When I was growing up there was an older gentleman who went to our church. He made the absolute BEST pickles ever! He would bring a few jars to church some Sunday’s and gift them to different families.
I remember feeling like getting those pickles was even better than winning the lottery 🤤🤣
At some point along the way he gave my mom his recipe, hers are really great too but you know how it is, no one ever makes it quite like the original person!
When I got married my mom passed on the recipe to me. Woohoo! Of course by that time Roland, the gentleman who originally made the pickles had passed away, so this was a special thing!
These pickles are dill pickles but with just the right amount of garlic and salt to be perfect. Best of all though the recipe is super versatile and can be used with many things without any tweaking!
We have done pickles if course, pickled beans, pickled eggs, pickled cauliflower I believe other veggies as well but those are the ones I remember doing and loving!
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All of this to lead into my project of last week.
Last week I was gifted a LOT of eggs, like 15 dozen 😲 these were added to the 14 dozen I had from finding an epic deal! Soooo pickled eggs was definitely a mandatory project! I have a few other projects happening with the egg bounty as well so that we can get maximum use of the eggs throughout the year rather than just eating eggs until we were all sick of them!
To me it is just seems foolish when something is in super abundance, to just over do it then no one wants to see that item again for a long time, but then months later we all wish we could have it but it’s out of season, over priced or just not what you really want coming from the store. 😒 Instead I look at abundance and try to think of all the ways we can enjoy the item or items now as well as all through the year until next years abundance! I also love to think of ways to use it that can also make life easier!
Since we are in a phase of in between… we didn’t get to plant a garden this year, nor do we have any livestock of our own so we aren’t meeting those natural abundance points that happen on a homestead but with eyes open and open mind it is available!
Alright, on to pickled egg making!!
I’ve never done large numbers of eggs so I wasnt really sure how many I could fit into 12 qt jars which was my initial goal to do. Eek!
I started by boiling 4 dozen eggs. I boiled for 20 minutes then immediately transferred the eggs to ice water, it took 3 transfers to get them nice and chilled so they would peel nicely!
Our youngest son helping by filling the pot with eggs to start boiling!
Next I had to peel them all this is definitely my least favorite part haha! Thankfully because I had quickly and fully cooled the eggs most of them peeled very very easy! Woohoo!
Now I went and put the spices and garlic into each of the jars so I wouldn’t need to think about it with the later batches of eggs. In each Quart I put 1 1/2 tsp Mustard seed, 2 tsp Dill well rounded and 1 very rounded Tbsp of minced garlic (or 1 1/2 cloves garlic sliced)
The fun begins, figuring out how many eggs to put in. I began dropping on 2 at a time, I put in 12 initially but was concerned that the eggs might get wiggled and pop above the surface of the brine so I decided to take out 2 and leave them with 10 per Quart.
For the brine I brought 3 cups each of both water AND white vinegar as well as 6 Tbsp of pickling salt to a boil. I immediately put the brine into each jar, wiped the rim and immediately put the lids on! I then flip the jar upside down for 15 minutes.
I hear the, huh do what? That last step I did not get from Roland or my mom, that came from an elderly woman I was talking to years ago. She came through the depression and canned pretty much everything her whole life! When she made soups(watery, not thick stews) and pickled eggs she would flip the jars, the boiling liquid would heat the seal helping it seal better(also show if there was a leak like from a chip that wasnt visible etc 😲 ) After 15 minutes, flip the jar upright, a few minutes later you’ll see and hear the center pop down.
This would not work for anything that isnt fully cooked, boiling and watery! This also is not a seal for long term(over a year) storage. I’ve never had 1 not seal right and hold as long as I needed BUT …. that’s for warning to not count on it for too long! You can also do a water bath if you prefer 🙂
From there, I pretty much just repeat the process 2 more times to get the other 8 jars finished!
If you’d like to try your hand at making these you can get what you need right here!
White vinegar – get this at a local grocery, it’s crazy online!
Extra lids (because life happens)
I’ve only had pickled eggs a few times in my life. It’s not something I normally think about eating! But this recipe sounds quite good, and I’d certainly try it if I ever had eggs to spare!
You definitely should! They are amazing, I can barely fight my family off of them until they are *almost* ready Haha. We opened a jar yesterday that is almost perfect 🙂