can i eat it: grey pickled eggs

February 27, 2013 4:46 PM

I made some pickled eggs for the first time. I just opened the jar, and: all of the eggs are varying shades of greyish- brownish. Most of them still have white spots and stripes. They smell fine (for hardboiled eggs soaked in vinegar I mean), but will I die if I eat them?
posted by windykites to Food & Drink (11 answers total)

I'd eat 'em in a heartbeat. Unless you used a super-dilute brine, the combination of acid and salt probably kept any bad bugs from growing. Not to mention that eggs are almost entirely protein... not a lotta carbs there to help various OTHER bad stuff grow.
posted by julthumbscrew at 4:50 PM on February 27, 2013

Probably fine, but just to be cautious, eat one and wait..... if nothing happens, eat 'em all.
posted by easily confused at 5:19 PM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

Mine turned kind of gray and striped too. I thought they were gross though. Not like, gone bad gross, just, like, pickled egg gross.
posted by latkes at 5:22 PM on February 27, 2013 [2 favorites]

Knowing how you prepared and stored the eggs would help a lot in figuring this out.
posted by TungstenChef at 5:31 PM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

For hard-boiled eggs, you need to immediately cool them after the boil with COLD water to keep them from going grey. Did you do that?

Also, don't use aluminum pans or utensils, according to Jaime Oliver, as that can blacken your eggs.
posted by misha at 5:48 PM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

They're almost certainly fine.

Anecdotal: One year, my dreadful paternal grandfather brought a jar of pickled eggs to some gathering or another. My father and I both ate one, and grandfather ate several, and they were...kinda rubbery and gross, but in a he's a shitty cook way, not in a gone-off way. We later found out that he'd made them months ago, and stored them in his garage. The thought made everyone a bit queasy, but no one got sick. In years gone by, it was common to pickle eggs and then keep the jar on the counter--I don't think that anyone would recommend that, but people didn't die en masse, either, so...
posted by MeghanC at 5:50 PM on February 27, 2013

MeghanC: "In years gone by, it was common to pickle eggs and then keep the jar on the counter--I don't think that anyone would recommend that, but people didn't die en masse, either, so..."

This is still common practice in bars. unless they are putting them in the fridge at clean-up time, but judging by the location my local bar keeps them probably not.

pickled eggs are delicious.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 5:56 PM on February 27, 2013

You don't say whether they've been refrigerated.

"Home pickled eggs stored at room temperature have caused botulism."
posted by scatter gather at 7:01 PM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

I'm with TungstenChef: how you pickled the eggs is key. Pickles from my home country childhood used strong brine and vinegar, and were preserved for ages (I have some pickled walnuts over a decade old that are still delicious), but pickles I can buy here are feebly pickled and are liable to decay.
posted by anadem at 7:40 PM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is still common practice in bars. unless they are putting them in the fridge at clean-up time, but judging by the location my local bar keeps them probably not.

I too am fond of bar pickled eggs (and turkey gizzards if they've got them). But bars buy them from food processors that follow strict USDA food safety regulations and have loads of salt and vinegar in the brine. Homemade pickled eggs, while delicious, are generally treated more gently and aren't quite so strongly pickled.
posted by TungstenChef at 7:42 PM on February 27, 2013

Response by poster: I pickled them in a boiling solution of vinegar, water, salt and spices, let cool in glass jar, capped, fridgerated.

I ate them. They were delicious and not deadly.
posted by windykites at 4:26 PM on February 28, 2013 [1 favorite]