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A lot of people keep a few laying hens even if they are in town. It is the time of year when the hens are laying a lot of eggs and despite eating a lot of them and baking with them, there is an excess.
In the past, I wrote an article about different methods of preserving eggs. Some of the methods described I have never had the need to do but being stuck at home due to this pandemic, we are trying out some different things to preserve what we can produce on the farm.
Please note that
pickled eggs do need to be refrigerated for food safety reasons. They
are best when consumed within 4 months of pickling according to the
Institute For Home Canning. I think 4 months is pretty great
personally. That gives you a lot more time to eat on those eggs
rather than letting them go bad.
DILLED EGGS
1/2 teaspoon dill weed
¼ teaspoon black pepper (Optional. I did not add this)
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
1 tsp dried minced onion or 2 tsp fresh onion
½ teaspoon minced garlic or 1 peeled garlic clove
For the brine base.
1½ cups white or apple cider vinegar. I used apple cider vinegar for mine.
1 cup of water
This amount above was enough liquid for 2 quarts of pickled eggs or 2 dozen large eggs.
How To Pickle Eggs
While
you need to use the water and vinegar base brine and at least 1.5 tsp
of salt per quart, the rest of the spices are really up to you.
There are a lot of pickled egg recipes out there when you start
looking around online.
These are made to have a flavor like bread and butter pickles. Here is a link to popular recipe online.
Some recipes use beet juice in the brine and the eggs pick up that
color. Some of the pickled eggs that you see in stores or at taverns
and bars have artificial coloring agents added.
Plenty of people think they don’t like pickled eggs because they
had a bad experience eating some after drinking a bit too much or
eating some that had probably not been properly stored or had become
contaminated by someone opening and closing them a lot with possibly
dirty utensils.
Pickled eggs from home are not going to be like that if you store
them properly.
Eggs that you use are going to be much higher quality than the
eggs used to produce the pickled eggs for the masses found at taverns
and gas stations.
A factory farm egg is not the same as an egg produced in your backyard or free-range. The quality of the egg you start our with is going to determine a lot about how good your finished pickled egg turns out. Also even if you get commercial eggs at the grocery store, I bet they are still going to be better than the commercial pickled eggs because you get to pick and choose the brine ingredients and spices.
Also, I have to point out that a lot of people’s experience with pickled eggs likely came at a time when they were eating a lot of different bar foods, gas station foods, or while they were drinking substantially more than usual. Pickled eggs made at home are worth giving a chance.
While you can eat your eggs anytime, the longer you let them sit in the brine, the more flavor they will have. It takes some time for the brine to penetrate into the yolk. For large eggs, you should try to give it a week before you taste them. If they still don’t seem pickled enough then give them another 3-7 days. You may find that you like the taste better with a shorter or longer pickling time.
A lot of people just eat pickled eggs whole as part of a meal or snack. They go well with picnic-style foods like cold cuts of meat, cheese, and crackers. You can also slice them up and put them on salads for a nice change of flavor. Since they keep so long in the refrigerator, they may be a lot easier for some to manage keeping on hand for quick snacks, meals, and salads.
For food safety reasons, the Home Canning Association has no recommended procedure for canning pickled eggs to make them entirely shelf-stable. This is due to the risk of botulism. At the same time, there are pickled eggs in the grocery store and farm stands that are just setting on the shelf in quart jars. If you find a recipe that is designed for home canning, proceed at your own risk.
Personally I am just going to keep mine in the refrigerator. It is recommended that you don’t allow pickled eggs to remain at a temperature above 40 F for more than a few hours. Of course, if it is really hot, you should refrigerate even more promptly.
I just used a standard quart mason jar and ring and lid. For more
leak resistance, you can purchase the solid caps for mason jars.
There is also no reason why you cannot clean and reuse pickle jars and lids. I have even seen people reuse the vinegar brine that their dill pickles comes in to make some pickled eggs. Once the pickles are all gone, they just threw some hard-boiled and peeled eggs into the brine and allowed them to pickle in the fridge. You could, of course, add some more spices.
I have also seen my Dad buy pickled beets and eat them and then use the brine for eggs. Alternatively, he would just use beet juice and then making the brine.
Check out this recipe for beet pickled eggs courtesy of Simply Recipes.
Beet pickled eggs with cardamom and anise
*Simmer the chopped beets in a cup of water, covered, until tender, 30-40 minutes, or used canned beets. Use the beet juice from the cooking water, or the juice from canned beets.
I thought the video above was interesting because it shows how people pickled eggs a long time ago. I suppose they just kept them in an icebox or the coolest place possible and hoped for the best. It is notable that they use malt vinegar for their eggs. That would give an interesting flavor but I have to say that it would be a bit expensive to do in modern times.
I think I would skip the dye made from insect shells though. The rest sounds good to me!
Duck eggs often have a rubbery texture so I am not sure how good
they would be pickled. Quail eggs might work ok but it would take a
lot of them to even fill a pint jar. If you know someone that has
picked quail eggs or have done it yourself, please share your
experience in the comments below.
While I have not tried this out myself, I plan on doing it soon.
To make deviled pickled eggs you just remove your eggs from the
brine and carefully cut them in half. Scoop out the yolks, and place
them in a bowl. Smash them with a fork or similar. Add mayonnaise and
other spices and condiments to the filling as desired. Spoon yolk
back into eggs that you have arranged on a plate and garnish with
additional spices such as black pepper or paprika as desired.
One of the challenges of farm fresh eggs is that they do not peel easily when boiled right away. When people switch from using mass-produced commercial eggs they often discover that they boil up some of the great fresh eggs they got from the farm down the road only to find that the shell sticks to them and they peel a lot of egg away.
The
reason for this is the store eggs are often much older. Farm eggs
will peel more easily too if you let them get some age on them. After
a week or two, the
pH of the egg changes and that allows for easier boiling and peeling.
I do have to say that I have got eggs at the store that were a national brand that was humanely raised and free-range that were fresh enough to not peel properly. Some of the egg freshness at the store really depends on your area. If you are really close to commercial egg farms, you might still have the problem and just want to buy eggs and let them sit in the fridge for a week or so.
The alternative is to add a few things to the water you boil your eggs in. This is a neat trick that works and helps lessen the chance of boiling up a whole dozen eggs that you have to be very careful with to even make egg salad with. It is just really time-consuming to try to carefully peel a ton of eggs that don’t want to peel and it is wasteful because you often wind up with less egg.
I
found this video after I boiled eggs my usual way. I add a few
splashes of vinegar to the water and that seems to help. It didn’t
work as well this time as it has for me in the past so I am going to
try out the process in the video.
This
fellow says to do the following:
1. Start out with an inch of hot water, not cold. Cold water gives it more time to adhere to the membrane.
2.
Use a steamer basket. Don’t actually boil the eggs.
3.
Steam for 13 minutes
4.
Cool down in a cold water bath for 15 minutes.
5.
Peel
While the process seems time-consuming, it is nothing compared to what it takes to try to peel something that doesn’t want to comply.
Do not adjust the vinegar to water ratio. While it may be tempting to just use straight vinegar or you may assume that straight vinegar might preserve the eggs better, do not use more vinegar than recommended. The result will be eggs that are far too acidic to eat. Right now eggs can be hard to find so you sure don’t want to waste any.
I had a few eggs that just wouldn’t peel when I was doing this article. Luckily just because an egg looks a little rough doesn’t mean that you cannot use it for something else. I suggest using any eggs that are pitted or tore up from your peeling attempts for egg salad or slice them up for topping salads. If they are a real mess and you have peeled a lot of them away you can also add them to dog or cat food to supplement their diet. It just depends on how frugal you are trying to be.
If pickled eggs turn out to be something you don’t like or if you want to explore other ways to preserve eggs, make sure to check out my article “6 Ways To Preserve Eggs”. There are many inexpensive and easy ways to make sure that you don’t waste any eggs and that you have eggs during the time of year when hens are not laying very much or at all.
Do you have any pickled egg recipes to share? How do you use your pickled eggs? Please share in the comments below!
Updated Apr 3, 2020
Samantha Biggers lives on a mountain in North Carolina with her husband, Matthew, in a house they built. They have a small steep slope vineyard, raise sheep, and grow gourmet mushrooms. Since 2017 she has been proud to write for Backdoor Survival.
I have fought like the devil to find the ‘best’ way to hardboil eggs. Steaming works best regardless of the freshness of the eggs. That and an immediate ice bath. We don’t keep ice cubes, so I use the ‘freezer packs’ that DH uses to keep his work lunches cold. I start with cold eggs and cold water, start timing once the water starts to boil, about 22 minutes. I have never pickled eggs, but maybe this tip can help someone!
Its not a “how to” unless you actually tell HOW TO.
You gave ingredients with no process. Do I put raw eggs in a jar and just cover them in the cold ingredients and stick them in the fridge?
Because they are eggs do I need to use the canning method, or a hot water bath
Come on, you know there a lot of VERY stupid people out there who are going to do the raw egg thing. I know how to pickle eggs. been doing it for years, you need to give the shelf stable version and the refrigerator version or you are going to make people sick. because you know they will figure “pickles are shelf stable so these must be too”. Be better.
I like black pepper, just not the red stuff. Turmic is good, I was wondering if adding small onions & fresh mushrooms would kick it up a notch. Maybe a slice of fresh home grown ginger or horseradish just so all twelve dozon would not taste the same.
I am growing a substance garden after 45 year as an organic gardener, thought I would try something new. Maybe leave a garden for the kids. It will be mostly fruit,berries,nut trees & perennial vegetables,poultry, with annuals to spice things up. Maybe gourds,honeybees & mushrooms, herbs & edible flower for the tea garden to fit in a fancy spots.
The best way I have found to get peelable hard boiled eggs is to use an Instant Pot. Only takes 5 minutes and the egg peel comes off in one piece everytime no matter the age of the egg. Of course this won’t work in a grid down situation.
I’m not sure why you’d want to go to the work of pickling eggs that will only last 4 months in the frig, unless you just like them that way. They can be preserved for 6 months unrefrigerated if you oil each egg with mineral oil or coconut oil or any other oil. I’ve used mineral oil and stored them for 6 months in a cool place.
The best way I’ve found to peel eggs is to chop them in half and then scoop out each half with a spoon that will fit the half-eggshell–usually a tablespoon. It’s fairly fast and doesn’t make a mess.
When I had chickens I preserved eggs for the winter by gently washing, leave the bloom on, and sanitizing in water slightly warmer than the egg with iodine, then allowed to air dry. Learned that from a hatchery owner. Then I coated the eggs with oil or lard and packed them in plain stock salt in plastic tubs and put in the celler. I had fresh eggs to use all winter.
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