Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Natural Dye for Easter Eggs

This just in from my Joy of Cooking Day Calendar...!
Today's Tidbit of info from the calendar is a short list of food based dyes you can use to color Easter eggs. Knowing now what I have learned about chickens and egg laying (which isn't all that much) I can really appreciate the role that eggs play at Easter. Chicken's egg laying ability is diminished in cold weather, and increases as the weather warms. In addition, their feed during the cold seasons must rely on grain without the levels of fresh grass and bugs from the lush pasture that that make their spring eggs so nutritious.
Some of these ingredients, like the onion skins might be available scraps if your cooking for Easter brunch or dinner anyway.

Makes 4 cups...

Place in a pot:
4 cups water
2 tablespoons white vinegar

Add one of the following dyeing agents:
4 cups chopped beets for pink
4 cups boiled red cabbage for blue (it makes a nice bright blue)
3 tablespoons turmeric powder for yellow (be careful it can stain anything it touches!)
Skins from 12 red onions for burnt orange to orange
Skins from 12 large yellow onions for brown

Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 30 min.
Strain each dye through a sieve lined with a coffee filter into a bowl or cup.
Add hard-boiled eggs to the dye and soak until they have reached the color you desire.
Air-dry on a rack lined with paper towels.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for the color recipe. I got your link from Leftover Queen's Finest Foodies Friday :-)

    I'm trying to use natural colors for dying eggs and perhaps other stuffs too. Is it ok to use in homemade flour-based PlayDoh?

    ReplyDelete