Pickled Eggs

[Christopher Weeks]

They don't seem to be getting any better. Any thoughts?

[Vickence]

I thought of trying these for Thanksgiving. Our family loves redbeet eggs! My mom's always were res through the whites after about 5-7 days in the vinegar/sugar/water/redbeets combo. I would have thought your eggs should have been red through after 8 days like that. I don't know why they wouldn't be. I always figured when I got redbeet eggs at a restaurant that weren't red through the whites that they just didn't soak them long enough...huh.

I'm starting beets later today. I will try eggs later and let you know (if I remember to come back and post!!)

[Tibor]

Well, promptly after reading these pickled egg posts (Nov 3rd) ,I hard boiled 6 eggs and dropped them into fresh kraut juice.I left them on the counter for 2 days in a fido jar and then into the fridge. I ate the first after a week and it was good but not thru to the yoke. I just ate the last one after 5 weeks and it was very good.
Then on Nov 15th I made a second batch of eggs. I used leftover pickle juice that I had used to pickle beets for 5 weeks on my counter (those beets were good). I did that because it would be obvious when the pickling went thru to the yolk. I left the eggs in this juice on the counter for 2 days also and then into the fridge. I just tried the first one today. The red juice had permeated all the way thru. The yoke color was pretty cool. It was tasty but not very salty. I think that having used the juice from making pickles twice had depleted a lot of the sodium .Next batch If I use twice used juice I plan on adding more salt and spices. I'm a bit hesitant to leave eggs in juice on the counter too long. Anyway...eggs are perfectly well preserved in kraut or pickle juice and a new ferment for me. I love new ideas from keeping up on this forum!

[CulturedCascadian]

I am about to embark on this experiment and will post back. However, preliminarily, I will share this. I come from Northeastern Pennsylvania and red pickled eggs have been a staple snack food there for generations, as I'm sure they have been in many other places. Growing up, we simply bought them at the local mom-and-pop grocery stores. Now that I live in the Pacific Northwest and can no longer obtain them commercially, I've been making my own for years now by just using a thinly sliced red onion, a few cans of pickled beets with the juice as the brining liquid, and the hard boiled eggs, plus a healthy infusion of pickling spice infused in a small amount of boiling water. Put them down in the fridge for a few days (four seems to be optimal) and you're good to go.

However, upon researching a bit more thoroughly, beet kvass seems like it might have been the original brine for this food, so this is going to be my experiment.

My intention is to make a really good and sour kvass with copious garlic, pickling spice, onion and probably some red cabbage to help the ferment along -- I'm thinking a good week under the brine at room temp -- and then use that to bring the eggs.

That said, I personally would not dream of trying to ferment the eggs themselves in the brine, because the eggs really do nothing but slowly absorb the liquid over a course of a few days to obtain their new flavor, color and texture. Best done in the fridge, I'm thinking. Just my guess.