pickling egg problems please advise

[dye29]

hi all i have a good bunch of quails now and love there eggs so ive been pickling them for friends and family also filling my cuboards too , my problem is sometime the yokes are grey ill explain my full process to see if im doing anything wrong .
1st - collects eggs making sure the first ones picked are almost 3 week old im getting 20 odd eggs a day , so i collect for 5 days and keep that batch too one side in buckets for 3 weeks as easyer too peel
2nd- get a pan of wter boiling then lower eggs in water bring back to boil and boil for 3min 30sec
3rd lower eggs in to cold water and leave to fully cool
4th put in fridge for 24hrs
5th wash jars and lids then put in oven for 15mins on 150degrees leave in oven until ready
6th boil up vinegar mixture for approx 10mins then place peeled eggs into jars and pour over boiing vinegar and cap on ,
7th then place all filled jars fully submered in a large pan of boiling water and boil everything for approx 15-20mins then remove to cool and listen for the button lids to vaccum in .
is my whole process correct as i dont wnt to poison my family and why am i now and then getting grey yokes thanks ste

 

[MrsBiscuit]

I am not sure why this might be happening. I know when you boil eggs to eat them cold you should cool them down asap to prevent a grey ring forming, so maybe the water you use sometimes to cool the eggs is less cold than at other times (eg if the kitchen is warmer, or you have more eggs in the same volume of water, or the water just isn't cold enough - which could be remedied by putting some ice cubes in it perhaps?) I can't comment on your pickling process as I only do onions, not eggs, but it seems pretty thorough to me!

 

[rick]

Hi Dye,
Great to hear that you and the quail are doing well.
Its been a long time since i last had a pickled egg but, if I remember rightly, the ones from the chip shop always had grayish yokes (yours will be infinity better than a chip shop egg I know.)
I would suppose that once the vinegar acidity gets through to the yoke then it discolors it and it might be that you are noticing it with the batches that have been kept the longest?
Your sterilisation procedure sounds flawless.

... except, do you really have to boil the vinegar for 10 mins? If its strong enough (pickling strength) it should be naturally bacteria free at room temp and Id be be worried about degrading its finer qualities.

 

[Margaid]

Mrs Biscuit is right to mention having the water cold enough to prevent grey rings and I always crack the egg once it's in the cold water which I believe helps to stop them continuing to cook (but that may be an Old Wive's Tale!)

I note you say that you boil them for 3mins 30 secs from when the water comes back to the boil. Do you always cook the same number of eggs in the same amount of water? If the pan takes longer to come back to the boil you are effectively cooking them for longer. Quail eggs are so small that that may be enough to make the difference.

I hard boiled some hens eggs last week without setting my timer and they were boiled for longer than I intended. They were the first grey yolks I've had in years! My mother's hard boiled eggs always had grey rings because she used to just put the pan in the sink and run the cold water into it. That didn't cool them quickly enough.

You also say you lower the eggs into cold water so do you take them out of the cooking pan with a slotted spoon? You need to get them into very cold or even iced water quickly.

 

[Icemaiden]

I've only pickled hens' eggs, not quails' eggs, but I start by sterilising the jars (I use Milton tablets, then rinse the jars & lids & dry them in a warm oven). I then boil the the pickling vinegar with the spices & let it cool a bit while boiling the eggs.

Hens' eggs are easier to peel when they're 7 -10 days old, so I tend to be pickling eggs that're 1-2 weeks old. I boil them, then tip out the hot water & run cold water into the pan until the eggs are cool enough to peel. I peel them, rinse them under the tap to remove any last bits of shell, then when the jar is full I top it up with the pickling vinegar and seal it straight away.

I don't leave anything in the fridge overnight & don't have problems with grey yolks.

I wonder whether the hot vinegar is causing your yolks to go grey?

For what it's worth, I recommend using whole spices (ground ones make the vinegar cloudy) & adding a few whole cardamom pods. Yummy!!

 

[dye29]

wheres is that purchased from icemaden , also its doing the greyness before vinegars added could be water not cold enough like you guys say as i do different amounts every time . i was thinking of steaming the eggs anyone done this

 

[Margaid]

You can buy ready mixed whole "pickling spices" from any good supermarket, and they'll probably have cardamom pods as well.
I think maybe you need to be more consistent with boiling and then cooling the eggs. The age of the eggs might have a slight influence but I suspect it's the length of time you cook them and not having the water cold enough. Try to always cook the same number of eggs in the pan; they take such a short time you can be cooking another batch while the first ones are cooling or you're peeling them.

I've steamed lots of foodstuffs but never eggs. It might work with quail eggs because they're so small but I don't think I'd bother - just keep boiling.

 

[Icemaiden]

I buy my whole spices mainly from the supermarket. As Margaid says, you can buy them as a blend, though these days I tend to make up my own combination. I like coriander seeds, black peppercorns, fenugreek & the aforementioned cardamom pods. I'm not a huge fan of cloves, which tend to feature in the supermarket blends. It's all down to personal taste in the end...

You'll find Milton tablets in the baby section of the supermarket, as they're used to sterilise baby bottles. You'll find them in Chemist's shops too & possibly in home brew shops.