My theory on how pickling of eggs resulted, was that a chicken farmer with an overabundance of eggs tried various means to save eggs for future use, one of which was the farmer putting hard boiled eggs in vinegar. Vinegar being an acid and hostel to bacteria, made for the perfect holding liquid but not every one liked vinegar eggs. This means either the same farmer or some other enterprising soul decided to add spicing, making the eggs tastier, there for even yummier!
Pickling seems to cross many boundaries with the different regions having different spices for their pickling. So with out further ado…I present the historic Middle Eastern pickled egg, with out the chicken.
Baid Mukhallal
(Pickled Eggs)
Translation:
Take boiled eggs and peel and sprinkle with a little ground salt and Chinese cinnamon and dry coriander. Then arrange them in a glass jar and pour wine vinegar on them, and put it up.
(Rodinson, pp. 397)
Ingredients:
6 hard boiled eggs ¼ tsp salt, cinnamon, and dry coriander
Glass Jar Vinegar to cover
My Redaction:
This dish is very simple. Hard boil 6-10 eggs (depending on the size of your glass container). Water, eggs and heat for about 30 minutes. After boiling for 30 minutes, I turn off my gas stove and let cool in the water till they are able to be handled easily, then peel.
The third spice next to the cinnamon and cumin is salt…a little hard to see in a white dish. Sorry about that.
After the eggs are peeled, the recipe says to sprinkle…now sprinkling can mean a light coat or a heavier coat of spicing. I choose to use a heavier coating of spicing for a stronger flavor that will off set the vinegar.
I mixed all the spices together then rolled the egg in the mixture. Once the egg was liberally coated I place the egg into a glass jar.
The amusing part was the eggs bounced slightly when dropped into the jar. It was funny at the time! So here we have 6 eggs in a jar with spicing. There should be just a little left over as 1/4 tsp of these 3 spices coats 6 eggs almost perfectly. I believe there wasonly 1/8 of spicing remaining. Put the remainder of the spicing into the jar then fill with vinegar.
I used apple cider vinegar, instead of wine vinegar. Apples were used in a variety of dishes and I believe that if the flesh of the apple was used then juice was made. If apple juice was made then apple vinegar was not far. That and wine vinegar was not on hand though procurement today would be fairly easy.
Depending on the size of the jar, the size of the eggs and the number of eggs used will determine how much vinegar you will need. Fill the jar with vinegar AFTER putting in the eggs. Make sure the eggs are covered completely. Covering the eggs completely lessens the chance of bacteria getting a foot hold into the boiled eggs, causing a loss of the entire batch.
A little light snack or a compliment to a spicy dish.