Pub-style Pink Pickled Eggs Recipe

This week many people are taking that ancient fertility symbol, the egg, and giving it playful colors. I joined in, but I wasn’t using artificial dyes to color the shells. These magenta-bright, already peeled pickled eggs are an Irish pub tradition that get their festive hue naturally from beets. The brine can be kept simple and mildly salty, or it can be spiced with black peppercorns and tarragon.

Naturally Pink Pickled Eggs

This recipe is an updated version of Irish-style Pickled Eggs from my book Pickling Everything

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled

12 ounces cider vinegar

5 ounces water

½ large, raw beet scrubbed clean and cut into ½-inch thick slices

1 tablespoon kosher, sea, or other non-iodized medium grain salt

1 tablespoon sugar (I used monk fruit this time because I’m steering away from sugar)

4 or 5 whole black peppercorns (optional)

1 small sprig fresh tarragon (optional)

Instructions:

1. Peel the eggs and pack them into a clean glass jar. Tuck in the tarragon sprig, if using.
2. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a small non-reactive pot (no aluminum, copper, or cast iron) and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the salt and sugar.
3. Remove the beet slices from the hot liquid. Tuck them in among the eggs. Pour the vinegar mixture over the eggs. They should be completely sub- merged in the liquid.
4. Cover and refrigerate. It takes the eggs a while to pick up the pink color from the beets, so wait at least 1 week before serving. At first the whites will be pink and the yolks still yellow-orange. Left in the liquid longer, the yolks will also turn pink.

The pickled eggs will keep, refrigerated, for at least three months. Put them out on the bar at your favorite pub and they may not last that long.