Prep weekend / ova easy review

[Cwi555]

~Every three years we choose a weekend to eat nothing but preps. This is one of those weekends. Eggs tend to be a problem child for long term storage, and have tried multiple products over the years. The leader of the pack so far is Mountain House Egg mix, with all the others experiencing problems with the long term part of long term storage. It has been our experience that if it last 3 years and still cooks and taste like it did immediately after shipping, it will go at least that time again and more.

The newest addition/test was the ova easy brand.
We obtained this product back in Feb. 2010. We have both number 10 cans and pouch forms. We considering the pouch form to be the most likely to fail.


After mixing up a test batch, there were no color changes, smell, or any outward sign of degradation. One basic test that anyone can do is a PH test. A change in PH from your baseline is a strong sign of degradation as that would require a chemical reaction to change it. There was no change in the intermediate 3 years.


One of the things noted in the initial 2010 baseline was the off brown look when cooking.
There was no notable change 3/30/2013.


After fully cooked, it maintained the same appearance as 2010, which cooks flatter than normal eggs, but ends up the same color as natural scrambled eggs.

There was no discernible change in taste (which tasted like well.. eggs)

This product taste good in our opinion, and I suspect, will last considerably longer than it's listed shelf life of 5 years. In fact, it taste better than it's Mountain House brethren.
The only significant difference between the two is 5 year listed shelf life, vs. 25 year listed life. Given that it's a relatively new product, and based on our test, I believe the only reason they are listing 5 years vs. 25 is the relative newness of the product vs the established Mountain House product.

As a general rule of thumb, we use Mountain House as the control model for testing long term foods. Ova Easy is comparing very favorably against that control, as well as tasting better in parallel testing.

My opinion for what it's worth.

[woodyz]

Thanks for posting, good to know.

[cajunlady87]

Great way to test long stored preps. Thanks for the review.

A few questions if I may in regards to other food prep testings from the past. Do you mind sharing other foods and brands you've tested and your reviews of those? Using eggs as an example and those you've found unfavorable cooked alone, have you used them in recipes calling for eggs and achieved favorable results, such as to bake a cake, was the final result what you were led to believe to do so?

Will meals for the rest of the day focus on the egg powders alone or do you try other items prepared alone as you did the eggs? Finally, your reason for selecting to do this every 3 years instead of shorter terms?

[cowgirlup]

Thanks! I had been wondering how they were and if they were worth the investment. Especially since they are sort of described as egg crystals.

[Cwi555]

Mar 30, 2013 11:01:03 GMT -7 cajunlady87 said:

Great way to test long stored preps. Thanks for the review.

A few questions if I may in regards to other food prep testings from the past. Do you mind sharing other foods and brands you've tested and your reviews of those? Using eggs as an example and those you've found unfavorable cooked alone, have you used them in recipes calling for eggs and achieved favorable results, such as to bake a cake, was the final result what you were led to believe to do so?

Will meals for the rest of the day focus on the egg powders alone or do you try other items prepared alone as you did the eggs? Finally, your reason for selecting to do this every 3 years instead of shorter terms?

Regarding recipes, Mountain house eggs usually require some adjustment and give a slightly different taste to the recipe. Other than that, they work just fine.

The ova easy has went apples for apples with all recipes that require whole eggs.
Both the MH and OE do not play well in the sand with recipes that call for egg whites, or yokes separately. As a general rule of thumb, adjustments have to be made for both in those cases.

As for egg products all the way around, the OE so far has worked the best regarding recipes though it has not been tried in as many recipes as the MH version.

Regarding other products, I haven't found long term storage eggs other than the two mentioned that displayed any potential for 5 years or greater storage. All other products failed the three year run on the PH though some of them We didn't even bother based on the smell alone. If it's not chemically stable, there is no reasonable assurance it will be safe to eat long term. MH and OE are the only two to date that we've found to pass that three year mark with no change.

As for why three years, that was derived from trial and error over the years. My Grandfather used to do it by 7, 10, and 25 year cycles. Problem with that is, he would simply throw it out if it was no good. That seemed like a waste to me. Most of the foods in question are usually still good at three years albeit with moderate changes that were indicative of not being able to go 7, 10, and 25 years. That's where the three year time frame came from. It is the window where changes are notable, but the food is still edible. We can give the food to those in need so that it doesn't go to waste, or simply use it ourselves.

As an overview, We stick with Mountain House, Shelf Reliance, Yoders, and Honeyville (which is the maker of ova easy) if we didn't prep it ourselves. There are other products, but those have a proven track record with us.

[cajunlady87]

Excellent reviews with a wealth of info that I'm positive you won't read in WIKI or any other resources of the like my friend.

Thankyou for doing this and sharing your findings with us.

[geron]

+1 !

[dtucker]

Very good info.
We have not bought any egg products yet. I was not sure which brands were better.
Thanks for posting this. :-)

[Cwi555]

The current FDA law regarding PH testing.
Title 21 Code of Federal Regulations 114.90
www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=114.90

[hitec4you]

Thanks for posting your findings/taste test. I tried them for the 1st time last year at a Self Reliance Expo and they tasted like real eggs to me. They were for sure a step up from MH. I have been thinking about getting some of these for camping and for my food storage but was wondering about them. But sounds like they seem to be pretty good per your testing.