Would you reuse water you boiled eggs in?

Honey_Bear

I don't think Jack or Jamie have thought this one through, tbh. I'd happily use egg boiling water for non-food further use - flushing the loo, watering the plants, washing the car or filling the hot water bottle, in fact any number of things. I often slap a lid on and let the pan cool down without letting the steam out to add a bit of heat to a cold kitchen which is the first obvious use for the hot water.

Given which vent the hen uses to lay the egg, why would I want any any other food to come into contact with any secretions the hen needs to use to ease the egg down? Doesn't anyone study basic biology any more? And that's before it can come into contact with chicken wastes, or mud. Yick.

lostinrates

Lilyplonk wrote: »

I should imagine that Battery Eggs are less likely to be covered in 'chicken poop' due to them being laid into those 'rolly slidey runners that collect the eggs' whereas Free-Range Eggs are more likely to be laid with the chicken sitting on top of them, therefore more likely to poop on them at the moment of laying.

I think I know what I mean :undecided.

Gigervamp wrote: »

Exactly that Lilyplonk! Free range eggs may also have mud on them. Ours do, as the field the girls are in is currently like a bog with all the rain we've had.

Mine usually look clean (the ones they lay inside and don't hide) as they walk a long way in from mud to lay) but that's not the point.


Try as hard as I do I KNOW we sometimes have vermin etc in the chicken houses too. Even chicken urdure I cannot see doesn't mean its not there, and my chicken house is a far from sterile environment,

I am FAR from prudish about eating fresh fruit off a tree wish a bird might had pooped on, or fruit from a bush likewise. But a chicken house is a far from clean environment.

Remember not all gate sale eggs, for example, are salmonella vacc'd. The occasional visit of vermin too......its sounding less and less appealing. Even if all the nasties are boiled out any hard to see grit stuck to any eggs is not something I want to eat on potatoes.

ragz_2

lostinrates wrote: »

Mine usually look clean (the ones they lay inside and don't hide) as they walk a long way in from mud to lay) but that's not the point.


Try as hard as I do I KNOW we sometimes have vermin etc in the chicken houses too. Even chicken urdure I cannot see doesn't mean its not there, and my chicken house is a far from sterile environment,

I am FAR from prudish about eating fresh fruit off a tree wish a bird might had pooped on, or fruit from a bush likewise. But a chicken house is a far from clean environment.

Remember not all gate sale eggs, for example, are salmonella vacc'd. The occasional visit of vermin too......its sounding less and less appealing. Even if all the nasties are boiled out any hard to see grit stuck to any eggs is not something I want to eat on potatoes.

Thank you... I had wondered if I was just being fussy... not usually a problem for me. I happily eat fruit/veg off the tree and have never got into the habit of washing any... but the egg thing just seemed wrong.

patmac_2

When I was little, my granny always told me never to touch the water in which eggs had been boiled, as it could cause warts!

kezlou

Have to admit I wouldnt reuse the water for cooking.

I was, told off my great grandparents and nana to never use it as the water contains badbacteria which comes off the egg when boiling. Apparently its gives you the runs.

Now this is coming from women who cooked eggs in soap water when washing clothes. So not health freaks!

nannyk

My Nan would not let us use it for washing up ,said it would give us warts.

Broomstick

When clean water is scarce, and power is down so you need hot water bottles to keep warm (ie plenty of people in this country atm ) it's worth having a separate kettle just for hwb water. Then you can just recycle it again and again and have a separate kettle to use good water for hot drinks etc. (I've just talked myself into saving our old battered camping kettle just for hwbs plus an old funnel to fill it with the recycled hwb water through its spout! )

B x

elizabethhull

It never occurred to me that the water, which has been boiled for 4/5 minutes would still be contaminated. Admittedly I've never made a hot drink with it but I do put it in the washing-up water to save on hot water from the tap, and we never get the runs !! Water from boiling the Xmas pudding goes the same way.

This thread makes me wonder what potentially 'yeuk' thrifty things our family does, that we don't mention because we consider it normal !!

LameWolf

Water from steaming the Xmas pud is fine; the outside of the pudding basin is clean to start with. In extremis, I'd be happy to make a cup of tea with that water, and I'd certainly wash up dirty utensils with it.:o

Boiled egg water - no, sorry, whatever way you cut it, I simply can't stomach the idea. The particles of mud and chicken poo will still be there, even if the bacteria have been boiled dead. May have something to do with my having a compromised immune system, but just - no.:(

Very slightly OT, but still in the theme of the thread - many years ago, my aunt was asked out on a date with a young man she'd had her eye on for a while. They went back to his place, and he emptied his HWB into the kettle and switched it on to make tea..... at which point Auntie left, very swiftly, and never went out with him again.:D

DigForVictory

When I boil eggs in water, I usually add a lot of vinegar. (I'm not a deft handed soul.) Hot vinegary water with bits of egg in can then go down the loo, but cooking pasta or rice?
No thank you!