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Let’s talk dehydrated eggs!  To be able to take fresh eggs, scramble them up, toss in a dehydrator, powder, and then vacuum seal in a jar and store them on the shelf for 6 months or a little longer is nothing short of amazing.  I’m always so shooketh by the magic of food preservation.  Dried eggs are great to have stored on the shelf because you can fit a lot of eggs in a small glass jars and storage takes up very little space.   Yes, I lime water preserve my eggs (what other folks call water glass-ing which is entirely incorrect but I won’t go into it), but I also want some dehydrated eggs on the shelf for baking recipes and things like that.  I prefer to use dehydrated eggs in anything that will be cooked.  I’ve done a lot of research on this matter to come to my own decision for this.

We have our own chickens that give us our own eggs and in the peak season, spring and summer, we always have a surplus.  Instead of selling them, I choose to preserve the extra eggs and tuck them away for later.  Unpopular opinion here, but I don’t put supplemental light on my hens to force them to lay during the winter.  I believe the Lord gave them the rest period during the time of year when the sunlight decreases for a reason and a rest my hens will get.  That’s probably why I have a healthy flock that lays into their 5th or 6th year on our farm.  This is entirely personal preference and now you know my opinion on it.  But, it doesn’t affect me as much if I preserve the spring and summer surplus and dehydrating is a great way to do that.    

BUT BUT BUT Salmonella!

​There’s always that one person that thinks every thing I do will cause salmonella or botulism.  Raw milk.  Home canning.  Dehydrating.  It’s all just so dangerous!  Thank goodness the stores can do it for us so safely!!  OH…. wait.  About that.

A big thing with raw eggs is salmonella.  Salmonella is that bacteria commonly known for food poisoning.  It causes diarrhea, fever, vomiting, nausea, really all the fun stuff!    For my farm fresh eggs, I am entirely unconcerned.  For store-bought eggs, I am concerned, which is why I don’t purchase them and prefer my pastured chickens that are healthy and eggs that are unwashed and in their natural state.  But what about salmonella in dehydrated eggs.  Salmonella is found on the shells and within the egg itself.  But if you look into it, most of the salmonella outbreaks are rooted back to commercially farmed hens… which isn’t overly surprising given the crowded and awful conditions these chickens live in.  

This makes an obvious recommendation that using store bought eggs for dehydrating is probably not the best idea unless you are going to be sure they are pasteurized at 160F or you are sure to thoroughly cook them to 160F prior to using them.  That’s a pretty easy step, honestly.  Dehydrators normally max out at 145F so pasteurizing while you dry them is out of the cards.  Plus, if you go any hotter they smell AWFUL and don’t really rehydrate that well.  Ask me how I know?  I’ll tell you even if you don’t.  I tried dehydrating them in my oven and set it at 170F because that’s as low as it went and my house smelled like egg death for a week!  0/10 stars, do not recommend.

Raw vs Cooked

My method is to preserve RAW eggs.  I simply crack them out of shells and mix them together with a whisk or immersion blender and put them in the dehydrator.  My main reason to dry raw eggs is since they’re raw, it’s not a big deal to heat them thoroughly and cook them past the danger zone for salmonella.  

Cooked, scrambled eggs on the other hand are a little different.  You scramble the eggs and then dehydrate those.  You’re not going to re-cook, cooked eggs.  You’ll rehydrate them with very hot water.  And when using cooked eggs, you have to pay attention to what you use to cook them with because any oils added can spoil the eggs quicker.  High fat contents mixed with egg yolks tend to want to go rancid.  These would be nice for an emergency food supply that requires minimal resources to be edible or for your next camping/hiking trip, but just do a small test batch before fully committing to make sure they’re something you’ll eat.  I wouldn’t store them longer than 6 months for worry of them going rancid. 

Food for thought with this is you use dehydrated cooked eggs like… cooked eggs and dehydrated raw eggs like uncooked eggs. A dehydrated cooked scrambled egg isn’t going to do what you want it to in a bread recipe.

Equipment You’ll Want

• Food Dehydrator
• Silicone fruit leather inserts / dehydrator tray mats
• Food processor
• Mason Jar with lid
• Vacuum sealer
• Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers

Let’s dry some eggs!

Step 1: Mix up the eggs

Crack open eggs and whisk together until fully mixed and whites and yolks are incorporated.  A blender or immersion blender is very helpful here.  My dehydrator holds about 6 eggs per tray.  Be sure not to over fill because they will take a millennial to dry.

​Step 2: Fill Dehydrator

FIRST make sure your dehydrator is level.  If it is not and you pour liquid eggs into it, they will run everywhere, get into the fan, and smell like rotten eggs.  You will then have to completely dismantle and take apart your brand new dehydrator you’ve only owned for 2 months to clean every tiny piece because it smells so bad and then learn how to put the thing back together.  I’m speaking from experience.  Don’t be as goofy as I am!

Pour onto nonstick trays (silicone mats with a small lip made for fruit leather are nice to have so the egg liquid doesn’t run everywhere) or parchment paper.  I recommend the fruit leather sheets of silicone that sit on top of the trays with a lip to hold liquid in.  They work amazing.  Plan on no more than 6 eggs per tray.  If you overfill, they won’t really ever dry and will remain pliable and that doesn’t powder very well.

Step 3: Dehydrate

Set dehydrator at 135 degrees F and let go for 8-12 hours or until eggs are crisp and crack when touched.  They should not be pliable and evidence of any moisture should not be evident.

I have a dehydrator with trays and a fan in the back so I don’t have to rotate trays during the dry time.  If you have a stacking style, your dry time for eggs will be much longer.  Be sure to rotate trays like the user manual tells you.

Step 4: Powder

Add dehydrated egg pieces to a food processor or blender and pulse until smooth, fine powder.  If small chunks remain, it’s fine.

Step 5: Dehydrate Again

Add egg powder back to silicone mats on dehydrator trays and dry at 135 degrees F for 2-4 more hours of dry time to ensure eggs are completely dry.  You can optionally skip this step if you’re certain you got the eggs good and dry, but this is just an insurance policy for me in case there were some bigger hunks that were pliable still.

Step 6: Store

Remove from dehydrator trays, fill a jar with dry eggs, and store vacuum sealed in a mason jar for 6 months up to 1 year or for a longer shelf life, put in mylar with an oxygen absorber for up to 10 years.  If you’d like to learn more about long-term storage of things with a long shelf life, check out my post on getting stared with long term storage here!  Store vacuum sealed jars in a cool, dark place away from direct sunlight.    

You can also bag them up in a freezer ziplock bag and freeze them flat and they will keep longer and not use up much space.

And now you have your own powdered eggs on the shelves with not much effort.

Step 7: Rehydrate

To rehydrate, for every egg you need mix 2 tablespoons of egg powder with 2 tablespoons of water (very warm to hot for best results) and let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes to rehydrate.  Cold water doesn’t work as quickly and they don’t really like to fully dehydrate with it but you could make it work if push came to shove.  Use rehydrated eggs just as you would fresh whole eggs; in homemade breads, french toast, breakfast casseroles, for breading and frying, and more.  Just know they are best used in cooking and baking and aren’t the greatest scrambled and stand alone.  But, try them for yourself, because you may love them!

Notes

I get asked a lot if you can use your oven or the air fryer with the dehydrator button, and I’ll say this.  You can try it.  BUT both don’t get cool enough to dehydrate eggs and not have a partially cooked, stinky mess.  But I also know that every appliance works differently and I haven’t used every single appliance in the world, so absolutely feel free to line a jelly roll pan with parchment and slap it in your oven and let me know what happens!  Same with the air fryers with a dehydrate button, try it!  I’m just not gonna cause I know mine.. they’re too hot!

Happy Dehydrating!

How to Dehydrate Fresh Eggs for Long Term Storage

5 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 12 hours hours

Total Time: 12 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Equipment

• Dehydrator
• Silicone dehydrator mats
• Food processor
• mason jar
• mason jar vacuum sealer
• mylar bags
• oxygen absorbers

Ingredients

• farm fresh eggs 4-6 eggs per tray

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

• Crack open eggs and whisk together until fully mixed and whites and yolks are incorporated. A blender or immersion blender is very helpful here. My dehydrator holds about 6 eggs per tray. Be sure not to over fill because they will take a millennial to dry.
• Pour onto nonstick trays (silicone mats with a small lip are nice to have so the egg liquid doesn’t run everywhere).
• Set dehydrator at 135 degrees F and let go for 8-12 hours or until eggs are crisp and crack when touched. They should not be pliable and evidence of any moisture should not be evident.
• Add dehydrated egg pieces to a food processor or blender and pulse until smooth. If small chunks remain, it’s fine.
• Add egg powder back to silicone mats on dehydrator trays and dry at 135 degrees F for 2-4 more hours to ensure eggs are completely dry.
• Remove from dehydrator trays and store vacuum sealed in a mason jar up to 1 year or in mylar with oxygen absorbers for up to 10 years.