ABOUT EGGS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8778, 15 November 1906, Page 2

ABOUT EGGS.

ARTIFICIAL EGGS AND PRESERVATION. The artificial egg as a commercial product having been abandoned by scientists as an impossible invention, attention is being drawn to the preservation of real eggs for indefinite periods. Canned eggs, limed eggs, cold-storage eggs, and eggs preserved in water-glass and other chemical compounds ar© now regular market products ; but the most recent egg freak consists of hard-boiled eggs preserved in clay and. charcoal paste. The idea of thus utilising the eggs during seasons of plenty is, derived from China. The Chinese have preserved boiled egge in clay for a long time, and some of them are said; to be centuries old. The eggs are boiled hard and wrapped in soft clay while hot. The day hardens, and looks like pu-mice-stone. They are packed in bags and rice htraks, and kept indefinitely. When opened, the yolks are green, and the white part almost black ; but they retain «• distinct egg flavour, and when chopped fine they flavour sauces and gravies as well as fresh-boiled eggs. The duck eggs are boiled and packed in a paste of charcoal, which hardens about them and forms «t perfect protection. Experiments are now being made in the egg districts of England to imitate the Chinese and go them o»& better. If the colour of the eggs can be retained, restaurants may in time be able to serve hard-boiled eggs to customers without the latter detecting their great age. The character of the clay and charcoal is said to determine the darkening of the inside, a dark, heavy clay preserving the delicate whit© iyid yellow of the eggs better than the light clays.