Sunday, April 24

Dehydrating Eggs

I mentioned in a previous post that I'd found a tutorial online for dehydrating eggs. This was really exciting, because buying them already powdered is expensive and usually includes unnecessary (possibly unsafe) preservatives. I'd much rather use fresh eggs from the local farm and do it myself as I have a few extra bucks here and there now that I know that's an option. It was actually a lot easier than I expected.

First, start cracking eggs. As a standard practice when using eggs for anything, I recommend cracking them separately into a small dish before combining them or adding them to a recipe. It has to potential to save you a lot of grief and wasted ingredients if you get shell fragments in it or find any unexpected quality issues.


Next, beat the eggs well.


If at all possible, keep a furry supervisor on hand to ensure quality and assist with cleanup. Border collies are a good choice, and usually volunteer as soon as they see eggs coming out of the fridge.


Pour the beaten eggs into the flat trays that come with your dehydrator (the ones you'd normally use for jerky). Somewhere in the neighborhood of six eggs will fit in each tray. I only did four my first run and definitely had room to spare.


Set the temperature on your dehydrator to 160* (or whatever the equivalent is on your machine). How long drying takes will depend, of course, on several factors but I let mine run all afternoon and overnight and that was more than enough.


Depending on how thickly you poured them in, the eggs will pop out as either a hard, flat sheet or as crumbles. (Mine were poured thinly and came out at dark orange crackly crumbles.) They will be a smidge oily to the touch, but that's okay.

Powder the crumbles in your blender or food processor and store them in an airtight container. To use, combine 1 tbsp powder with 2 tbsp warm/hot water and let sit briefly. I have not yet baked with mine, so I'll post notes in the future if I find any helpful tips, but I encourage you to give this a try! It was quick, easy and brings a great deal of peace of mind.

1 comment:

  1. this may sound like a silly question but...how long will this keep? Do you cook them normally after you've soaked them in water?

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