I know we had a thread or two about pickled eggs last year, but I can not get the search to work today. Let me check my settlement cookbook and see if there is anything. I would probably use the brine from the pickled tomato recipe, but that has a lot of salt and not all that much vinegar. You definitely want high acid and high salt...maybe even high sugar, you just want to make sure nothing in the 'bad bacteria' class is not comfortable and cozy there.
I will post back after I go through all of my old cook books.
you can also try google. I imagine there is a liability to publishers now a days for things that have the potential of going horribly wrong. I wonder if an old fox fire book would have that?
Okay, in the Encyclopedic cookbook from1976 we have:
pickled eggs
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp mixed spices (I would assume they mean pickling spice)
2 cups cider vinegar
12-16 hard boiled eggs
add sugar, salt and spices to the vinegar -dilute 1/3 with water if too strong (I wouldn't do that)
simmer 8 minutes,strain and pour over the peeled eggs arranged in a quart jar seal and let stand 2 days before using
Umm...they did not say anything about canning or refrigerating....? And then what's up with those eggs that you sometimes find sitting on the COUNTER of these old stores in the country?
Okay, recipe number two from the American woman's cook book 1947
24 cloves
6 hard boiled eggs
2 cups vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp ground mustard
Shell eggs and stick four cloves into each egg
Heat the vinegar and when boiling add the salt pepper and mustard. Mix with a little cold vinegar.
Put the eggs in a glass fruit jar and pour the boiling liquid over them. Cover and let stand for two days before using them. Serve with broiled steak
Again, these do not sound like they were refrigerated or canned.
I am going to try canning eggs when the girls get going again. When a jar of pickles is empty I put boiled eggs into the brine and leave it in the refrigerator. Then I use those eggs for potato salad and egg salad.
I also plan on pressure canning some. I will let you know how horrendous the experiment turns out.