Old Time Pickled Eggs

Here is something that I grew up with and I bet a lot of you from the South did as well. They always were a fixture in the little grocery store that us kids used to trek to with our wagons full of found bottles. There was always that big old jar of pickled eggs and almost always there were also jars of pickled pigs feet, pickled sausages and another of big jar of sour pickles. While the money we earned from collecting bottles along the road more often than not went to ice cream, candy and soda there were also many times it went for a pickled egg or a pickled sausage. It is not unusual to still see these jars of pickled goods in country stores around the south.

My mother and grandmother both made pickled eggs at home but both were partial to pickling them with beets to make them nice and red. I love those too but I am especially partial to just the plain old pickled egg. They are easy to make but the only bad thing it takes about four long weeks before they are ready to eat.

Anyhow, here you go. The picture above are the ones I made this morning...can't wait until July.

You'll need:
A dozen hard cooked large eggs peeled ( I am assuming here that everyone knows how to properly hard cook an egg. Take the eggs pierce the (round end where the air bubble is) with a pin. Put the eggs in a pan and cover with tap water. Put the pan on the stove and bring to a boil then turn the heat off and cover the eggs and let them sit in the hat water for 13 minutes. Rinse them for a bit in cool running water then tap them to just barely crack the shell and put them in a bowl of ice water for 15 minutes before you try and peel them.)

2 1/4 cups apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon of kosher salt
2 teaspoons pickling spice
3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional but I like my eggs a little spicy)
6 cloves of garlic peeled and halved
1 quart glass jar with lid

Heat all of the ingredients in a sauce pan until it boils. Pour this mixture over the eggs in the jar making sure the eggs are covered and then refrigerate for 4 weeks before serving. These will last in the fridge for a couple of months thereafter but mine are usually gone in a couple of weeks. Technically the acidity would keep these eggs from spoiling at room temperature but I like the idea of keeping them cool.