Every year at Easter, we’d dye six dozen hard-boiled eggs. After the requisite "hide them in the garden and hope you find them all", some of the eggs would get turned into egg salad, or tucked into school lunches, but most of them got pickled, and stashed in the downstairs fridge alongside the beer and soda.
The eggs were packed into quart sized mason jars, and took on an off-putting shade of grey green – from what spice, I’ve no idea. Despite the fact that they were a household staple, I don’t think I ever ate one.
Feeling nostalgic the other day, I thumbed through a bunch of cookbooks looking for some pickled eggs. I only found them in one cookbook, The Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook. As befits an encyclopedia, it is comprehensive – running to nearly a thousand pages, and including at least 20 recipes for hard-cooked eggs.
The pickled eggs recipe is pretty straightforward (boil 2 T. sugar, 1 t. salt and 1 t. mixed spices in 2 cups of cider vinegar – pour it over a dozen hard-boiled eggs in a mason jar – let stand for a couple of days before using), but another recipe demanded to be shared.
EGGS IN HIDING
1 T. butter
1 can condensed tomato soup
½ pound American cheese, diced
6 hard-cooked eggs
1 cup cereal flakes, crushed
Heat butter and soup in top of double boiler. Add cheese and cook until melted, stirring constantly. Arrange halves of hard-cooked eggs (cut lengthwise) in buttered baking dish. Pour cheese mixture over eggs. Sprinkle with cereal flakes. Brown under broiler. Serves 6.
If you are brave enough to make this, and post a picture on your blog, I will send you a kitchen implement. Start peeling those eggs! And no, I can’t tell you what kind of cereal to use, but I think you should serve it on toast points.
This post instigated in part by the Parent Bloggers Network on behalf of the incredible egg, and I approved this message.
Oh yuck! Yuck, yuck. can you even imagine the cholesterol and sodium per serving? I'm having a stroke just thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteI used to love pickled eggs. There was a grungy bar in Edmonton that always had a big jar of them on the counter and sold them for 50 cents a pop. I was never brave enough to try one of theirs but I do remember them from childhood.
Mmmm, no thanks. As much as I love dying eggs, nobody will eat them and I can't stand wasted food. Eggs taste gross in my mouth - at least the hard-boiled ones. Kids won't touch 'em. So, I'll leave the recipe for someone else.
ReplyDeleteas brave as i am in the kitchen, that just sounds totally revolting...was it from the same cookbook? how can something like this not be from the roadkill/white trash cookbook, it can't be from something that is called "culinary art institute." just say it isn't so!!!
ReplyDeleteI read the recipe to my boyfriend (who's across the room playing the piano with his headphones on...) and he said gross, that doesn't sound good at all. Then I said she said if we make it and post a photo she'll send us a kitchen implement. Then he was all for it! "We do have a lot of hard boiled eggs left"
ReplyDeleteAw, shucks! I used up all my hard boiled eggs.
ReplyDeleteThat recipes sounds a little scary, but certainly more appealing than the grey-green pickled eggs.
Man, I really need something to do with my hard-boiled eggs, but I don't think this is it. Are you sure you don't want to just come here and devil them for me?
ReplyDeleteI might be willing to try it - you never know. I love hard boiled eggs, but I hate mayo, so deviled eggs and egg salad are out. One of my favorite restaurants has deep fried hard boiled eggs served with a spicy sauce. They're yummy, but I can't be bothered to deep fry stuff at home.
ReplyDeleteI think I'd eat a week old pickled egg before I'd eat one of those eggs in hiding. Blech.
ReplyDeleteThat recipe is awesome! I think i'll use cocoa puffs for the cereal.
ReplyDeleteWe had the spare fridge, too! Ours was filled with the drink of the moment - diet coke, Perrier, whatever. No eggs. Darn.
ReplyDeleteI'm morally opposed to any recipe that calls for crushed cereal flakes. Sorry.
ReplyDelete... trying not to vomit...
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who loves pickled eggs. blech.
I'm not sure I'd even ever heard of pickled eggs, let alone tried one. (I did try a Chinese style "thousand year old" egg once, though, which may be the same idea.)
ReplyDeleteI'll have to pass on the eggs in hiding recipe, if primarily because I'm not eating dairy right now. The recipe seems like something from my grandmother's school of cooking. She used to make creamed eggs on toast. She'd use a lot of white sauce to extend dinners.
Oh, I am so gonna win because my kids would eat that up and ask for seconds. Perfect timing because we're on school vacation next week!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds vile! I can top it though. My dad once found a recipe for something called Unusual Oatmeal Soup which was basically unsweetened oatmeal with vegetables and nasty spices in it. It was the only dinner that even my loyal mother refused to eat.
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure I'd rather substitute the eggs for MY EYEBALLS.
ReplyDeleteum, eeesh. ha! Flutter. Ya, mine are safely in the trash...my eggs, not my eyes.
ReplyDeleteThis is utterly fantastic. I think it would add just a little something if one could use easter eggs that have some dye color still on them when peeled.
ReplyDeleteIt may be worth making more eggs simply to do this.
Maybe, instead of the American cheese cubes, I could use the cheese curds we won at the baseball game ... it's promising.
ReplyDeleteam.not.brave.enough.
ReplyDeleteDoes it count if I don't quite follow the recipe? What about using some canned yellow tomatoes and a different cheese? Technically they are loosely related to tomato soup and American cheese. If I get the time I'll give it a whirl this weekend and will link to my www.dietfoodie.com blog so you can see the results and judge for yourself it's really "Eggs in Hiding."
ReplyDeleteMy mother made this often for us while we were growing up. This recipe brings back fond memories! Thanks for posting
ReplyDelete