The following recipe is from one of my old cookbooks, “The Lady’s Assistant Cookbook” published in 1777. It takes a little while to become familiar with reading old works. Enjoy!

Boil the eggs very hard; peel them, and put them into cold water, shifting them till they are cold. Make a pickle of white-wine vinegar, a blade of mace, a bunch of sweet herbs, and a little whole pepper; take the eggs out of the water, and put them immediately into the pickle, which must be hot; stir them a good while, that they may look all alike; untie the herbs, and spread them over the top of the pot, but cover them with nothing else till they are turned brown; they will be fit to eat in nine or ten days.

Bruise some cochineal; tie it up in a rag; dip it in the vinegar, and squeeze it gently over the egg, and then let the rag lie in the pickle. This is a great addition.

I did not have any cochineal on hand but instead used a couple slices of beet for the red color. Cochineal is actually a parasite which when exposed to heat can be used to produce crimson dye. I’ll stick with beets.

Here is my quick and easy way to peel eggs. I’m not sure where I found the idea but it works like a charm.