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I don't use eggwash often- roughly once a week I make a speedy en-croute or pie with some shop-bought puff. Whatever I make, as it tends to be just for two, I rarely use more than half an egg's worth, and it feels a bit wasteful throwing so much away (for this reason I tend to use milk).

If I use a fresh egg (with at least a week to its expiry date), can I keep a cup of eggwash under cling-film for a week? If the expiry is further away, will that make a difference?

Aaronut
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Tom Boardman
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  • By egg wash do you mean just pure slightly whipped egg white or do you add anything to the egg white. – Jay Jan 24 '12 at 20:22
  • Beaten whole egg ('to add a golden glaze to pastry') – Tom Boardman Jan 24 '12 at 20:29
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    Don't forget that you can freeze eggs. I would beat one egg, divide it in small portions (perhaps using an ice cube tray), make it airtight and put it in the freezer. I think you would have enough with one cube and you don't need to throw away the rest of the egg. – Mien Jan 24 '12 at 21:20
  • @Mien I thought you could only freeze egg whites and not the yolk without changing it's properties. – Jay Jan 24 '12 at 21:24
  • @Jay http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/5021/can-raw-eggs-be-frozen – Mien Jan 24 '12 at 21:33
  • @Mien, yea so you would have to separate the egg yolk from the egg white... then add some salt to the half yolk to prevent it from gelatinizing(is that a word) and store it in a tiny little container. Then store the other half of egg white in another tiny little container. That just seems like a lot of work to save half an egg a week. – Jay Jan 25 '12 at 14:20
  • @Jay - I suppose you could also just toss the half-egg in the same container for each week, to use in something where the gelatinized yolk won't matter (like scrambled eggs). – Megha Nov 05 '18 at 03:58

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To make a long answer short, if you are using it once a week, then don't bother storing the egg mixture. The egg wash is definitely not safe after a week even if you store it in an air type container in the refrigerator.

If however you are using just egg whites, you can lightly beat half of it and use that and freeze the other unbeaten half in the freezer.

But to be honest... There are worse things to waste than half an egg a week. I think this is a case of not being worth the effort.

Jay
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  • Lightly beaten eggs can be safely kept for up to two days - a week is definitely out of the question. (I believe whites last longer, up to four days, but the yolks don't.) – Cascabel Jan 24 '12 at 20:46