
For short-term use, you can simply store your freeze-dried eggs in a jar. If you want to store them for the long term, say more than a few months, drop an oxygen absorber into the jar before sealing. You can then seal your jars airtight using this vacuum sealer with the jar attachment.
Alternatively, you can store eggs in a mylar bag with an oxygen absorber tossed in and all the air removed.
Reconstituting Freeze Dried Eggs
Reconstituting eggs to use for scrambled eggs and baking couldn’t be easier:
- Take 2 Tablespoons of freeze-dried egg powder and add it to a small bowl.
- Add 2 Tablespoons water to the eggs and whisk well with a fork or tiny whisk.
Scale-up if more eggs are needed, then use as you would any freshly cracked and whisked egg!
More Articles on Home Food Preservation
- How to Preserve Meat, Dairy & Eggs
- The Science of Home Food Preservation
- Tips for Home Food Preservation – Seasonal Preserving Each Month
- A Complete Guide to Home Food Preservation (What to do When You Can’t Find Canning Supplies)
- Home Food Preservation- Preserving Plan for a Year’s Worth of Food
- 9 Ways to Preserve Food at Home
- How to Store Home Canned Food Safely – Jar Stacking & Canning Rings
- 129+ Best Canning Recipes to Put Up This Year
- How Do You Know if a Canning Recipe is Safe
- How to Pick the Best Preserving Methods
- Freeze Drying vs. Dehydrating Food (Which is Best?)
- How to Convert Recipes for Canning + Safety Tips
Unfortunately, neither can we afford a freeze drier nor would it practical for just me and my husband, two older folks. But I do dehydrate my flock’s eggs. I get 7 dozen per half gallon jar, vacuum-sealed. I did a lot of research on salmonella and while only 1 in 20,000 commercially washed eggs show salmonella, 2% of home eggs show salmonella. So once those eggs have been whisked together and then powdered, the salmonella, if present, has pretty much now been spread around. But the good news is, for anyone worried about that (and no, neither dehydrating nor freeze drying kills salmonella), all cases of egg-related salmonella world-wide were due to the eggs not being fully cooked, regardless of whether the eggs eaten were fresh, from the backyard or the store, dehydrated or freeze-dried. Just cook that reconstituted egg powder to 160F and you’re golden. I love housekeeping articles like this, but they tend to ignore the kitchen science everyone always has questions about.
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I finally got one for Christmas last year and I am loving it! I love being able to preserve herbs at their peak in addition to the foods I freeze dry. Dried apples, strawberries and bananas are my favorite desert/snack/indulgence. I pretty much keep mine going all the time too and I don’t have near the amount of production you do.
Thank you for this post. We don’t have a freeze dryer but was thinking of buying some dried eggs … partly for storage but also for canoe/camping trips.
I’ve seen a couple of people say 1 tbs egg powder + 2tbs water = 1 egg, but you and another blog I’ve read say 2+2. Which do you think is more accurate (3 egg scramble is a good portion … doubling that to 6 by mistake might be a bit much!)
Thank you
Are you sure freeze dried eggs are shelf stable for 20 years? Eggs are a high fat item, which normally do not last long. Even Harvest Right says eggs are only shelf stable for 5 years, at most. Would love it if you can point me to something showing they will last that long as we have chickens and are swamped in eggs for most of the year that we have to give away.
Steve, I was wondering if you’d found an answer to your question. I have been searching for this info as well. Thank you!
If you’re concerned about the shelf-life of anything you have preserved for long-term storage, one suggestion I’ve seen is to rotate your stock. Label and date everything you put up. Use the oldest stock, first.
Another suggestion would be to use smaller packages for the items you’re most concerned about having a shorter shelf-life. For example, use smaller mylar bags in which to vacuum-seal your freeze-dried eggs (or anything else), oxygen absorbers in each. Package them up as one-use containers (decide how many eggs you tend to use at one time, only put the equivalent of that much in each bag). This way, you’re only breaking the seal on what you will immediately be using, rather than exposing a larger quantity to oxygen and moisture.
As long as they are vacuum sealed and kept cool they should be fine.
Great, thank you! Now will you please tell us about freeze drying your sourdough starter and milk, please!
And thank you!
You mention Mylar and oxygen absorbers. I do it that way but I saw a video where the lady said you also need to vacuum package the Mylar to get the nitrogen out as well or else you are creating an environment for botulism. I’ve never done that and I have fun 18 dozen eggs through my Harvest Right in the last few weeks. Just wondering if I need to throw them all out and start using the OA and vacuum sealing too.
Jeff, I don’t know if anyone reached out to provide an answer but no, you don’t have to worry about botulism if your eggs are completely dry when the cycle is done and while you packaged them.
You are right that botulinum toxin grows in low oxygen environments but they also need to be moist. The freeze dryer removes the moisture when done properly so all your eggs would be fine.
My freeze dryer is set at factory setting of 9 hours freeze time. If I freeze my eggs in advance do I need to lessen the factory freeze time on the machine. What do you set freeze time to?
Depending on your model and if it is a newer model, the machine will adjust the time to your product. The only time you might need to “add time” is when you check the product at the end of the cycle and it’s not entirely dry.
Harvest right doesn’t advise skipping the freeze cycle as the freeze dryer actually freezes food to a much colder temperature than a freezer chest, prior to the sublimation process.
Why not use the freeze dryer to vacuum seal the jars. In a medium you could seal at least 5 or 6 at a go, ina large 9. Takes 2 minutes and they are totally good to go.
They recommend that you seal asap, which means that the HR is still filled with ice; you’ll have to take off the gasket in order to remove the tray shelf, get rid of the ice, dry everything and then put the jars in. It’s kind of a pain. I found a little mason jar sealer on Amazon that works beautifully. It was $25 and it doesn’t take any room. It comes with regular mouth and large mouth sealers and a hose if you want to use a Seal a Meal kind of unit. You just charge it, and then it’s ready to do its thing:
Electric Mason Jar Vacuum Sealer – Food Vacuum Saver Can Sealer Jar Seal Pump Kit Accessories for Wide and Regular Mouth Mason Jars Compatible with FoodSaver Vacuum Canning Sealer Machine Attachment
Harvest Right actually allows you to make payments. You don’t have to come up with the whole amount. I got mine from utilizing their payment plan option.
What do you do with the garlic after it is harvested?
I cure it, braid it once cured, and then store it in the pantry for a year
I am wondering if you used a mixer to blend the frozen egg before cooing it would it have a different outcome.
I blend eggs in the food processor before pouring onto the freeze dryer trays. 12 to 18 eggs per tray. Do this is drying whites and yolks separately. Once dry, I run them through the processor again for a nice consistent powder.
A freeze-dryer is on my shortlist to get before things go belly up. At the moment, I have several friends that have Harvest Right machines. Every one of them loves the thing. One friend especially is an experimenter and has come up with some wonderful items. Including the famous freeze-dried ice cream sandwich. (Just FYI: They need to be cut in half before processing.)
Thank you, Melissa, for this article. Not only is it informative, but rather inspiring in the presentation and enthusiasm you show during it.
Thank you.
Jerry D Young
Jerry,
Did you ever get the freeze dryer? I’ve been concerned about heat and wanting a wood burning stove but this also seems like a must. I wonder how much time we have!
So glad you aren’t recommending water glassing the eggs. If it’s all someone can do, it’s ok, but the nutritional value of the egg declines and some eggs rot in the water glassing method. Freezing either way is much better!
How much space do you need for the freeze dry machine an what kind of money are we talking about?
The medium size freeze dryer is just over $2,500 the video shows what it looks like set-up on the table. They’re decent sized.
Where do you have it in your house? How noisy is it?
I did have it in a separate shed but now that we have a larger pantry area being built off the end of the house, I’ll be moving it there. A separate room you can shut the door on is best, it’s not as loud as a vacuum cleaner but it’s louder than a fan/dehydrator.
Looks great. Question how many spoons of freeze dried eggs would be equivalent to an egg in a recipe?
That’s in the article where it says Reconstituting the Egg 🙂
According to the video, 2 tablespoons (level) is the equivalent of 1 egg.
Thank you.
Have wanted a freeze dryer for years but waaay out of my price range. Happy for you tho you have helped so many you deserve some nice perks!
I am with Ann.I have wanted one for a long time. It is way out of my price range.