Add post on soleier.

content/posts/2025/soleier/index.md

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+---
+title: "Soleier: Pickled eggs for Easter"
+description: >
+  Pickled eggs – "Soleier" – are a favorite Easter tradition in my
+  family. Here's my personal recipe.
+date: 2025-04-17T17:55:07+02:00
+draft: false
+# ShowLastmod: true
+toc: false
+scrolltotop: true
+images: []
+tags:
+  - recipes
+---
+
+My family has a long-running tradition of producing pickled eggs for Easter
+breakfast. We call these "Soleier" which is a composite of "Sole" (brine) and
+"Eier" (eggs). Varous theories exist how pickled eggs came into existence, and
+there are various ways to relish these eggs. As for the theories, the reader is
+kindly referred to the [Wikipedia article][pickled eggs]
+(also [in German][Soleier]).
+
+As for the recipe and the way we eat pickled eggs in my family: read on.
+
+{{< figure src="20250414_203010.jpg"
+           alt="My 2025 Soleier preparation."
+           caption="My 2025 Soleier preparation. Smartphone raw image file edited with darktable."
+>}}
+
+## How many eggs?
+
+How many eggs you want to prepare depends on the number of people who want to
+eat the pickled eggs, the number of days you want to have them for breakfast (or
+any other meal to your liking) and last, but not least, what size of jar you
+have to prepare them in.
+
+My 1.5 L [Weck jar][] holds 13 medium-sized eggs.
+
+Typically an adult will have 2 of those eggs for breakfast. With 13 eggs, this
+leaves one spare egg (and toast), but there's usually a kid or two who doesn't
+eat these eggs in pairs (if at all).
+
+{{< figure src="20250414_203911.jpg"
+           alt="Pickled eggs with cracks."
+           caption="I love my pickled eggs to have cracks so that they let some of the brine in."
+>}}
+
+## Recipe
+
+### Ingredients and materials
+
+This recipe is for 13 eggs and a 1.5 L jar.
+
+- 13 eggs
+- 0.75 L water
+- 50 g salt
+- 1-2 tablespoons of caraway seeds (if you like)
+- 1.5 L [Weck jar][] (doesn't need to be original Weck brand, of course, but must be sealed tight)
+- 13 slices of toast
+- butter
+- oil, e.g. rapeseed oil, to your liking
+- vinegar, e.g. any herb-flavored variant, to your liking
+
+### Directions
+
+You should prepare the pickled eggs a few days before you want to eat them. In
+my family we typically do this 7 days before Easter, i.e. on Palm Sunday.
+
+1. Boil the eggs so they get hard. I usually place the eggs in a pot, cover them
+   with water, and then slowly heat the water until it boils. Let it boil until
+   10 minutes have passed since the eggs were placed on the stove. Your mileage
+   may vary depending on your stove.
+2. Pour out the hot water and shock the eggs with cold tap water.
+3. Place the eggs into the jar using a clean spoon (not your hands!). I usually
+   let them drop into the jar so they get nice little cracks, this makes for
+   beautiful texture inside the eggs (see image).
+4. Add the salt and caraway seeds to the jar.
+5. Bring the water to boiling and pour it over the eggs in the jar.
+6. Close the jar.
+7. Invert the jar a couple of times (you may want to wear gloves while doing
+   this, the jar is hot!).
+8. Store the jar in a cool place -- in our house, this is usually the basement.
+
+## How to eat Soleier
+
+There seem to be two fundamentally different ways to eat a _Solei_.
+
+### Our way of eating Soleier
+
+My family's tradition is to peel two eggs, place them on a dish, cut them into
+pieces, then pour some oil and vinegar over the pieces and mash the eggs with a
+fork. This leaves an ugly mess on the plate and I will update this post with a
+picture of this year's appearance.
+
+Brown two slices of toast, spread butter on them, and eat the _Solei_ mash/mess
+using a fork while intermittently taking a bite from the bread.
+
+### The more sophisticated way to eat Soleier
+
+There is an alternative way to have your pickled eggs that supposedly is less
+messy. The [German Wikipedia article][Soleier] claims it's the 'proper' or let's
+say usual way to eat these eggs. I tried it once and I was totally unhappy with
+the experience, so I stick with our traditional way.
+
+Peel two eggs, cut the eggs into halves, remove the egg yolk and mash the egg
+yolk with oil and vinegar. Transfer the mashed egg yolk back into the eggs. I
+will look slightly less ugly, but I promise you will have a hard time getting
+all the egg yolk--oil--vinegar mixture back into the eggs, the plate will look
+like someone's been having _Soleier_ the traditional way, and when trying to put
+the egg halves into your mouth, be prepared for everyone else who sits at the
+table with you bursting into spontaneous laughter. At least that's what happened
+to me one time... ;-)
+
+[pickled eggs]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickled_egg
+[Soleier]: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solei
+[Weck jar]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weck_jar