It’s almost Easter, the days are getting longer and my hens, ducks, geese and quail are busy again laying lots of eggs after a slow winter.  I’m busy too, making pickled eggs for the holidays which is an Easter tradition in my family.

 METHOD

To make the pickling brine I combine our red wine vinegar with an equal amount of water, a pinch of salt, a few black pepper corns, a bay leaf, a clove and a few mustard seeds.  Sometimes I also add spoonful of honey to the vinegar if it needs further taming.  I bring this to a boil and then let the liquid cool before pouring  it over shelled hard boiled eggs which I’ve loosely packed in a Mason jar.   The eggs are ready to eat in 24 hours and are best consumed within 2 or 3 days.   If you need advice on how to boil the perfect egg have a look at this recent post on Food 52.

Pickled egg with sun dried tomato and sea salt

I store pickled eggs in the refrigerator.   You can experiment with your own brine, adding different herbs and spices and changing the ratio of water to vinegar to suit your taste.

HINT

Quail eggs are my favourite eggs to pickle but they are quite tricky to peel.  Here’s the secret to sucess, soak hard boiled quail eggs in vinegar.  Their shells will begin to soften and disintegrate,  after an hour or so they will slip right off.