Easter Eggs

Ingredients

• the sharpened end of a white wax or adamantine candle
• Brazil wood and also cochineal
• a little alum
• Logwood chips
• two parts of black oak bark
• one part of hickory
• turmeric tied up in a little muslin bag
• enough of druggist's blue indigo

Method

1. 1

   Submerge eggs in hot water, then write on them with the candle end.

2. 2

   For red dye, use Brazil wood or cochineal with alum.

3. 3

   For speckled eggs, dot with white wax or oil.

4. 4

   To engrave, dye eggs first, then scrape designs.

5. 5

   For yellow, boil eggs in onion skins or black oak bark with alum.

6. 6

   For green, dye in turmeric water, then add blue indigo.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The household (of the Detroit free press) (1886) by Goff, May Perrin,, page 43. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

EASTER EGGS. 49 part of the feathers, and with small gilt-headed tacks nail a band of galoon, ribbon or cloth, pinked on both edges, over the upper part. Thus finished the home-made brush is as neat and pretty, and certainly as durable, as the high-priced ones sold in the stores. EASTER EGGS. MOTTOES AND DECORATIONS. If mottoes are to be inscribed upon Easter eggs, let us provide our- selves with the sharpened end of a white wax or adamantine candle. Having first submerged the eggs in hot water, write on them with the candle end such words or draw such figures as you fancy. The wax or oil will serve the same purpose as what is termed a resist in the pro- cess of printing calicoes, and prevent the dye from adhering. Now, as we shall like our eggs of various colors, we begin with red : For this purpose, Brazil wood and also cochineal are used, either dye to be set with a little alum ; boil in a tin vessel. Have the dye-stuffs well dissolved and strained from impurities before immersing the eggs, and then, if you keep them stirring all the while, they will be painted over evenly. If you want speckled eggs, dot about with white wax or oil, as you did for your mottoes, and the desired effect will be produced. A neater way though, of engraving eggs is to dye them first whatever color you wish, and then with a penknife scrape upon them any device that occurs to you, leaving thus a tracery of white upon a colored ground. Logwood chips will produce a dark purple dye, to be set with a small bit of copperas. A good yellow may be got by boiling the eggs in onion skins, steeped in hot water, or by taking two parts of black oak bark, and one part of hickory and boiling in water, with a lump of alum for the mordant. Or, if you wish some eggs yellow, and some green, first dye your eggs in a pan of hot water colored with turmeric tied up in a little muslin bag, and when you have dyed as many in that way as you wish, stir into it enough of druggist's blue indigo

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.