This easy old fashioned pickled eggs recipe is quick to make and requires no canning. These tangy eggs are quick-pickled and placed in the refrigerator until you are ready to enjoy them for a quick snack.
Since they are refrigerated you can add any number of additional simple ingredients to customize the flavor without worrying about compromising canning safely. Best of all, since we skip the canning process, no special equipment is needed!
What are they?
Pickled eggs are a great healthy snack or appetizer, just ask anyone enjoying the historically popular bar pickled eggs at most taverns. Plus they are an incredible way to jazz up the flavor of any egg salad.
My old fashioned pickled eggs recipe strictly uses basic ingredients my grandma would have on hand from her garden. The flavor of the brine may be simple, but these hard-boiled eggs still pack a tangy vinegar punch, with just enough sweetness to take the edge off.
Ingredients Needed
- Hard boiled eggs
- White vinegar - Apple cider vinegar pickled eggs are a great substitute to bring the flavor in a different direction. You could even substitute pickle juice.
- White sugar - Sugar mellows out the harsh acidity of the vinegar.
- Salt - Canning salt is best because it doesn't have iodine in it that can discolor the brine.
- Garlic - Use fresh garlic cloves
- Bay leaf - If you make two mason jars I would use two bay leaves to ensure each jar gets one.
- Yellow onion - A sweet onion would be equally as good.
You can customize this easy recipe with some pretty easy variations. Try adding your favorite pickling spices, herbs like fresh dill, or additional vegetables like a spicy chili pepper. Beet juice can even be added to make tantalizing red beet eggs.
How to hard boil eggs
You can buy hard-boiled eggs at grocery stores, but most people make their own hard-boiled eggs because it is much cheaper and really easy. To make perfect hard-boiled eggs begin by adding a single layer of eggs to a large pot filled with enough water to cover the eggs by one inch.
Tip: I recommend salting the water and adding a splash of vinegar to help prevent the shells from cracking while boiling.
Cover your pot of eggs with a lid and bring the cold water to a boil. As soon as it is boiling shut off the heat, but leave the lid on to help the eggs cook. Let the pot sit for 14 minutes and your eggs will be perfectly hard-boiled.
Remove the boiled eggs from your pot with a slotted spoon and place eggs in a large bowl of ice water to cool them down quickly. This also makes them easier to peel. You are now ready to turn them into the best pickled eggs ever!
Tip: Fresh eggs often don't peel as well. I like hard boiling eggs that have sat in my refrigerator for a week if possible. Check out my hard boiled eggs tutorial for more helpful hints.
How to pickle eggs
Begin making this easy classic pickled eggs recipe by adding the vinegar, water, sugar, salt, bay leaf, and garlic to a medium saucepan set over high heat. Bring your saucepan to a simmer and let cook for approximately ten minutes, or until the sugar and salt have dissolved.
The brine should now be cooled so it doesn't overcook your boiled eggs, which turns the yolk into an unappetizing green color. Cooling the brine in the refrigerator is recommended.
Once the brine has cooled, peel eggs and place them into a mason jar along with slices of raw onion. Then pour in the pickling brine to fill the glass jar completely.
How to store them
This is a quick pickled eggs recipe, not a canning recipe. Therefore you need to keep your pickled eggs in the refrigerator. This recipe has not been tested for long-term room temperature storage like a traditional canning recipe would be. However, these eggs will keep for months in your refrigerator.
Old Fashioned Pickled Eggs
Equipment
Ingredients
- 12 hard boiled eggs
- 3 cups white vinegar
- 1 cup water
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ small yellow onion sliced
Instructions
- Add vinegar, water, sugar, salt, garlic, and bay leaf to a medium saucepan set over high heat. Stir together and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes or until the sugar and salt has completely dissolved.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat and let cool. The brine can be placed in the refrigerator to cool faster.
- Crack and peel your hard boiled eggs and discard the shells.
- Add the peeled eggs to a quart jar intermingled with the raw onion slices.
- Pour the cooled brine into the jar, ensure the garlic cloves and bay leaf make it into the jar.
- Cover jar with the lid and seal it shut, then place it in the refrigerator for at least one week prior to enjoying.
Castle & Skeeter
My fiance' & I will be making these soon...
BertaAnne
Hello, I have been making pickled eggs for years. This recipe is new to me. I have always made with red wine vinegar, onion, salt and a few drops of water, because, that is how my Mom made them. The only change I made to this recipe, left out the sugar.Just NO! I very much enjoyed this recipe, the bay leaf is interesting. I will make this again, for my Hollidaze buffet, and, share the recipe. Thank You!! Happy&Healthy Hollidaze!raf
Joycelyn
Only way to have a great tasting pickled egg is to heat up, simmer and strain the brine that was left in the jar of your favourite pickles ( with the exception of sweet pickle brines that need to be discarded) that you purchased at an ethnic grocery store where one can buy small and large jars of assorted pickles or at a Kosher deli or non Kosher deli for that matter that always serves Kosher pickle spears with their sandwiches and sells whole Kosher Dill pickles in restaurant sized jars that one can take home.
Leftover beet brine is a nice change too unless it's a sweet beet brine which would ruin the "pickling" of the eggs. You'd not want to make a lot of beet brined pickled eggs though as pickled beets, aka beet brined eggs would be an acquired taste.
All other ideas for making pickled eggs are less than stellar as the taste is either too sweet because of the addition of sugar/s (which most pickle brines never call for unless one is making sweet B&B pickles or sweet relish) or result in the homemade pickled eggs so distasteful at first bite, it will instantly turns one off from ever wanting to eat a pickled egg again!
BertaAnne
Hello, as I too am a lover of pickles, I too have tried reusing pickle brine, with some good results, some not so. A I am always on the look out for new recipes I will give the eggs a try. Thanx for sharing!!raf