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October 23, 2005

In a pickle

Raising lots of chickens means lots of eggs. Lots of eggs means egg sales. But there are some eggs I don't sell: some are too small, some shells are not up to par, or eggs can be over 2 weeks old. So they pile up in the fridge. And pile. So what to do?
I like to pickle them. I hard boil all the extra eggs, in this case close to 200. Peeling them, while usually fun, gets to be a chore at about egg #50. The finished eggs go into 3 piles: perfect eggs for pickling, broken ones for egg salad, and then the ones who just won't come out of their shell. They get crushed up, shell and all, and fed back to the chickens.
Each quart jar holds about a dozen eggs. I made 2 different flavors. The lighter jars are the Sweet pickle Ball mixes. The amber jars are brown sugar, white sugar, mustard seed, celery seed, and turmeric. And vinegar of course! Bring the pickle juice mixture to a rolling boil and ladel in the jars alredy filled with eggs. The hot liquid creates enough of a vacuum that the jars don't ahve to go back in the water bath. The boiling water runs the risk of further cooking the eggs and turning them into rubbery chew toys.
A quick way to pickle your own eggs is to save your next jar of pickles after the last pickle is eaten. You now have a jar of juice! Boil up some eggs, peel them and throw them in there, and put the jar waaaay in the back of your fridge and forget about it for the next couple weeks. Once you find it again, your pickles will be ready to eat. They are good snacks or great to cut up for salads.

Posted by roosterh at October 23, 2005 6:12 PM

Comments

Hey, what a good idea!! I will try that! Thanks for the info!!

Posted by: Rachel at October 26, 2005 9:13 AM

Posted to Poultry

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