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