An update.... been almost a year, sheesh!
Yes, they can, in my experience. Mine started falling apart, got very slimy and disgusting. I ended up throwing away a bunch of that last batch. Here's why.
The serrano peppers are MUCH spicier than jalapenos. Also, I went from most of a jar of pickled jalapenos, which I realized later when I rechecked the jar were "tamed" jalapenos (
) to a bunch of fresh serranos included seeds and all. The difference was astounding! I like spicy, but those were ridiculous! Therefore, I couldn't eat them much, and they ended up getting nasty on me after a while. Maybe a month or two, I ended up tossing them, as I mentioned above.I just put a batch up last night, and I did a few things a little differently.
This time, I got actual fresh jalapenos (not canned, and not serranos, lol), cut up about 6 of them and deseeded them. Now, I know what you're thinking... but I would rather have them a little "not-hot-enough" and be able to eat them, than too hot and have to discard them. So, I decided to do that. I also added one jar of pickled beets (juice drained - not looking to sweeten the batch), sliced green peppers and white onion (do you guys use white, red or yella?).
I also did something else... I noticed on my previous batches, using jumbo or extra-large eggs, that the pickling didn't seem to penetrate deeply enough into the egg. Therefore, this time, I got plain medium eggs (the smallest the store had) AND... I poked a few holes into them before putting them into the jar. I poked top and bottom and 3 or 4 places around the "waist", just about deep enough to get into the middle of the yolk. In doing this I hoped to accomplish two things -
1. Get more "pickling" into the center of the egg
2. Not have to wait 10-14 days to get to the "good eatin' point"
So, today, I decided to give it a shot. Now, I pulled two out and tried them. After less than 24 hours in the pickling brine, they already had a decent amount of flavor! Wow! There was no real discernible heat, but maybe that will come in time, or I need to keep the seeds in the jalapenos, I don't know. As I said, though, after my last batch, I'm a little hesitant to make them TOO hot. I think I will go to the store and get some more stuff to do more tonight... and try it with the jalapenos with the seeds still in. This should give me a nice side-by-side comparison to judge and adjust for future batches.
I gotta tell ya, though, I think poking a few toothpick holes in my eggs made a huge difference already! Anyone else done this? I'm impatient and I don't want to wait.
I wish somewhere here had some good sausages to throw in... some taso or andouille. I need to keep my eyes open...
Necrothread... but it's spring and I'm back in the pickled egg zone... anyone else got ideas or thoughts on what I've done here????
<edit> Also, I got 3 dozen medium eggs, plus a small jar of beets and some onion, green pepper and 6 or so jalapenos into one gallon-sized glass jar. Previously, using XL or jumbo eggs, I would only get about 18 or so, the three doz would get me 2 full gallon jars. And I let my eggs set for about a week room temp then another week in the fridge before I cooked them. They seemed very easy to peel overall. Some tips from research. Also a little vinegar and a dab of salt in the cooking water, and tips not to overcook them, made it all much easier.
When they're done cooking, drop them in icewater and chill them, this helps a ton, too.
