Pickled Eggs in Pickled Beet Juice

Pennsylvania Dutch pickled eggs are one of those simple kitchen magic tricks. Drop hard-boiled eggs into leftover pickled beet juice, wait two weeks, and pull out hot-pink eggs with a sweet-tart flavor that bar regulars across the Midwest have been demanding since Prohibition. The beet juice dyes the whites a stunning fuchsia, while the inside stays creamy yellow.

The pickling brine itself is a classic sweet-and-spiced beet pickle: equal parts vinegar, water, and sugar with cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. The spices marry into the brine over a two-month cure, which is why the eggs taste so much deeper than anything you can buy commercially.

The shortcut version skips the from-scratch beets entirely. Grab a large jar of pickled beets from the grocery, eat half the beets, drop in peeled hard-boiled eggs, and refrigerate for two weeks. Done.

Pro Tips

• Use small, young beets for the from-scratch version. Older beets have woody centers and don’t pickle as evenly.
• Leave 3 inches of beet greens and roots attached when boiling. Trimming too close lets the red color bleed into the cooking water instead of into the beet.
• Peel the hard-boiled eggs thoroughly. Any stuck shell prevents the pink color from penetrating evenly.
• Use eggs at least a week old for easier peeling. Fresh eggs are notoriously stubborn under the shell.
• Two weeks is the minimum for color penetration. Three to four weeks gives a deeper, more uniform pink and richer flavor.

Variations

• Spicy: add 4 to 6 whole peppercorns and 2 dried red chiles to each jar for a kick.
• Onion-pickled: drop a sliced red onion into the brine alongside the eggs for a pickled onion bonus.
• Quick brine: skip the from-scratch beets and use 2 tablespoons of canned pickled beet juice as the base for a fast version.