I am mostly a lurker, but thought I would pass on my experiment with eggs coated in oil and the laundry soap someone posted made with ivory and washing soda. I put an egg coated in oil down in the basement on July 15th of this year and finally tested it tonight, it didn't smell and it looked like an egg when we broke it so I am guessing it is safe to eat. Also made the laundry soap someone posted and it works! For dirty clothes I used Fels Napatha soap instead of the ivory and it got my husbands work clothes clean. Very cool!!! Cheap, and not much lint in the the dryer, so it must be better on the clothes so I will use this from now on.

Now for the friend of a friend story. Hubby was working at a house today and this guy had just done some work for some higher up at Illinois Power and she just got her house wired for a gennie. Bought more rice today.

What an unreal year.

Thanks all for the help in getting ready. Jo

-- Jo (tj4261@geneseo.net), December 12, 1999

Answers

Jo --

Post back AFTER you've eaten the egg, please. ;>)

What kind of oil?

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-- SH (squirrel@huntr.com), December 12, 1999.

I coated the egg in veg. oil. and we didn't bother eating the egg. (I don't know why, but we didn't) It smelled fine. Someone with more experience can confirm this. Jo

-- Jo (tj4261@geneseo.net), December 13, 1999.

Coating eggs with oil (or more often vasoline) is an old cruising sailor's trick for egg preservation...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), December 13, 1999.

Jo,

I also tried coating 18 eggs (Jan/99)to see what their usable life expectancy would be. I broke 2 after 2 months and they were OK. I broke 2 more each month till I had 4 left (Sept/99), then sort of forgot about them (unintentionally). Last week I remembered them and broke the remaining 4. They seemed OK (like yours), but I was reluctant to eat them, so I fed them to the neighbor's dog. He enjoyed them with no ill effects, but then I have seen him eating some really gross stuff without bothering him at all that I KNOW would make me sick, so that didn't really teach me much.

The only difference I could distinguish was that the whites were a little more 'runnier' after 3 months. The first two (2 months old) were not really much more 'runny' that I could tell.

I did eat the first 4 batches, and they were good. The eggs were stored in a root cellar envoirnment, and I was extra careful to make sure none were cracked or had any irregularities in them before coating them with vegetable oil.

Gerald

-- Gerald R. Cox (grcox@internetwork.net), December 14, 1999.