Gitche Gumee Kid
Veteran Member
Refrigerated vrs Out on the counter?
GGK
GGK
FOOD "Shelf Life" of hard boiled eggs?
- Thread starter Gitche Gumee Kid
- Start date
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.
bw
Fringe Ranger
Personally, I don't leave them long enough to do anything dramatic. I eats 'em. 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.
psychgirl
TB Fanatic
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
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.
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.
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.
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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naegling62
Veteran Member
Just make them in to mayonnaise. I'm sure there's a thread around here somewhere about mayonnaise.
bw
Fringe Ranger
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.
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... 
packyderms_wife
Neither here nor there.
max 10 days, and I mean absolute max, unpeeled! peeled boiled eggs are an excellent growth medium.
psychgirl
TB Fanatic
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.
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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psychgirl
TB Fanatic
Depends on how badly you wanna go to the hospitalSo my y2k pickled eggs are bad now?
packyderms_wife
Neither here nor there.
So my y2k pickled eggs are bad now?
Might want to make arrangements with your local undertaker before eating those!
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.
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
The question was regarding cooked, hard boiled eggs
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Ractivist
Pride comes before the fall.....Pride month ended.
Thanks for that clarification.........I was beginning to wonder.............about my very foundation of knowledge.
bw
Fringe Ranger
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.
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.
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
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
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.
