This is a recipe from my paternal grandmother; she was Pennsylvania-German so I’m assuming this is Penn-Dutch. It was passed on to me by my dad. I’m making them today in honor of Ostara, but my grandmother made them all the time and her three boys couldn’t get enough of them. That’s why her recipe calls for 12 eggs, but I only make 4-6 and then use the leftover beets to make a Greek Mediterranean-style salad with olives and cucumbers and feta cheese. My dad says the secret to this recipe is putting the hot eggs into the hot beet juice, that’s how they get so rosy-red. A couple drops of red food color works too. When you serve these eggs, slice them in half so that the golden yellow yolk is surrounded by the rosy red of the colored part, and it looks like a beautiful spring sunrise. My dad just pops them in his mouth though. Enjoy them either way.
ROSY PICKLED EGGS
4-6 large beets
1 cup vinegar
1 clove garlic1 med. bay leaf
2 t. pickling spices
1/2 t. salt
4 cups water
12 hard cooked eggs
1 small onion, sliced into rings
1 T. brown sugar (very important!)
Wash beets, remove tops and bottoms, peel and slice thinly. Cook with a small amount of water in a large saucepan until beets are tender. Add all other ingredients except eggs, leave on heat until juice is hot. Remove shells from the eggs. Add eggs to the saucepan, turn off heat, and allow to cool. Place all into large container, cover and refrigerate 3 to 4 days.
How pretty. I bet these would make a very bright and festive egg-salad sandwich.
I adore pickled eggs so this sounds just the recipe for me. Does T stand for teaspoon or tablespoon?
Sorry, Traveler, I meant to write those out: big T. stands for tablespoon and little t. for teaspoon. But all the seasonings are really just approximations for your own taste; when I’d ask my grandma “how much brown sugar” or whatever she’d say “oh, a handful” or “just a pinch”. Some measurements were “half an eggshell” or “until it looks good”!!!