A local Long Beach watering hole, Joe Jost’s, claims to have sold 6,000,000 Spicy Pickled eggs since 1934.  My husband has eaten his fair share of that number.  He loves to cook and this was the first thing he said he was making when we got chickens.  Since 2009 we have been making these at home. We like spicy pickled eggs so much, that rather than immediately start eating the Bantams’ eggs when they started laying, I set the eggs aside to save for pickled eggs.  Bantam eggs are the perfect bite-size hard-boiled egg. And we prefer bantam eggs for pickled eggs over standard eggs, but any eggs will work in the recipe for Joe Jost’s pickled eggs.

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A while back the first recipe below was a version of Joe Jost’s egg Recipe published in the Long Beach Press Telegram Newspaper. I have heard this first recipe is what Joe Jost’s shared with the paper, but in reality, their secret isn’t that complicated and the real recipe got out to a few of the locals.  Joe Jost’s doesn’t actually use all the pickling spices, etc. They use the second recipe for Joe Jost’s pickled eggs further down in the post.

RECIPE #1

[this is probably not the real recipe—-see the second one below]

Joe Jost’s Pickled Eggs Recipe

8 eggs, hard-cooked, peeled & still warm
1 jar (12 oz.) yellow chile peppers
2 Tbsp pickling spice*
1 c wine vinegar
1-1/2 scant cups water
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp salt

Instructions:
Mix all ingredients in a glass container, adding eggs last while they are still warm. Don’t refrigerate. Keep in a sealed jar for 2 days. The marinade may be used again several times. Use within 2 weeks.  Yield 8 servings.*

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RECIPE #2

[Alternate Secret Recipe for Joe Jost’s pickled eggs – and the way we do it at Hanbury House]

Joe Josts Pickled Eggs

8 eggs, hard-cooked, peeled & still warm
1 jar (12 oz.) yellow chile peppers*

Instructions:
Mix ingredients in a glass container, adding eggs last while they are still warm. Don’t refrigerate. Keep in a sealed jar for 2 days. The marinade may be used again several times. Use within 2 weeks.   Yield 8 servings.*

To Serve:
Joe Jost’s serves their yellow-picked eggs over a bed of pretzels with a few of the chile peppers to garnish, add a couple of dashes of pepper on top of it all, and serve with beer.  They used to serve pickled eggs typically with an ice-cold Pabst Blue Ribbon on tap.  But just about 2 years ago, they switched to Busch Beer; it was a big local controversy.  My husband serves our pickled eggs with PBR.

Notes:

They just use MEZZETTA brand hot chili peppers * and the brine the peppers are in.  That is it!  It already has the spices you need to pickle the eggs in the brine and this method duplicates the Joe Josts flavor. Now their recipe says not to refrigerate them, but we do.

Unfortunately, a small jar of the Mezzetta peppers you buy in the grocery store doesn’t have enough brine for a small homemade-sized batch.  Once you reuse the brine and add a second jar of chile peppers to the egg jar, you will have enough brine.  We get around this one of two ways.  1. by opening a second jar of peppers, eating the peppers, and putting the brine in the egg jar with the full jar of Mazetta peppers and eggs. or 2.  Add some vinegar – enough to cover everything.  Then let it set an extra 2 days before serving the eggs.

Do not use a container with a metal lid.  The acidity will corrode the lid and ruin the eggs before the end of the 2 weeks.  After two weeks the eggs get rubbery and bitter, but they usually don’t last that long around here. My jar is a repurposed vintage candy jar, but one with a rubber gasket would be better suited to preserving picked eggs.

I often post about chickens and eggs at HanburyHouse. Here is a blog post about my crowing hen.

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