Comments on: easter was 2 weeks ago..

Question: easter was 2 weeks ago..

ShawnString — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 15:33:52 -0800

Easter was 2 weeks ago...more or less. Wife made some hard-boiled eggs to color. Our 20 month old did her 1st real colored egg. How can we preserve it?

it is currently in the fridge. the shell looks whole, no visible cracks. how can we make it last?

By: IshmaelGraves

IshmaelGraves — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 15:36:18 -0800

Blow the yolk and white out like this.

By: andrew cooke

andrew cooke — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 15:38:03 -0800

you can't blow hard boild eggs.
i hope.

By: fishfucker

fishfucker — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 15:54:52 -0800

dude:

this is a perfect candidate for encasing in plastic resin (since I'm assuming you're never gonna want to do interact with in any way other than visual)

TAP Plastics could help you out here.

most of the guys at TAP have been trained in all the products they sell, so hopefully they'd be able to advise you as to whether the resin would have an adverse effect on the dye.

It'd make a nice paperweight.

By: fishfucker

fishfucker — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 15:55:56 -0800

(or you could probably just coat it with a bunch of layers of mod podge or something and just be really careful with it -- imagine the insides will eventually dry out and stuff).

By: ThePinkSuperhero

ThePinkSuperhero — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 15:56:44 -0800

Have it bronzed? Haha, sorry, I find this question really humorous- it's possibly one of the craziest things a parent wants to save that I've ever heard. But then again, my parents (read: Mom) threw most everything from my childhood away.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 16:39:43 -0800

I like fishfucker's idea. You could make it into a paperweight by encasing it in plastic. I do wonder, though, whether bacteria and such already living in the egg wouldn't just eat it into sludge in a few years...

By: sageleaf

sageleaf — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 16:45:00 -0800

Could we take some pictures and throw the rotting thing away?

Unless your 20-month-old's name is Faberge and by 'colored' you mean encrusted with jewels.

Saving every single memento sounds romantic but can be a very bad trap to fall into.

By: fishfucker

fishfucker — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 16:58:51 -0800

whether bacteria and such already living in the egg wouldn't just eat it into sludge in a few years...

whoa. that'd be super cool (though i somehow doubt the resin would fail to preserve it).

still, now i want to run off and encase living material in plastic.

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 17:06:32 -0800

Saw it in half with a sharp bread knife then remove the egg halfs from the two sides of the shell. Carefully flatten out the shell and do with it what you will. It will crack, but most of the stinky crap will be out of it, and you will have a nice flat piece of art all to frame, cracked up like an ancient fresco.

By: crunchland

crunchland — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 17:17:26 -0800

Instead of a bread knife, score it with an x-acto, lengthwise, carefully, carefully, carefully, until you've cut through it. then remove the insides. Wash it out, and fill it with --- oh, I don't know.

I suspect anything other than a surgeon's knife (and touch) will result in squishing, cracking, and disappointment.

By: jmgorman

jmgorman — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 20:09:22 -0800

Not to derail, but I worked at a museum where we had a collection of ukranian painted eggs. Now, these ususally aren't hard boiled, in fact, they are usually just shells as the contents are supposed to have been blown out. But we had a couple that were painted with everything still inside.

One broke. We had to close the museum for a week it stunk so bad. (The egg was 25 years old.) So when we had ot move, I was entrusted with packing the remaining eggs - including three that had hardened yolks rolling around inside. Luckily, all moved just fine without any further breakage, but those boxes still stunk when we opened them.

Long story short - take a picture and don't be that guy.

By: Miko

Miko — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 20:27:09 -0800

Listen -- When I was a kid, we used to dye hard-boiled eggs and hide them like a lot of people. One year, apparently, we missed one. It was very cannily hidden in a bunch of dried flowers in a vase where nobody looked. WE didn't find until maybe a year later.

It had completely dried. There was a hardened yolk rolling around in it. WE thought it was hilarious and kept it for a long time with random knickknacks on a shelf. What can I say, we are a quirky family. Eventually it broke, and it didn't stink at all.

I suspect JMGorman's egg was never boiled, and that's why it released the sulfur smell when broken. I think if it really means a lot to you, drying is worth a try. Set it out in the garage or some really out-of-the-way place where it won't be disturbed and air can get around it. It'll be OK.

On the other hand, I hesitate to wonder -- if you save this, what else would you save? Where you gonna draw the line, man?

By: Miko

Miko — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 20:28:09 -0800

Sorry, I'm not trying to emphasize the word "WE". It seems to be a frequent typo problem for me.

By: 445supermag

445supermag — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 20:52:46 -0800

Water glass (sodium silicate) has been used to preserve eggs, but usually for eventual consumption (about 1 year).

By: duck

duck — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 22:05:42 -0800

I don't know how to preserve the egg, but let me just say I think saving the eggs is a nice thing to do. My family saved mine for years, and my cousin has her kids' easter eggs in a shadow box in the dining room.

This need not lead to saving every little memento..these just happen to be pretty mementos just like any other kiddie art.

That said, my eggs and my cousins were blown out. Next year, blow them out.

By: peacay

peacay — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 23:14:27 -0800

I would have thought a few coats with some sort of clear plastic paint would preserve the painting (compatability of paints being the operative information to find).
Being boiled and intact, the contents should be both sterile and the protein already denatured. East asians eat a product called 'thousand year old eggs' which are buried I believe - for some months anyway. Unless you did as suggested above in terms of a paper weight or the like (encasing) I'd be surprised if your egg would survive the rigors of modern living for more than a couple of years. If you did put a clear finish on it, it would only be to preserve the paint underneath - the egg will always be vulnerable. But my guess would be that no odour will come from it unless it were broken - the protein would break down a bit more but without bugs or air, I wouldn't have thought that it would go completely rank.

By: ubersturm

ubersturm — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 23:40:32 -0800

I'd have to second jmgorman's warning. Once my family decided to do an egg hunt with hard boiled eggs. Bad idea. We missed one, and it broke a year or two later. The things in that box stunk for a very, very long time. Perhaps it hadn't reached the state that Miko's had, but... I'd still be a little leery of saving a hard-boiled egg after that experience.

By: andrew cooke

andrew cooke — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 04:13:43 -0800

if you are going to try saving it, i'd suggest not coating it in anything. sounds like your best hope is that it dries out before it goes bad, and any coating is going to trap moisture inside.