PRESERVING EGGS 93 



Water glass (Sodium Silicate) is .a very cheap product 

 that can usually be procured at not to exceed fifty cents 

 per gallon, and one gallon will make enough solution to pre- 

 serve fifty dozen of eggs, so that the cost of material for this 

 method would only be about one cent per dozen. Water- 

 glass is sodium and potassium silicate, sodium silicate being 

 usually the cheaper. 



Eggs Must Be Fresh. 



The eggs to be put down by this method must be fresh 

 and not stale store eggs. A few stale eggs will soon injure 

 the entire lot. One party reports that he put down two 

 lots of eggs, fifty gallon jars in each case; one lot strictly 

 fresh eggs, the other contained some stale store stock and 

 the first was a complete success while the second lot came 

 out about like the ordinary packed eggs, some fair, some 

 spoiled. 



A good grade of water glass must be used. Some of the 

 cheap water glass contains so much of free, uncombinfed 

 alkali that the eggs preserved in such solutions become 

 watery and acquire a bad flavor. I prefer water glass in the 

 form of heavy white jelly which flows like heavy cold molas- 

 ses. Of this grade of water glass somewhat less is needed 

 than when the thinner produce is employed. The dry 

 powder water glass has not as a general rule dissolved fully 

 in hot water, and for that reason has not proven as satis- 

 factory as the first named product. 



Galvanized iron vessels, crocks, jars, etc., may be used 

 in which to preserve the eggs. Wooden kegs of good 

 quality ' are satisfactory, but these must be thoroughly 

 sweetened by scalding with boiling water. 



There have been a few complaints that barrels have not 

 been entirely satisfactory as the water glass dissolved some 

 products which deposited on the eggs. I am inclined to 

 think this may have been due to the presence of glue used as 

 sizing for the barrel. When the barrels have such a coat- 

 ing it' might be well to char the inside of the barrel by 

 placing in it a few shavings saturated with kerosene oil 

 and then throwing in a lighted taper and allowing the sides 

 of the barrel to become charred. This barrel well burned 



