Commercially prepared dried eggs are pasteurized. For good reason. Eggs are notorious carriers of salmonella. This is also a reason why drying uncooked poultry is discouraged.

Most good dehydrators have adjustable settings to 160 or higher but that doesn't mean it is safe.

I always cook them before I eat them.

OK, this thread intrigued me, so I spent some time trying to learn about the chemistry of eggs. I looked up the coagulation temperatures of both egg whites and yolks, as well as the temperature required to kill salmonella. To avoid boring you, I'll just list what I think are fairly accurate numbers:

Coagulation temperature for egg whites is about 140*F.
Coagulation temperature for egg yolks is about 149*F.

Salmonella will be killed at a temperature of 130*F for 120 minutes,
-OR- at a temperature of 135*F for 38 minutes.

So it looks like there might be a window of opportunity for actually dehydrating eggs, by keeping the temperature at 130*F. In the time it would take to drive all of the moisture out of the eggs, all salmonella will have been neutralized.

It might be worth a try for someone to experiment with. For my part, I'll stick with Ova Easy.

So, I had purchased some of these, not really thinking the cooking thing through. I wondered, though, could you rehydrate them in a freezer bag, then put the bag in boiling water to cook? No pan that way, texture might be odd.

I have heard of folks using the One Egg Wonder pan from Wal-Mart, and putting it on top of their Caldera Keg windscreen to cook scrambled eggs. The pan is small and pretty light-weight, but then you'd have a one-time use item.

You can do bag omelets, just be careful the bag doesn't touch the dry edges of the pot - treat it like fresh eggs time wise.

Anyhow, also...you can steam egg "muffins" really easy, same method used for steaming real muffins. Works great! I talked about it a couple years ago...but not sure if I posted the photos here though - it is on my website under the "FauxBaker" :-)

So, if I wanted veggie omelets, would I need to re-hydrate the veggies separately, then add them to runny eggs to cook, or could I dump enough water into a dried veggie/egg powder mix, seal and fold over the bag, boil for 10 minutes, and eat omelettes?

I was thinking a little butter powder, S&P, and garlic powder would also go along nicely.

I'd presoak for best results!

You gals are just trying to throw me off my diet again.

--B.G.--

I believe they have also have Ova Easy Egg Whites as well, Bob!

http://www.nutriomstore.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ov113

Enjoy!

Bob,
If it makes you feel any better I eat tofu scrambles at home and not eggs :-D

The dehydrated egg white powder that I mentioned earlier seems to do fine as an egg ingredient in some ordinary recipe. Very few of us try to do meringues and complicated stuff out on the trail.

Here in California I think somebody has started a state initiative to ban tofu scrambles from the list of palatable trail food. I don't like the stuff. I would probably eat it if I hadn't had anything to eat in a couple of days.

--B.G.--