# a HUGE THANK YOU! to the forum



## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

because of all the great people and information here, my food preps have gone from high volume industrial packed things, to canning my own chicken, beef, meatloaf, chili and jams, and now I'm vacuum sealing my own milled dehydrated egg powder too!

All of the recipes and newbie help when I started canning just a few months ago is really appreciated, thanks a ton everyone! :2thumb:


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

And now you can pass it all on to the next person.

Congratulations! :congrat:


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Congrats!!!


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## kejmack (May 17, 2011)

Yippee! I bet you are eating healthier, too!


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## siletz (Aug 23, 2011)

Congrats on your new skill! I think home canning is one of the most self sufficient things you can learn. It takes you out of the industrial food game and gives you more power over what you consume. It helps you live better today, not just when a crisis hits. Keep it up!


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Plus ya control what goes inta yer food!

Ever read the labels on some a that commercial stuff? Hoelly crankies most of it got a ton a salt in it!

Congrats on the new skills an the added preps!


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## biobacon (Aug 20, 2012)

Any links for milled dehydrated egg powder? That sounds interesting.


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## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

biobacon said:


> Any links for milled dehydrated egg powder? That sounds interesting.







This is one of the youtube videos I saw before trying this. I havent really changed much of what they did, other than I use my dehydrator instead of the oven. I also preseason my eggs during scrambling. They were okay when they were cooked, but I'd normally prepare them with more spicy heat, but with the thought that I might not be the only one that eats them I didnt really go crazy.

I learned that if I used a dough blender, I could get the eggs cut up into much smaller pieces before loading onto the dehydrator trays. After they are dehydrated I started out crushing them up with a potato masher, but that became a LOT of work considering how many I was making. I eventually gave that up and just left them as they were because I knew I was going to be getting a mill in a week or two anyway.

So doing the potato masher bit and then using one of those braun protein shake mini blenders I was getting okay results, it was varying in size from a little bigger than sand to very small pebblish texture.

Then I decided I was going to skip most of that and began only using the potato masher on the quarter sized chunks from the dehydrator, then straight into holding jars that were waiting for me to get the mill, they are... ehh watermelon seed sized bits and pieces after I spend a minute on them in the mixing bowl with masher?

I have a Nesco American Harvester dehydrator and I used 7 trays for 8 dozen scrambled eggs per batch. They only come with 4 trays I think, but I have loads of extras from not only a previous unit that I had, but also a neighbor was throwing all of her stuff away because her base unit was broken, but the trays are perfectly good so I got them from her for free.

I learned that trying to control all those egg pieces is a little bit of a pain, and I tried a couple things before I settled on a large paper grocery bag. I Just made a fist sized hole in one of the bottom corners and then put that into my collection bowl, and put the tray inside the paper bag and shake and knock all the little crunchies off of it and the bag funnels them nice and cleanly into the bowl.

I have a Wondermill Jr Deluxe that I am handcranking the eggs into powder with. I could use the drill bit attachment and I'd probably already be done, but honestly I could use the arm workout, it may not be strength training but it's got to be better than nothing.

Finally I vacuum seal them 1/2 gallon mason jars. I have 3 jars full now, and I still have some more to go. I dont know how much I will do before I decide I have "enough" but at the cost of doing my own compared to the cost of buying a #10 coffee can from Mountain House, the savings are HUGE!!! (although theirs do come pre-canned and advertise a longer shelf life than what I've read for DIY stuff)

I read in several posts here and other youtube and such, that you need to avoid any butter or fat products in the entire process, so no butter or pam on the skillet when scrambling them because the fat will go rancid and greatly reduce the shelf life of the finished product. Also, one of the posts I saw suggested that using the eggs with the stone wheels on my mill might be enough for them to glaze over requiring a very thorough cleaning during use, wondermill jr deluxe includes a set of stainless steel mill heads so I'm using those.

Good luck! it all worked out really well for me, and as a bonus, I want to get my own chickens anyway, and now I have a zillion egg cartons and the big 5 dozen flats to hold all the fresh eggs in when I get the chickens!

The generally accepted rule is 1T egg powder = 1 egg, so combine that with 2T water to rehydrate and there's an egg for breakfast!


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## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

kejmack said:


> Yippee! I bet you are eating healthier, too!


HA! regrettably this is not a wise bet 

I mean as far as the chili yeah definitely, but I have been trying to build up some supplies on the other meats I'm canning before I really dig into them yet, and I'm going to start using the eggs soon since I now have them powdered. but I'm also going to have to start doing batches that arent seasoned at all so I can keep some separate for baking. Cookies usually dont benefit from the hint of chili powder, crushed black and red pepper, season salt, etc...

Now that I have a new book "Dinner is in the Jar" which arrived today, I'm going to try a couple of the tasty looking recipes right away this weekend and next week, I'll see which ones I really like and then I'll start putting those up in quantity in my supplies. Having stuff like this that makes it really stupidly simple to eat healthy and smarter might even make me change my ways! :surrender:


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## Dude111 (Dec 28, 2012)

Congrats my friend 


I like seeing threads like this,it shows how good a site like this really is!!


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