Pickled Eggs

Up until a few months ago, I thought pickled eggs where probably something the devil invented. I’d only seen them in big jars at room temperature at bars. The liquid was cloudy and the whole idea of a room temp egg just plain frightened me. I was SO not going there.

However, my NRA Instructor Counselor, Dave Matthews, made a batch of pickled eggs. Since I knew the province of them, I decided I probably wouldn’t die. Not only didn’t I die, but they were completely awesome! So I’ve been meaning to make a batch of my own for the last few weeks. I finally go around to it tonight.

The National Center for Home Food Preservation has a website that lists six different recipes for pickled eggs. I picked the Dilled Eggs recipe to try. And of course made a few changes lol.

Recipe

12 eggs, hard boiled and peeled.

1 1/2 cups of white vinegar

1 cup of water (from other projects, I advise not using tap water)

3/4 teaspoon dill weed

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1 tablespoon salt

1/4  teaspoon mustard seed

1/2 teaspoon onion juice or minced onion

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic or 1 peeled garlic clove

 

Bring all the ingredients except the eggs to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Pack no more than one dozen peeled, hard-cooked eggs loosely into a warm, pre-sterilized quart jar. There needs to be plenty of pickling solution,  enough to completely cover the eggs. Pour the hot pickling solution over the eggs in the jar, cover, and refrigerate immediately.

After making the eggs, the eggs require some time to season (i.e., pick up the flavors from the pickling brine). Keep them refrigerated at all times. If small eggs are used, 1 to 2 weeks are usually allowed for seasoning to occur.  Medium or large eggs may require 2 to 4 weeks to become well seasoned.  Use the eggs within 3 to 4 months for best quality.

My changes… instead of using onion juice or minced onion, I used very thinly sliced shallot, about 1 small shallot. Then I added three shishito peppers that I had cleaned. They’re a VERY milk pepper so you could use a spicier pepper if you wanted some heat. I also doubled the amount of garlic.

Here’s what they look like in the jar. My apologies for the blurriness but my hands have been really shaky lately. At some point I suppose I should invest in a standard camera and tripod lol.