This year's eggs — a little more subtle

April 7, 2012

Here are the finished eggs, after about 24 hours in their natural dye immersions as described in this post yesterday.

Just as I suspected when I had already prepared the dyes and then went back and read my own blog posts from previous years (see 2011 here and 2007 here), I should have increased the quantity of the vegetable matter because I was coloring three eggs in each mixture instead of just one.

Even so, there is something to be said for subtle coloration, too. Right?

Turmeric seems to always stain a reliable golden yellow, no matter how much (or little) you use.

The blue eggs are from red cabbage, and if you check the 2011 photo at the top of yesterday's blog post, you'll see that it can create a pretty intense blue.

The third color, new for me this year,  is that mauve, which came from grated red beet. I had hoped for a clearer pink or even a magenta, and I might have gotten a more intense color had I increased the amount of grated beet, or even if I had used a different kind of beet.

But the experimenting is really half the fun, isn't it? I mean, who wants boring predictable results? You can get that by buying plastic eggs!

So, what's next? Deviled eggs, of course! My grandmother used to color the whites after cutting the eggs in half to make deviled eggs, and since I saved the liquids from the egg dyeing, I just might be up for another experiment. Stay tuned, because of course I'll share the results here.