Hard boil about 18 eggs. I like extra large, just ‘cause I’m greedy. Anything you buy at a grocer will be old enough, but fresh eggs need to keep a week or they won’t peel.
Put the eggs into a heavy saucepan first and then fill to over them with water. Put the pan on a med high heat and SLOWY heat them to boiling point. Turn the heat down enough so they just simmer along and cook 10 minutes. (If you boil them fast, they will crack and all spooch out.) Take them off the burner, pour off the hot water and dunk them into a bowl filled with ice water so they cool fast. Peel them. (See yesterday’s post on how to peel hard cooked eggs.)
In a medium saucepan, make your brine. This is my brine:
-1 cup cider vinegar.
-1 clove garlic.
-a couple of bay leaves,
-2 tsp mixed pickling spice.
-1/2 tsp pickling or kosher salt.
-2 tbsp brown sugar.
Lots of folks use white vinegar or wine vinegar. I like the taste of the apple cider vinegar. More old fashioned, I guess. What you’re looking for is the acid. The salt and acid is what preserves the eggs. The spices are to your taste. I like the robust combination of flavour found in plain old pickling spice, but I like to add more whole cloves. We like things sweet and the brown sugar seems to bring out the savory of the spices. You can add it or not.
Bring the brine to a boil and dump in your peeled, hard boiled eggs, careful not to splash. Turn the burner off and remove from the stove and let the pot cool in it’s own time. I think the eggs absorb better.
Put the whole caboodle into a jar or zip lock baggie or something airtight and store in the frig for a few days until the flavour is where you want it. We can never leave them a week before they’re all gone!
