Sure, pickled beets are good. In fact that's the only way I can convince Laura to eat a beet in the first place. But the best thing about making them is that you've completed 95% of the work toward making pickled eggs.
People who think plain old boiled eggs are bland and boring will change their minds in a hurry when they try these visually arresting eggs, dyed a rich reddish purple with their sweet and tangy taste.
Before you get started, obviously you will need to make a batch of pickled beets. So, if you haven't looked it over already, review the picked beets post briefly. If you need some quick help on making perfectly boiled eggs, feel free to take a quick look at my post on the subject.
Note that when boiling eggs for pickling you will want a fully done hard-boiled egg. Nothing is grosser than a chilled, pickled, runny, allegedly-boiled egg. For medium eggs, cook them at least 10 or 11 minutes, and add yet another minute or two more for large or jumbo eggs.
Now, here's the hard part: Peel the eggs and then drop them gently into the leftover pickled beet liquid. Once again, for God's sake, do not wear white for this part of the process!
You are now finished. Pretty challenging huh?
Again, you can use a plain old pasta jar (like I do) or you can use a more traditional Mason jar, whichever is most handy.
How to know how long to steep them:
After about 24 hours, the purple coloring will have only penetrated maybe an eighth to a quarter of an inch into the white of the egg. Of course the longer the eggs steep, the deeper the color goes into the egg, and the more the egg acquires the tangy pickled flavor. After four or five days you'l
l get to a critical mass where the eggs are "done"--for lack of a better word.And just as with pickled beets, these eggs will keep for a month or longer in the fridge.
Note that you can theoretically make pickled eggs using the pickled beets recipe--but with no beets. They'll actually taste about the same, but in my opinion it's the arresting color that makes these eggs such an amazing food.
1 comment:
I love pickled eggs but I must admit I have always been suspicious of any that don't need to be refrigerated and sit on the counter in direct sunlight. Czechs have jars of these picked eggs that sit unrefrigerated on the tops of their bars in the pub next to the beer tap. I have always steered clear.
There is, however, another jarred/pickled beer snack that I came to love over there called Utopence, which translates as "Drowned Men" - If you've ever been to a typical Czech pub you will know it's an appropriate nickname. They are skinless thick hotdogs pickled in vinegar with peppers and onions. I think you can find them in Polish delis here in the US. I highly recommend them as a means to further beer absorption.
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