Simple Pickled Eggs
“Reader, are you fond of pickled eggs? That you, doubtless, consider to be a curious question. Still anything will do to commence a conversation. It is better than saying it is a fine day, or you think it is going to rain…“
- J. Ashby-Sterry, The Shuttlecock Papers, 1873
While I appreciate Ashby-Sterry’s sentiment, in the places we go hunting for pickled eggs – namely, bars – comments on the weather might serve you better in the pick-up line department than those of pickled eggs. Still, you never can be sure. Search across any blog or article on the subject of pickled eggs, and you’re likely to stumble upon observations that mirror that of Karen Herzog from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: “You don’t often see pickled eggs and meats today. They’re icons of long-gone corner taverns, where a brandy old-fashioned was garnished with a pickled egg, and a blue-collar patron stopping on the way home from work ordered a pickled ham hock or egg with a beer to tide him over until dinner.” Indeed, in some back corner of our minds, we all know that pickled eggs once existed, but unless you live in a special part of the globe where they still flourish, you probably can’t recall exactly when they joined the Dodo on Extinction Island. Which is why I set out to track them down.
