Food

1860

Eggs, to preserve

For every 3 gallons of water, put in 1 pt. of fresh slacked lime, and common salt 1 gill, mix well, and let the barrel be about half full of this fluid, then with a dish let down your fresh eggs into it, tipping the dish after it fills with the water so they roll out without cracking the shell, for if the shell is cracked the egg will spoil.

If fresh eggs are put in, fresh eggs will come out, as I have seen
men who have kept them 2 and even 4 years at sea. A piece of
board may be laid across the top or on top of the eggs and a little lime and salt kept upon it will make a surer thing where
persons are putting up eggs to a considerable extent. This will
not fail you. They must always be kept covered with the brine.
Families in towns and cities by this plan can have eggs for winter use at summer prices. I have put up 40 dozen per year for
family use with entire success.

The plan of preserving eggs has undoubtedly come from a patent secured by a gentleman in England in 1791, Jaynes of Sheffield, Yorkshire, which reads as follows: “Put into a tub one
bushel, Winchester measure, of quick lime, (which is fresh slacked lime,) salt, 32 oz.; cream-of-tartar, 8 oz. Use as much water
as will give that consistency to the composition as to cause an
egg to swim with is top just above the liquid. Then put and
keep the eggs therein which will preserve them perfectly sound at
least 2 years.”

Persons who think it more safe can follow this plan. I desire
in all cases to give all the information I have on each subject.

2d. The Southern Homestead has the following on the preservation of eggs: " We have recently read a new, and perhaps a good
recipe, for preserving eggs at least two years, so that at the end
of that time they will be fit for either hatching or eating purposes. Skeptical as your humble servant has heretofore been on
that subject, lie must confess that it looks reasonable. It is published in a work on Game Fowls by J. NV. Cooper, M. ID. Cooper & Vernon, Media, Delaware Co. Pa.

"Dissolve some gum shellac in a sufficient quantity of alcohol
to make a thin varnish, give each egg a coat, and after they become thoroughly dry, pack them in bran or saw-dust, with their
points downwards, in such a manner that they cannot shift about.
After you have kept them as long as you desire, wash the varnish carefully off, and they will be in the same state as they were
before packing, ready for eating or hatching."'

This is from good authority, as the author of the Game Fowls
has been engaged for the last 30 years in raising nothing but the
best game fowls, and he has frequently imported eggs. He invariably directed them to be packed as above, and always had
good success with them notwithstanding the time and distance
of the journey. Dr. Cooper's game chicken at Media, is of itself
a great curiosity, a credit to any poultry raiser."

This last plan would be a little more troublesome, but still
would not be very much to prepare all that families would wish
to use through the winter, or even for the retailer; as the convenience of having them in a condition to ship would be one inducement to use the last method, for with the first they must be
taken out and packed in oats or something of that sort to ship;
with the last they are always ready; and weather permitting,
about Christmas or New-Year's, fresh or good eggs in cities, always demand sufficient price to pay for all trouble and expense
in the preservation and shipment. While on the subject of Eggs, I throw in one more thought, if it should benefit any one you are welcome to the space it occupies:-

3d. " Hens & Eggs.-For several years past I have spent a few weeks of the latter part of August on the Kennebec River, in
Maine. The lady, with whom I have stopped, is a highly accomplished and intelligent house-wife. She supports a ‘hennery' and from her I derived my information in the matter. She told me
that for many years she had been in the habit of administering
to her hens, with their common food, at the rate of a teaspoonful of Cayenne pepper, each alternate day, to a dozen fowls.
Last season, when I was with her, each morning she brought in
from twelve to fourteen eggs, having but sixteen hens in all. She
again and again experimented in the matter by omitting to feed
with the Cayenne for two or three days. The consequence invariably was, that the product of eggs fell off five or six per day.
The same effect of using the Cayenne is produced in winter as in
summer. —Boston Transcript”