Bruce's B&B Style Pickled Eggs

Ingredients

  • 3 dozen eggs (medium eggs fit best in 1 qt. jar)
  • 1 large jar jalapeño peppers (18-22 oz.)
  • 1 large jar hot pepper rings (banana peppers)
  • 1 qt. jar of Vlasic Hot Garden Mix or generic jar of hot garden mix
  • Brine to fill remainder of jar. Ratio of 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water

Directions

Boil your eggs, peel 'em. Pour the liquid from the peppers and garden mix into a gallon jar, adding some of the veggies. Alternate layers of eggs and veggies in the jar. Cover the eggs with the remaining veggies and fill with enough brine solution to cover the eggs.

Store at room temperature. Wait at least 5-7 days before serving, although my wife and I often need to perform quality control testing on days 2-4.

The Hardee's fast food site across from the B&B bar was previously occupied by a Conoco station and repair shop. I used to take my cars there—the B&B made a great waiting room. My car was in the shop the last week before the building was razed for the new restaurant.

I picked up my car with several eggs in hand. The Conoco owner started talking about the B&B and old Mr. Wade, who used to take a couple of trip to Vegas each year on his egg profits. He has since departed this world and the bar is run/managed/owned (not sure which) by his nephew. Bless Mr. Wade for setting the standard for all egg bearers. I commented on how secretive Mr. Wade was with his recipe. The garage owner said one day a tipsy Mr. Wade came into the shop and disclosed his recipe. Since he was closing and moving out of town, he felt it was okay to share it with me. Please keep in mind he gave only ingredients, not measurements. Those are mine and a result of trial and error.

This is the basic recipe shared by this grease-monkey Judas, whom I tipped handsomely. He added that Mr. Wade claimed it was the hot oils in the peppers and solution that coated the eggs and supplied their kick. He also said that there was no boiling of ingredients except for the eggs. The original version didn't contain the garden mix but I like the veritable cornucopia of tangy veggies and how they enhance the presentation. Now many people add salt, hot sauce, onions, etc. and boil their Macbethian concoctions but I don't.

There are many "B&B" recipes out there and I don't know if this one is the Holy Grail for Tech eggophiles. When I shared this story with Mr. Wade's nephew several years later, he said the shop owner was full of auto Shinola and didn't know what he was talking about. When asked how this recipe veered from the original, the young Mr. Wade just smiled and walked away. I guess it all boils down to ‘how do you like your eggs?’ Then fix 'em that way and enjoy them.

-- Bruce Rossman (Class of '81)