44 Preserving Eggs. 



together over a slow fire, and strained through a linen cloth 

 into an earthen pan. It is only requisite, he says, to take 

 a piece of the fat or butter about the size of a pea on the 

 end of the finger, and rub it all over the shell, by passing 

 and repassing the finger so that no part be left untouched ; 

 the transpiration of matter from the egg being as effec- 

 tually stopped by the thinnest layer of fat or grease as by a 

 thick coating, so that no part of the shell be left ungr eased, 

 or the tip of the finger may be dipped into oil and passed 

 over the shell in the same manner. If it is desired that 

 the eggs should look clean, they may be afterwards wiped 

 with a towel, for sufficient grease or oil enters the pores of 

 the shell to prevent all transpiration without its being 

 necessary that any should be left to fill up the spaces 

 between the pores. They can be boiled as usual without 

 rubbing off the fat, as it will melt in the hot water, and 

 when taken out of the water the little grease that is left 

 upon the egg is easily wiped off with a napkin. 



Eggs preserved in this manner can also be used for 

 hatching, as the fat easily melts away by the heat of the 

 hen ; and by this means the eggs of foreign fowls might be 

 carried to a distance, hatched, and naturalised in this and 

 other countries. The French also find that a mixture of 

 melted beeswax and olive oil is an excellent preservative. 



Eggs may also be preserved for cooking by packing them 

 in sawdust, in an earthen vessel, and covering the top with 

 melted mutton suet or fat ; as fruit is sometimes preserved. 

 They are also said to keep well in salt, in a barrel arranged 

 in layers of salt and eggs alternately. If the salt should 

 become damp, it would penetrate through the pores of the 

 shell and pickle them to a certain extent. M. Gagne says 

 that eggs may be preserved in a mixture made of one 

 bushel of quick-lime, two pounds of salt, and eight ounces 

 of cream of tartar, with sufficient water to make it into a 

 paste of a consistency to receive the eggs, which, it is said, 

 may be kept in it fresh for two years ; but eggs become 

 tasteless when preserved with lime. It may be as well to 

 mention here that eggs are comparatively wasted when used 

 in making a rice pudding, as they render it too hard and 



