A lot of people don’t like pickled eggs. A lot of people do. A lot of people have never tried them.
I happen to like them. Mr. M loves them.
It’s been a long time since I have made pickled eggs. Easter time was usually the time when I made them. I have an abundance of eggs lately as the chickens are doing their job so we decided to try some recipes.
Mr. M had tried some that a pal’s wife had made which he really liked so we tried their recipe.
They used a whole jar of hot chili peppers. We did not want to make the eggs HOT so we opted to use 1/2 jar of hot chili peppers and a 1/2 jar of sweet banana peppers. We dumped those, with the juices, into a 1/2 gallon canning jar. To that we added 2 tablespoons of pickling spice, 1 cup of white wine vinegar, 1 1/2 cups of water, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of turmeric and 2 teaspoons of salt.
Mixed it up well and filled the jar up with hard boiled eggs.
The turmeric gave this mix a wonderful yellow color.
I prefer a purple beet pickled egg. I don’t know why but it is what my mom would always make so that was always my goto. And they are pretty.
In a half gallon canning jar in put in 1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 chopped onion, 6 cloves, about a cup of beet liquid from a can of beets or from cooking them yourself. I also added in some sliced beets (because I like picked beets). I mixed the contents up well and then filled the jar up with hard boiled eggs.
We were on a roll. We decided to try some more recipes. Again, we had an abundance of eggs so why not.
I found a recipe for a garlic egg.
This is a garlic and red pepper flake recipe. In a quart jar I put 2 tablespoons salt, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon garlic, 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes. Fill it up with hard boiled eggs and then fill to the brim with apple cider vinegar.
We decided to do a variation on this recipe and used my homemade pepper powder in place of the red pepper flakes. So same recipe as above, just substituting the red pepper flakes with a bit spicier homemade pepper powder.
Stored in the refrigerator for a few days to a week, and then the taste test.
The chili pepper egg. It was not hot. Not hot at all. Next time we will add in the whole jar of hot peppers and leave out the sweet. They are good. And the color is absolutely gorgeous. The longer the eggs stay in the liquid, the darker the yellow and the deeper into the egg the color gets. If you like to eat pickled peppers, those are very delicious as well. Will definitely make these again.
Next up are the beet eggs. I love the color. The purple is gorgeous. The same with these, the longer they are in the brine, the darker the color and deeper into the egg the purple gets. These are just a no brainer. Simple pickled eggs with beets. The beets are great to toss on a salad, as are the eggs.
Now the garlic eggs. The garlic peppered eggs were delicious. I really like them. Almost more than my beet eggs. The red pepper adds some great flavor. Although I did use fresh garlic, I think I could have used a bit more. There is no color in the brine so the whites didn’t turn. These were really good. Will absolutely make these again.
The final egg is just like the above except for the substitution of my homemade pepper powder in place of the red pepper flakes. My pepper powder is a combination of whatever peppers are left over in the garden that I dry and then grind up into a powder. Every year it will be different. I could have put more in these eggs and it would have given it a bit more heat and a bit more flavor. Same as the garlic. A little bit more would have been a bit better. But they have this subtle flavor that is not overpowering and is really good. I would like to experiment with the ingredients on this one and come up with different flavors. Who knows. Maybe more heat and garlic might be too much. I will have to try it out and see. These also didn’t have any color in the brine so the eggs remained white.
This was a fun experiment. The eggs are delicious. Good with an ice cold beer. As an appetizer at a barbecue. Great for slicing up into a salad. Or just as an extra condiment at meals.
There are lots of options on how to eat these. If you are adventurous, you could even make deviled eggs or egg salad sandwiches out of them. That would be interesting.
Have you ever made pickled eggs? Pick out a recipe and give it a try. You might be surprised by the flavors.