Pickled Eggs & Beets

I love pickled beets. And I love hard-boiled eggs. So when a friend mentioned pickled eggs and beets, I knew I had to find a recipe and make them.

We are having our annual Family Fun Day in a week and these will look so pretty in dishes on the buffet table!

How to Hard Boil a Perfect Egg

This morning I hard-boiled 24 eggs. Please let me share the secret of perfect hard-boiled eggs with you. When you use this method your eggs will turn out perfectly - with beautiful yellow centres (not grey which means they were overcooked) and whites that are soft and tender yet cooked (and not rubbery!)

Here's all you do - put your eggs into a pan of cold water. Put a lid on and bring the water to a boil. As soon as the water starts to boil, turn the pan OFF and put the lid back on. Leave the eggs for exactly 10 minutes. Rinse under cold water, remove from hot pan and put in a bowl and then into the fridge.  Let them cool off and when you peel them you will have perfect eggs.

So back to my pickled eggs and beets. I hardboiled 24 eggs using the method above. While they were cooking and then cooling in the refrigerator, I took 2 jars of pickled beets and drained them. Reserve the juice and place in a medium size saucepan.  Put the beets (slices or whole beets, it doesn't matter which) into a small bowl.

Peel and slice one onion for every 6-8 eggs and put the onion slices into the bowl with the beets. Now slice 2 cloves of garlic for every 6-8 eggs and put in with the reserved beet juice. To the beet juice you are going to add (for 24 eggs) 3 cups of cider vinegar, 1 1/3 cups of white sugar, 4 bay leaves and a small bit of salt and pepper

Bring the vinegar-beet juice mixture to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes. By now your eggs are ready to peel. If you crack the eggs at the larger end (not the pointed end) they are slightly easier to peel. If you are lucky enough to get under that little membrane between the egg white and the hard shell, the shell will come off much easier.

Beets, onions and eggs

Sometimes if you run the egg under cold water as you are peeling it, you can get the shell off easier. This is one job I hate doing! Sometimes I get lucky and huge chunks of shell come off - heaven! Other times it shatters into a zillion little jagged pieces, all of them stuck like glue to that darn membrane!

Once the beet juice mixture has simmered for 10 minutes, you can start layering your hard-boiled eggs and sliced onions and beets into sterilized Mason Jars. I used 1 Litre jars and put 6 eggs in each. I wished afterwards that I had layered starting with beets then onions then eggs then beets and onions but I didn't. I just put in the eggs, then the beets then the onions.

Beet juice, vinegar & sugar mix

Once you have these items in the jars, pour the beet juice mixture over top, then put on the lids. You can now either put these jars straight into the fridge to eat within 4 months, or you can give them a hot water bath. They should last longer with the hot water bath but I'm still keeping mine in the fridge.

Let them sit at least 3 or 4 days before you eat them. I'm going to slice mine in half and arrange on platters for my family. The longer the eggs sit in the beet juice the darker red they will turn.

 Layering the eggs, beets and onions in sterilized Mason Jars

 Pouring the beet juice mixture into the jars

Jars are sealed and ready for refrigeration or a 10 minute hot water bath

Finished product. Image from SimplyRecipes because mine aren't ready yet