How to Make Old Fashioned Pickled Eggs

Pickled eggs are one of those foods that I avoided for many years. Even when our chickens first started producing an abundance of eggs, the idea of brined and salty eggs was simply unappealing. Granted, I never actually tried a pickled egg but I had already made up my mind.

Fast forward a few years and I had a pickled egg on a salad somewhere and voila – I was sold. I’ve now been making old fashioned pickled eggs off and on any time we have a few extra eggs sitting around the house. This is usually in the spring when our chickens start laying eggs again after the winter and I love to add some coloring to my pickled eggs to make them fun, especially around Easter.

Below I’ll share exactly how I make my own old fashioned pickled eggs as well as some alternative suggestions to adjust the recipe to your taste.

and you can easily find more recipes for pickled foods on the Backyard Farming Connection.

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Contents

Ingredients and Equipment for Making Old Fashioned Pickled Eggs

One of the best things about making pickled eggs is how easy they are to make. You just need a few ingredients and supplies. Below is the ingredients you need to make the pickled eggs in different colors. If you prefer white pickled eggs, simply skip the radishes and turmeric!

Ingredients:

  • Vinegar – you can use Apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
  • Water
  • Hard Boiled Eggs – I like to use my farm raised eggs as their flavor is better
  • Sugar – It balances the acidity of the vinegar
  • Salt – For savory, salty flavor
  • Beets – this adds the lovely pink color to your pickled eggs
  • Turmeric – this adds the yellow color for the eggs

This simple combination makes simple, attractive and easy pickled eggs, but there are many ways to spice up this recipe and you can easily add pepper, mustard seeds or other spices.

Find the complete measurements in the recipe below.

Equipment:

  • Saucepan
  • Jar (I used 2 medium sized mason jars that fit 4-5 eggs, but you can also use one larger jar for easy storage in your fridge)
Ingredients for Making Pickled Eggs
Ingredients for Making Old Fashioned Pickled Eggs

The Pickling Process

To make pickled eggs, you will first need to boil your eggs, then make your brine and finally chill your pickled eggs and give them time to pickle. Below you can see the exact steps to make your eggs!

Step 1: Boil Your Eggs

The first thing you need is hard boiled eggs. If you’ve ever boiled eggs only to have them become difficult or impossible to peel, you will know how frustering it can be. There is so much information (much of it wrong) on how to get easy to peel eggs. Here is how we boil our eggs.

Start with eggs that aren’t totally fresh. This sounds funny and some people don’t aggree, but I like to use eggs that are at least a few days old. It isn’t a sure bet, but it does seem to help a bit.

Bring your water to a boil and add your eggs directly to the hot water. This seems to work better than starting with your eggs in the cold water and bringing it to a boil. Lower the temperature until you get a gentle simmer and cook the eggs for 12 minutes.

As soon as they are done cooking, put your eggs in a cold egg bath for at least 5 minutes. Drop each egg once of twice on the counter and you will find your eggs easy to peel! Even with this method, once is a while we’ll have an egg that still doesn’t peel well but this is the best method we’ve found over the years.

pickled eggs recipe - eggs in a jar
Eggs for Pickling

Step 2: Prepare your Brine

In a small saucepan, combine your water, vinegar, sugar and salt. Heat the mixture and stir a few times until the salt and sugar completely dissvolve.

If you want to add color to your brine, you can cut up and cook a beet in your saucepan. The longer you cook the beet, the darker your eggs will be. You can also make yellow eggs by adding a pinch of turmeric. For this recipe I wanted both colors, so I split the brine and cooked half with the beets and added turmeric to the other half.

If you are using beets, you will need to strain your brine to remove the pieces of beets. These are now a bit salty and you can serve the beets in a salad.

Let your brine cool a little before pouring it over the eggs.

Step 3: Pour your Brine on Your Eggs and Chill

Start by putting your eggs into a jar. Pour the brine over the eggs. The brine should completely cover the eggs. If you find that you don’t have enough brine, you can quickly make a bit more but make sure the eggs are covered.

Place your pickled eggs in the fridge to cool. Your eggs will need to chill overnight and can be eaten for up to a week. The longer the brine has to penetrate the eggs, the darker the color and the stronger the flavor. I prefer to eat them after a few days.

Old Fashioned Pickled Eggs
Old Fashioned Pickled Eggs

Storing and Serving Old Fashioned Pickled Eggs

In general I like to eat pickled eggs anytime I would eat a hardboiled eggs. They are delicious as a simple snack or served in a salad. You can also use them for breakfast served alongside toast made into egg salad.

You should use your pickled eggs with a week so we prefer to make a small batch and remake more the next week.

Variations and Tips

There are many different ways you can adjust this recipe. A few of our favorite variations include:

  • Classic vinegar-based pickling with spices like mustard seeds.
  • Sweet pickled eggs with sugar, cloves, and cinnamon.
  • Spicy pickled eggs with chili peppers or hot sauce.
  • Tangy pickled eggs with apple cider vinegar and dill.
  • Asian-inspired pickled eggs with soy sauce and ginger.

Old Fashioned Pickled Eggs Recipe

Old Fashioned Pickled Eggs

Make these simple pickled eggs for colorful spring eggs.

Equipment

  • Saucepan
  • Jars

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups water
  • 1 medium red beet peeled and sliced
  • 1 cup apple cider or white vinegar
  • cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt
  • 6-8 hard boiled eggs peeled
  • pinch of turmeric for yellow eggs
  • 1 medium red beet peeled and sliced for red eggs

Instructions
 

  • Hard Boil your eggs. Drop your eggs into boiling water for 12 minutes. Transfer to a very cold or ice bath for 5 minutes and peel your eggs.
  • Create your brine. Combine water, vinegar, salt and sugar. Heat until dissolved. Split your bring in half and add turmeric to one batch and continue boiling the other half with your beet. Cook for about 10 minutes or until the brine is your prefered color. Let your bring cool.
  • Put your eggs into 2 mason jars. Pour brine over the eggs completely covering your eggs. Put your jars in the fridge. Your eggs will be ready to eat and pickled in 24 hours. Store in the fridge for up to a week.
How to Make Old Fashioned Pickled Eggs

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