Pickled Eggs
Yield: This recipe yields enough vinegar to pickle 8-12 large eggs.
Preparation time: about one hour. The eggs may be consumed immediately, but improve if allowed to mature in the refrigerator for ten days.
You will need a glass canning jar with a two piece lid, a glass jar with a rubber flange, or a food-safe jar with a screw top lid that won’t be corroded by contact with vinegar. My jar holds 6.5 cups, or 1.5 liters.
Please read notes, below, before cooking.
The recipe is written so the pickling vinegar is prepared first, then allowed to cool while the eggs are hard boiled. If you prefer to add the vinegar to the eggs while it’s still hot, reverse the preparation order. That is, sterilize the jar, prepare the eggs, then boil the pickling vinegar and pour it over the eggs while it’s still hot. Allow the eggs to cool completely before screwing the lid down or latching the lid tightly. Once the eggs and vinegar are cool, screw down the lid or latch it, and refrigerate the pickle.
8-12 large eggs, ideally organic
2 pints/4 cups/1 liter white wine vinegar, 5% acidity
1 teaspoon green cardamom seeds, lightly cracked
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 scant tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
1 dried red pepper pod
1 bay leaf
1-4 small garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
Sterilize jar: If you have a dishwasher, use that. I do not, and sterilize jars by washing them in hot soapy water, rinsing them well, and drying them in a low oven.
Prepare the vinegar:
In a nonreactive pot–that is, either nonstick or stainless steel–add the vinegar, cardamom, peppercorns, coriander, mustard seeds, dried red pepper, bay leaf, and garlic. Bring the vinegar to a lively simmer and cook for 5-8 minutes. Then turn off the heat and allow the vinegar to cool.
Hard boil the eggs:
Place the eggs in a pot just large enough to hold them. Add cold water to cover. Bring water to a rolling boil.
Once the water is at a rolling boil, boil eggs for ten minutes.
If you have ice to hand, plunge eggs into a bowl of icewater. Leave eggs to cool.
No ice? place eggs in a bowl. If you have ice packs, wrap them around the bottom of the bowl. If not, not. Either way, run cold water over the eggs to cool them. Leave eggs in the cool water.
Crack eggshells against the sink or counter and peel. I am terrible at shelling eggs; my best advice is to pickle eggs that are at least a week old. Freshly laid eggs, a pleasure otherwise, are hellishly difficult to peel.
Drop peeled eggs into the jar as you go. Once all the eggs are peeled, add the vinegar. A funnel is helpful here.
Once the pickled eggs are cool, screw on the lid or add rubberized flange to jar lid, if necessary, and clamp it down. It’s helpful to label the jar with the date you prepared the pickle.
Pickled eggs may be eaten immediately, but improve if allowed to mature, refrigerated, for ten days. My cookbooks tell me they keep indefinitely.
Pickled eggs make nice snacks. They’re also excellent with salads, cheese, and cold cuts.
Notes:
Malt vinegar, distilled white vinegar, and cider vinegar may be used instead of white wine vinegar to pickle eggs. So long as your vinegar of choice has 5% acidity or above, it is safe to use.
Feel free to alter the seasonings in your pickle. Try adding chopped shallots, white peppercorns, a few blades of mace, fresh ginger, or a few thyme sprigs. A tablespoon to every two pints vinegar is a useful formula to keep in mind.
Salt appears in only one egg pickling recipe: Lucy H. Yates’ The Country Housewife’s Book. Published in 1934, both book and recipe are very much of their time, offering advice for coping with gluts of game birds, fresh milk, and eggs. Yates’ pickling recipe is rather vague, suggesting one “procure a number of fresh eggs” and pickle them in a quart of “brown vinegar.” To this you add a half ounce of “rough salt.” Doubtless readers of the era understood Yates’ instructions. Today The Country Housewife’s Book is best appreciated as a document of the era rather than a guide to ours.
Other books consulted include Elizabeth David’s Spices, Salts, and Aromatics in The English Kitchen, Jane Grigson’s English Food, Dorothy Hartley’s Food in England, Sara Paston-Williams’ The National Trust Book of the Country Kitchen Store Cupboard, and Florence H. White’s Good Things in England.