Easter Egg to Pickled Egg

Each year at Easter I would color eggs with my grandmother. These were the eggs used in the Easter baskets and the Easter egg hunt. After Easter was over my grandmother would make what we called Pink Eggs. This was a form of pickled eggs that we would eat after the Easter celebrations as a way of using up and not wasting the egss we colored. When I researched this on the Internet I found that my recipe was actually an old Pennsylvania Dutch recipe. The name the Dutch use for it is simply Red Beet Eggs. This recipe is actually fairly basic and it involves the use of beets and it is really simple. The following is my grandmother's recipe.

Pink Eggs

Ingredients:

12 Eggs (at least)

4 - 5 cans of Pickled Beets

1 Bermuda onion (Purple)

12 - 15 Whole Allspice

5 - 6 Whole Cloves

8 - 10 Peppercorns

¼ Cup of Apple Cider Vinegar

¼ Cup of Sugar

Dash of Kosher or Sea Salt

Start with a gallon sized glass jar or a similar glass or crockery container. Cut up the Bermuda onion into thin slices and throw it into the jar. Next you open 2 jars of beets and throw them into the jar, juice and all. Next throw in 9 of your eggs. Now throw in your vinegar, half of your Allspice and half of your cloves. Open the last 2 cans of pickled beets and throw them into the jar with the rest of your ingredients plus the rest of the eggs..

Put this in the refrigerator and let them sit for at least 24 hours. Tilt the jar or container to mix up the ingredients before you store in the fridge. Rotate jar a few times in the next 24 hours in order to mix up spices. These eggs are great in salads or just buy themselves as a snack. I never really like beets as a kid until I ate these and they are really good. I like the flavor that the beet juice gives the onions that are in the pickled beet juice and they are good on salads or even on sandwiches. This is a wonderful way to get kids and even adults to eat beets with the bright pink eggs this recipe makes.

Now if beets just are not your cup of tea, you might want to try other pickled egg recipes. They serve these in pubs as a snack and you can make them at home and they will be much tastier. In making these types of pickeled eggs the juice is a little different than the Pink Eggs. Remember to use half water and half apple cidar vinegar. You can change the type of vinegar but it will change the taste. Apple cider vinegar is standard for pickled eggs. Again, a gallon sized glass jar is best because any other container, like plastic, will be stained by the beet juice. You want a glass jar or container that will hold at least a dozen eggs.

Once you have your water and vinegar mixture you can add the following:

peppercorns
garlic cloves
¼ cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
*optional small red chili peppers

Store these in a jar in the fridge and you should have some pickled eggs to eat as a snack. You can fiddle with the recipe to get the pickling right but the basic pickle juice starts with the half water, half vinegar combination. Any herb can be added the vinegar to pickle a variety of things. You can pickle carrots, cauliflower, celery, garlic, chilis, zuccini, green beans, and onions. I am sure there must be another vegetable that I am forgetting but use your imagination and give pickeled eggs and other vegetables a try, and try Pink Eggs after Easter.