I finally got up the courage or interest, to read about pickled eggs, and in reading about them, I suddenly had the idea and minor desire to try and make some pickled eggs at home.
I love eggs. I like the standard formats of scrambled and hard boiled, and over medium, and I’ve even made poached eggs and have microwaved them to my satisfaction. But the thought of “pickled eggs” has for many years, since my youth, has elicited an extreme aversion to trying to even taste one bite. Here is why.
As a boy growing up in Eastern North Carolina, I would travel about, tagging along with my mother, or favorite aunt (Aunt Sis) and going into stores as they either shopped, or window shopped, or even just stopped in to “touch base” with the store owner, or some long time friend, relative or acquaintance. There were several of these stores, perhaps even small enough to be called a shop, as this was before the Convenience Store became popular. These small stores might have all sorts of goods for sale, both food related, and household, or outdoor work related. And up near the checkout counter or cash register, there might be one or two large glass jars labeled, and two different food items would be floating, one type in one jar and the other type in the other jar. They weren’t mixed. And these items were floating in what I came to know as vinegar or brine. The items were “pickled pig’s feet,” and “pickled eggs.” For some reason I found the idea of fishing out either from their nasty looking jar, and eating them, was a repulsive thought.
I love pig’s feet, when I cook them at home. The process is simple, Get a large pot to place on the stove top, pour in enough water to cover all the meat, and add a little salt and pepper, and just a hint of Cider Vinegar to “sweeten their flavor” and after a very long cooking time, the scant meat and the vast amounts of cartilage break down, and release almost completely from the massive amounts of intertwined pig’s feet bones.
I will say that eating pig’s feet is an interesting process. Your fingers start to stick together. And now I think, this is probably why they can turn a horse into glue. But, I have almost completely stopped fixing pig’s feet because of the feeling I am left with after eating them. It may be the high fat content, or salt, but I feel awful, as if I have been drugged. Much like my body’s reaction to eating a doughnut. Just eating part of one, I almost immediately go into a sugar coma, which can last for several hours.
The other item that connoted gastric horrors were the pickled eggs. They were in a dark brine, or some in a brine colored by beet juice, giving the brine and the eggs a deep purplish color. But, it wasn’t the color of the eggs, it was the thought of all those people sticking their fingers and hands in this one jar to fish out an edible egg. And I know it was probably only the store owner that did the fishing, and he probably had a large spoon to complete the process. But I never had the desire.
I was watching a YouTube video about someone shopping at various grocery chains, and maybe it was Sam’s Club where as he was walking along he saw a case of these and just looked in wonder that these were for sale. And having tried them finally, I would wonder even more.
And now I have the first ever pickled hardboiled eggs sitting in a small glass jar in my kitchen, in a brine of Apple Cider Vinegar, water, beet juice with some mustard seeds, sweetener, a Bay leaf, one garlic clove and some peppercorns. According to one online suggestion, I should wait perhaps a week or more to let all the flavors meld before trying an egg. I have two eggs in the jar, so I may not wait a week to try the first. And, if I like the first pickled egg I try, I may not wait for a whole week.
Now, at 71 years old, never having ever tried a pickled egg, what if I find that like many other food items, I love the unique flavor of a hardboiled egg seasoned with a little vinegar and beet juice.
And, I like the flavor of beets. I got the beet juice for the pickled eggs from a jar of sliced beets. I poured out the rest of the beet juice, after adding some to the egg brine, and I dumped the sliced beets into a small Rubbermaid container. I then added a little Cider Vinegar, some Balsamic Vinegar and some sweetener, coconut sugar & Agave Nectar.
If I like the pickled eggs, then finding a use for the beet juice I once threw out, but now can repurpose would be fantastic. And that I quite often boil a couple of eggs to make egg salad, would make it easy for me to boil two eggs for immediate consumption, and two eggs for a later pickled egg treat.
NOTE [03/31/25]: I think I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but I didn’t like the pickled eggs. I wouldn’t make them or any variation of them again. They were pickled, but if I want something pickled, I’ll eat a pickle. Now, I do like the flavor of sweet bell peppers, sweet onion and tomatoes in a turmeric/vinegar brine. That would give the eggs a bright orange or yellow color, but I’m not sure I would like them with that flavor either. [end NOTE]
Bill Gibson, II 