FOOD "Shelf Life" of hard boiled eggs?

bw

Fringe Ranger
Keep them in water in the fridge and they'll last about forever. No water and they'll slowly dry out until they're about the size and texture of a marble, rattling around inside the shell. The best way to dry one out is to forget it inside your school desk in fourth grade or so. Ask me how I know.
 

Babs

Veteran Member
Keep them in water in the fridge and they'll last about forever. No water and they'll slowly dry out until they're about the size and texture of a marble, rattling around inside the shell. The best way to dry one out is to forget it inside your school desk in fourth grade or so. Ask me how I know.

Do you keep them in the water peeled or unpeeled? I've never heard of this method.
 

psychgirl

TB Fanatic
Keep them in water in the fridge and they'll last about forever. No water and they'll slowly dry out until they're about the size and texture of a marble, rattling around inside the shell. The best way to dry one out is to forget it inside your school desk in fourth grade or so. Ask me how I know.
Or….conversely…..if you’re in fourth grade and get the brilliant idea to hide your Easter basket from your siblings by stashing it in the bedroom closet….
You get to find out, ohhhh, come June or July….how long, long forgotten colored eggs do NOT last, and breed maggots in the carpeting. Which gets you a butt whipping when mom finds them while looking for a horrible, rotten odor wafting all over the house.

Good times.
#goodideagoneawry
 

WalknTrot

Veteran Member
Fridge.

Eggs are the perfect growth medium for a lot of bugs. Hard boiled will keep out of the fridge safely for a couple hours, but WTH. Eat them. Taking them in your lunch to work, they'd probably be fine.

But IF someone wanted them to last, putting them in water would do it. Pickled eggs are peeled and in brine or whatever, same thing.
Hahaha. No.
Pickling (correct ratio of vinegar/salt/sugar) is by very definition, a preservative. And even then, pickled eggs are recommended to be refrigerated. Water? Is not a preservative.
 
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bw

Fringe Ranger
And even then, pickled eggs are recommended to be refrigerated. Water? Is not a preservative.
I wasn't recommending leaving them on the counter in water. I was talking about how to keep them from drying out. Once they're cooked they're open to invasion.
 

TedM1911

Senior Member
I have been sick and puking like mad for 2 days. Very miserable. I was told it is likely my hard boiled eggs. I typically cook 2 dozen, peel, then into the fridge. I eat 2 a day. Either way I will stop that practice.
 

summerthyme

Administrator
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I have been sick and puking like mad for 2 days. Very miserable. I was told it is likely my hard boiled eggs. I typically cook 2 dozen, peel, then into the fridge. I eat 2 a day. Either way I will stop that practice.
Yeah... 12 days, *especially peeled* in the fridge is too long. Cook 1 dozen and store them unpeeled in the fridge. Peel before eating.

Summerthyme
 

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
10 days is the max they keep, in the fridge, before they start going south. Then again I never have boiled eggs around long enough to worry about, any extras go into a jar of pickle juice and right back into the fridge! I like my boiled eggs to be ice cold, not warm... unless I just boiled them and well... :D
 

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
I have been sick and puking like mad for 2 days. Very miserable. I was told it is likely my hard boiled eggs. I typically cook 2 dozen, peel, then into the fridge. I eat 2 a day. Either way I will stop that practice.

max 10 days, and I mean absolute max, unpeeled! peeled boiled eggs are an excellent growth medium.
 

psychgirl

TB Fanatic
max 10 days, and I mean absolute max, unpeeled! peeled boiled eggs are an excellent growth medium.
This is what I thought, too.
I don’t make too many boiled eggs these days but I sure do make up batches of scrambled eggs!
I love all eggs but peeled boiled ones smell too bad and get slimy reallllly fast

Nope.
 

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
This is what I thought, too.
I don’t make too many boiled eggs these days but I sure do make up batches of scrambled eggs!
I love all eggs but peeled boiled ones smell too bad and get slimy reallllly fast

Nope.
The reason I know is because someone posted a meme about boiled eggs on facebook last week and it turned into an all out war. Finally someone posted info from the USDA and The Egg Council and it's ten days max, and only stored in the fridge. As someone else said out of the fridge you get a couple of hours max before it turns into a science experiment!
 
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West

Senior
Wait, then surely my 2012 pickled eggs are still good?

Really I was going to leave them out for bait, after the SHTF. Thieves would get a tummy ache?
 

Ractivist

Pride comes before the fall.....Pride month ended.
You folks have got to be kidding. I have eggs in the fridge for two or more months sometimes. Never had a problem. The old one's aren't the same as the freshest one's, but I eat em. Taste fine scrambled.

I've got good gut health, perhaps this is part of the reason. Never met a leftover I didn't eat. Maybe a few along lifes path....

Sometimes when things look bleak, I stock up on eggs and it take a minute to eat em all.
 

psychgirl

TB Fanatic
You folks have got to be kidding. I have eggs in the fridge for two or more months sometimes. Never had a problem. The old one's aren't the same as the freshest one's, but I eat em. Taste fine scrambled.

I've got good gut health, perhaps this is part of the reason. Never met a leftover I didn't eat. Maybe a few along lifes path....

Sometimes when things look bleak, I stock up on eggs and it take a minute to eat em all.
The question was regarding cooked, hard boiled eggs
 
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bw

Fringe Ranger
You folks have got to be kidding. I have eggs in the fridge for two or more months sometimes. Never had a problem. The old one's aren't the same as the freshest one's, but I eat em. Taste fine scrambled.
If you're talking raw eggs, those are good indefinitely. Cooking destroys the membrane that keeps the bugs out.
 

dioptase

Veteran Member
Interesting thread.

I've boiled eggs and then had them in the fridge, eating them up to two weeks later. No problem. But I generally nuke them in the microwave for about 20 seconds or so before eating, AFTER PEELING THEM, because I like them warm. (Unless I'm mixing them with mayo and chicken and other things for a chicken salad.)

One thing that I *always* do, though, before boiling, is to do the float test on the eggs, to make sure that they're okay. If they don't sink to the bottom of the cup of water, or if they look iffy about sinking (slowly going down), then I consider them "bad" (no matter what the date on the carton is), and I toss them. Always, always test.
 

summerthyme

Administrator
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Eggs that were completely intact before and after hard boiling will keep in a properly cold fridge. We've proven that many times with Easter Eggs... often the last of the colored ones were consumed 4 Sundays later.

After which I tossed any left on general principles!

But ones that cracked during boiling I'd either use immediately (I also love them warm from the kettle) or refrigerate for no more than 2 days.

Youn can tell a "not quite right" egg when you're peeling it... it can feel a little slimy, and if it's older, it can be sort of sticky. Anything beyond that and your nose will tell you, probably before you do more than crack it... once!

Summerthyme
 

dioptase

Veteran Member
Yes, I forgot about that part - if the egg cracks while boiling it, then eat it immediately (once done boiling), or for no more than a day.
 

33dInd

Veteran Member
You can water bath pickle eggs
The trick on the brine is us no water
Vinegar only with spices
Boil jars to sterilize
Put eggs and brine in and seal
Good and shelf stable for a year
 

Pebbles

Veteran Member
I don't know, I think back to Easter as a kid. Every year mom boiled eggs and dyed them Saturday night. She then hide them around the house for us kids to find. We then hunted for the eggs the next morning and kept those same eggs in our Easter basket, in our bedrooms for several more days. None of our family ever got sick.
 

33dInd

Veteran Member
I love hard boiled eggs
And several different pickled recipes
I do usually refrigerate
But am toying with canning hot bath storage
Everything I’ve read on hot bath canning is so not substitute water for vinegar
I like hit and spicy
Old fashioned southern
And sweet and sour
 
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