CHAPTER XXV 
EGG PRESERVATION 
advantage of to any extent by the public, but even now the 
practice is by no means so general as it ought to be. As 
everyone knows, or ought to know, there is a season of the year 
when eggs are very plentiful and therefore very cheap. 
Most of these eggs are thrown upon the market by poultry- 
keepers, and as a rule prices are reduced to a point when the house- 
wife, mindful of the winter season, should preserve or pickle as 
many eggs as possible. By this means, if it were done in consider- 
able quantities, it would tend to equalise prices both for the pro- 
ducer and consumer. Roughly speaking, the price of eggs in 
April and May are from one third to one half the price that they 
are during the last three months of the year and up to the end of 
February. In April, 1916, new-laid eggs were being retailed at 
about 2d. each, but in November and December of the same year 
the price rose rapidly till the best eggs were being retailed at 6d. 
each—a record price for this country. 
Housewives who had the forethought to preserve a quantity of 
eggs in April were able to use them in the famine months of October, 
November and December at about one-third the price that they 
were then being sold at in the shops. For all purposes, excepting 
for boiling, an egg preserved in water-glass is just as good as when 
it was newly laid. An egg preserved in water-glass will poach 
and fry perfectly, and for all cooking purposes it will also be as 
effective as a new egg. Every household, large or small, ought, 
as a matter of ordinary economy, to preserve as many eggs as it 
will require during at least four of the winter months when eggs 
are at famine prices. It is practically impossible for most purposes 
to tell the difference during the first year between a preserved egg 
210 
T is only in recent years that egg preservation has been taken 
