Spicy Bread and Butter Pickled Eggs Canning Recipe
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If you have a bunch of eggs coming from the coop, I always tell folks to give pickled eggs a chance. I know nowadays everyone seems to be obsessed with lime water preserving Pickling them is my favorite way to preserve tons of eggs in a delicious way that is shelf stable at room temperature AND an easy protein and healthy snack.
I always appreciate of having them on the shelves for long term storage when we don’t have power or during the busy, hot days where we need some protein and are hungry, but a hot meal sounds terrible. These spicy bread and butter pickled eggs always hit the spot. You have a bit of sweetness with a nice spicy kick from jalapenos along with the vinegar pucker and warm spices to really give you some interest past a plain boiled egg. If you like bread and butter pickles, I bet you’ll like these pickled eggs.
Rebel Canning
If you’re new to canning, know that canning hard boiled eggs at home is rebel canning. You know, because you can this canned product in the store and they can most definitely make it safer than you can. (FACEPALM). Now. Before someone goes all BoTuLiSm on me.. let’s critically through this. This recipe is a jar of eggs packed with a liquid that is mostly vinegar. Vinegar is FAR TOO ACIDIC for botulism to thrive. So, that’s not the reason we aren’t “allowed” to can them.
The very likely reason is that canned pickled eggs get a slight rubbery texture to them that can be undesirable to some. For us, we don’t mind it and you kind of get used to it, but the flavor is so darn good you can overlook it. Plus, somedays it’s just a ‘jam some protein down the yap and go’ kinda day. And if you’ve never had those days, you’re not a farmer. I have found that the store bought canned pickled eggs have the same texture so their equipment isn’t superior to mine, they can just can a whole bunch more at one time than I can and they have a conveyor belt. I kinda wish I had a conveyor belt from my kitchen to the pantry to put my jars away for me…..
IF you are not comfortable with this recipe, you don’t have to can them. You can fill a big gallon or half gallon jar with this recipe and store it in the refrigerator with a lid just like refrigerator pickles. They keep FOREVER. I’m talking at least a year, but I bet longer.
Other Canned Pickled Egg Recipes
Best Way to Make Hard Boiled Eggs
If you have chickens and are hard boiling eggs, you’ll know that everyone has an opinion on how to hard cook them and make them peel easy. I’ve seen things from adding baking soda to the boiling water, vinegar, using old eggs, you name it. BUT. I have a method and it’s the best and I’m always right. K? LOL. I steam my eggs.
I have dash egg cooker that steams the eggs for me and it does take some time working in batches but it works AMAZING and the peels legit just fall right off. You simply poke a hole in the round end and steam them pointy end down. You have a small measuring cup to add an exact amount of liquid for however you want your eggs cooked, add it to the bottom, fill with eggs, and turn it on. Mine chimes when it’s done and I just plop them in ice water and fill it up again while I prep the rest of the ingredients for canning. I have a small 6 egg cooker but I’ve seen a double decker one at Sam’s Club I eyeballed pretty hard, but never bought since I already had one. Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without kinda mentality here.
Another method that works pretty well is what’s known as the 5-5-5 method using an electric pressure cooker. I have stainless egg racks that I can fill with 18 eggs in mine at a time. You set your pressure cooker on high pressure to cook for 5 minutes, then let it naturally cool for 5 minutes before manually releasing any remaining pressure, then place them in an ice bath for 5 minutes before peeling. Super easy and it works great! I did try once to haphazardly fill my pressure cooker with eggs just stacked inside and it went horribly wrong, so don’t do that. Eggs cracked and it was a mess. I guess it could have been a fluke, but I avoid it now because I don’t want to share that many eggs with my chickens again.
Sometimes if I’m canning a lot of eggs, I use both methods simultaneously.
Let’s pickle some eggs!
Equipment You May Want:
- Egg steam cooker
- Large mixing bowl
- Stock pot
- Wide mouth quart canning jars
- Lids & bands
- Steam canner
- Jar funnel
- Jar lifter
Ingredients:
- 4 dozen hard boiled eggs, peeled
- 1 large sweet onion, diced
- 4 bell peppers, diced
- 8 jalapenos, sliced
- 4 cups 5% white vinegar
- 1/2 cup water
- 4 cups raw, unrefined cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 2 tsp celery seed
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp mustard powder
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
Step 1: Prep Eggs
Make hard-boiled eggs (hard-cooked eggs) using your preferred method. See above for mine. Peel eggs, being careful not to damage the whites. Any eggs that don’t peel cleanly aren’t desirable for canning.
Step 2: Make the Brine
To a medium sized stock pot, add vinegar, water, sugar, and spices. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently to dissolve sugar.
Step 3: Fill Jars
Wash wide mouth quart jars and lids in hot soapy water. Rinse well.
While brine is heating, layer in peppers, onions, and place eggs into clean jar. I usually add a spoonful of onions, peppers & jalapenos, 3 peeled eggs, and then repeat the process. Keep eggs under 1″ headspace.
Ladle hot brine liquid over jars to 1/2″ headspace. Gently de-bubble being sure not to poke through or damage the eggs and add more liquid if needed.
Step 4: Canning
Since this recipe is high acid, it is appropriate to water bath or steam can them.
Wipe rims of jars thoroughly, add lids and bands.
Add jars to a water bath canning pot or steam canner and process for 15 minutes, adjusting time for elevation if necessary.
Remove jars from canner once processing time is completed and set aside on a heat proof surface lined with a kitchen towel to cool undisturbed for 18-24 hours.
Step 5: Storing
Once cooled, remove bands, test seals, wash jars, and store in a cool, dark place away from direct sunlight and extreme temperatures.
Allow jars to sit to fully flavor and pickle for 2 weeks for best results and flavor. The longer they sit, the better they get.
When you think of it. shake the jars every so often to ensure even pickling since the eggs like to stick themselves to the side of the jar. I simply invert the jars a couple of times each when I’m in my canning pantry to distribute the spices around and move the eggs a little bit. If you don’t remember, no sweat.
Jars of pickled eggs will keep for years as long as the seal remains good. Aim to use food within 18-24 months just to rotate your stock out and get best nutritional value, but with pickling, food keeps longer and is delicious so don’t be tossing eggs that hit the 2 year mark.
Notes:
Feel free to add cayenne pepper powder or red pepper flakes or even spicier fresh peppers if you prefer. Just don’t skip the bell peppers, they add a really nice flavor to these eggs!
You can substitute some or all apple cider vinegar for the white vinegar.
Spicy Bread and Butter Pickled Eggs Canning Recipe
Equipment
- Egg steam cooker
- stock pot
- wide mouth quart canning jars
- Lids & Bands
- jar lifter
Ingredients
- 4 dozen hard boiled eggs peeled
- 1 large sweet onion diced
- 4 bell peppers diced
- 8 jalapenos sliced
- 4 cups 5% white vinegar
- 1/2 cup water
- 4 cups raw unrefined cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 2 tsp celery seed
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp mustard powder
- 3 garlic cloves minced
Instructions
- To a medium sized stock pot, add vinegar, water, sugar, and spices. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently to dissolve sugar.
- While brine is heating, layer in peppers, onions, and eggs into wide mouth quart jars. I usually add a spoonful of onions, peppers & jalapenos, 3 eggs, and then repeat the process. Keep eggs under 1″ headspace.
- Ladle hot brine liquid over jars to 1/2″ headspace. Gently de-bubble and add more liquid if needed.
- Wipe jar rims well, add lids and bands, and water bath for 15 minutes, adjusting time for elevation. If you do not want to can them, place them in the fridge and shake them every so often. Allow to pickle for 2 weeks before eating.
I plan to make myself a huge jar of these eggs, but won’t can them. Lord they sound delicious!!! I plan to use a 1:1 granular sweetner substitute for the sugar. Do you have any info or remarks on this????? Thank you!!
That should work fine, especially since you aren’t canning it since some substitutes don’t can very well. Just make sure your sugar substitute recommends you add it 1:1 when replacing sugar in a recipe and you should be good to go!
Thank you for these 4 recipes. 1 question: do you have a canning recipe for purple eggs? (Beets)
I use my pickled beets recipe and add eggs :)