Rachel Khong shares recipes, anecdotes and history of everyone’s favorite ingredient in All About Eggs.
While there are a great many foodstuffs from Pennsylvania’s breadbasket that could undoubtedly endure the apocalypse, the question really is: Which of them will sate the hunger of the discerning survivor? My bet is on pickled beet eggs. They are pickled, of course, and ubiquitous. Menacingly rosy jars of them haunt the back bars or counters next to the cash register of many of the greater Lancaster area’s finer and not-so-fine establishments. Most are graced by a gray halo of dust that says, “I’ve been here since the seventies, and I’ll be here after you’re gone.” No doubt that’s the attitude you’ll want to take into the looming zombie/robot/alien wars, and with their mix of fortifying protein and piquant beetiness, these eggs will help keep your fighting spirits high!
12 pickled eggs
- Put the hard-boiled eggs into a 2-quart glass jar. If you want the End Times to be fancy, you could tuck some tarragon and a clove of garlic in there, too.
- Heat the beets and the liquid from the jar, vinegar, water, sugar, and salt until just boiling. Dump over the eggs. Put into the fridge (or the coldest area of the cave you are hiding out in) for a few days and they should be ready to eat. The longer the eggs stay in the liquid, the more colorful they will be when cut in half.
Reprinted from Lucky Peach All About Eggs. Copyright © 2017 by Lucky Peach, LLC. Photographs and illustrations copyright © 2017 by Tamara Shopsin and Jason Fulford. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC.
