Fun Pickles

In case you missed the news: my pickling book went on sale this week! The Complete Guide to Pickling is officially out in the world for you all to read and enjoy. As a bonus, I’ve also released The Pickled Picnic, a digital recipe collection that uses some of the pickles in my new book.

Both the book and the bonus collection are packed with fun recipes. But if you’ve been impressed by the flavors I’ve shared so far, just wait until you get to the final chapter of the book. These pickled foods will take your pickling experience to an entirely new level. I know, because that’s what they did for me.

Before I started writing this book, I mainly pickled the produce that grew in my garden. So I was thrilled for the excuse to play with tropical fruits and warm-climate vegetables that won’t grow among Montana’s mountains. But the final chapter of the book took me even further from my garden into the realm of pickling proteins like fish, shrimp, and eggs. I had such fun playing with farm-fresh eggs that I included two variations in the book—and offer a quartet of variations in the bonus collection that devil them up.

Ready to give one a try? Full details are in the recipe, taken straight from The Complete Guide to Pickling, but here are the basics:
You need just 2 main ingredients plus a basic vinegar brine.
1. Heat the brine.
2. Pack your jar with hard-boiled, peeled eggs.
3. Ladle in the brine and refrigerate the jar.
4. Wait a couple of days, and then enjoy.

Tips & Tricks

Part of the fun of pickling eggs is dropping them in a colorful brine; instead of disappearing with the shell, like Easter eggs, hues creep into the whites, spreading as the eggs sit. The whites also become rubbery and the yolks grow crumbly as they age, so find the curing time that suits you for color and texture.
Pickled eggs make excellent snacks on their own or alongside homemade cheese like Fresh Paneer or Dry-Salted Feta. They also pair well with Sourdough Pretzel Bites. You can even turn them into extremely flavorful deviled eggs; I offer several variations in The Pickled Picnic.

Make it, share it. Tag your photos: @twiceastastyblog and #twiceastastyblog

The Pickled Picnic by Julie Laing. — *Deviled Pickled Eggs 4 Ways. Photograph by Brenda Ahearn.*

Twice as Tasty

I so enjoyed pickling eggs that I couldn’t stick to one way to use them in The Pickled Picnic. So the deviled egg recipe in that collection offers four variations—plus some bonus ideas for even more flavors.

Of course, I had to incorporate some of the other treats you can create using The Complete Guide to Pickling and recipes here on the blog into the deviled egg recipe. Sure, you could make the basic deviled egg mix with store-bought mustard and yogurt. But why not use your homemade German-Inspired Spicy Mustard (in my new book) and Fresh Yogurt? You can add even more zing to some of the variations by using Fermented Red Hot Sauce and Pickled Avocado Slices; both recipes are in The Complete Guide to Pickling, along with a second, golden-hued recipe: Vinegar-Pickled Mustard Eggs; for the recipe for Deviled Pickled Eggs 4 Ways, grab the The Pickled Picnic too.

Get a signed copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling and the The Pickled Picnic, available exclusively through Twice as Tasty. Click here to order.