How long until pickled eggs are pickled?

[Banana Brain]

I put a shelled hard-boiled egg in the pickle brine this morning. How long until it's a picked hard-boiled egg?

 

[Michael in FtW]

Everything I have ever read (the eggs are stored in the refrigerator during the pickling process) is anywhere from 2-3 days up to 3 weeks.

 

[Diane1415]

Plan on at LEAST 1 month

 

[Banana Brain]

One of you must be right...
*googles*
Looks like three days from the first thing I read. I'm not gonna wait a month to eat that thing anyways, I keep wanting to know what its like every time I open the fridge. Since I've never had picked eggs.

 

[Michael in FtW]

"Good things come to those who wait."

In the case of pickled anything (including eggs), they are even better if you wait a little longer!

The taste of a 3-day pickled egg will give you an idea of the potential flavor of one left to mature for 3-weeks. In your next experiment - try pickling 4 eggs - taste one after 3 days, and then one after 7, 14, and 21 days.

 

[Diane1415]

You have to give it time for the vinegar to penetrate to the middle of all that concentrated protein.

I tried a dill pickle after only one week. it was great on the outside but the middle was still raw cucumber.

 

[buckytom]

when they get pulled over by a cop and begin to repeat the alphabet, a,b,c,d,e,g,g,...

try something neat and add a little beet juice to the pickling brine. the eggs will turn out some interesting colors of pink to purple, depending on how much you add. sliced, they will have a red ring, but still be whitish on the inside to the yolk, and make a nice ppresentation on a plate.

 

[Corinne]

try something neat and add a little beet juice to the pickling brine. the eggs will turn out some interesting colors of pink to purple, depending on how much you add. sliced, they will have a red ring, but still be whitish on the inside to the yolk, and make a nice ppresentation on a plate.

Red Beet Eggs are popular in Lancaster, PA. I made them up here & they just seemed to frighten these New Englanders! The color really threw them off, I guess!

 

[swampy]

I let them go 4-5 days and it ought to be longer but the will power just isn't there.

 

[Robt]

I tried to remember what Mom used to pickle all those Easter eggs left over with 6 of us kids and couldn't; so I went searching. I still haven't a clear answer but I found this site on preserving. http://www.recipecottage.com/preserving-meats/


It appears that most consider pickling to be brine with a strong acid component, you would call them done when they met your taste. Mom kept hers in the reefer until they were gone - not long I assure you.

Good memories, Good luck.

 

[purrfectlydevine]

Red Beet Eggs are popular in Lancaster, PA. I made them up here & they just seemed to frighten these New Englanders! The color really threw them off, I guess!

They are just as popular in York county, PA. You can even buy them in grocery store delis if you are willing to pay a ridiculous price. BTW, the color is very pretty.

 

[biev]

I can never wait when I make pickled eggs, they are gone the next day

 

[Robt]

I have to admit that this subject got me wondering what is the right way to pickle eggs. I haven't found out every thing yet but the following is the best and most definitive I have found:

On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee { 2nd ed. 2004}

pg116- "Common pickled eggs are made by first boiling the eggs and then immersing them in a solution of vinegar, salt, spices,and ofter a coloring like beet juice, for 1 to 3 weks. Over that time the vinegar's acetic acid disolves much of the shells calicum carbonate, penitrates the egg and lowers pH sufficiently to prevent the growth of spoilage microbes. [The vinegar in in Easter egg dyes etches the shell surface and helps the dye penetrate.] Pickled eggs will keep for a year or more without refrigeration.
Pickled eggs can be eaten shell--or its remains-- and all. In addition to being tart, they are firmer than freshly boiled eggs; the white is sometimes described as rubbery. A more tender consistency can be obtained by including ample salt in the pickling liquid and by having the liquid at a boil when the eggs are immeresed.Though the eggs won't spoil at room temperature, they will suffer less from swollen yolks and split whites ( which result when the egg absorbs the pickling liquid too rapidly) if stored in cold."

I once had a neighbor who raised a type of chinese quail for their eggs which she pickled. She never peeled these tiny goodies but waited for the shell to evaporate. God they were great with her husbands home-made beer.

edit: typos 5/30