Easter Eggs

Ingredients

• various colored dyes
• piece of figured chintz or calico
• skins of red onions
• Brazil wood
• Persian berries, or a very little turmeric
• logwood
• chromate of potash
• powdered indigo
• dry slacked lime

Method

1. 1

   Boil eggs with various colored dyes or tie in chintz for imprint.

2. 2

   For variegated colors, boil with red onion skins.

3. 3

   Use chemicals for colors: Brazil wood for red, turmeric for yellow, logwood for brown, and a mixture of indigo and iron for blue.

4. 4

   Boil eggs for at least ten minutes.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Home dissertations (1891) by Tilton, E. Stevens Mrs., page 122. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

EASTER EGGS. Easter morning would be incomplete, for the children at least, without the brightly- colored eggs typical of the day. There are many ways of coloring the eggs, the easiest being the boiling of them with various colored dyes sold in small packages at the chem- ists'. An old-fashioned method was to tie each egg in a piece of figured chintz or calico, which would leave its imprint on the egg after it was exposed to the action of boiling water. Another good way to produce a variegated reddish purple color was to boil with the eggs the skins of red onions. To color the eggs with original designs, a provincial method was to trace figures upon the shells of raw eggs with a bit of hard tallow candle, thus covering the part of the shell which was desired white, and then to put the eggs in boiling dye-water. Sometimes the eggs are entirely dyed, and then designs are engraved upon them with a sharp knife or a strong trussing or darning needle. When the prepared dye stuffs are not available, varied colors may be produced by using the following named chemicals, boiling a small quantity with the eggs : red, Brazil wood ; yellow, Persian berries, or a very little turmeric ; brown, a strong dye of turmeric ; claret color, logwood ; black, logwood and chromate of potash ; blue, a mixture of powdered indigo, crystals of sulphate of iron, and a little dry slacked lime

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