Dyeing for eggs
My dad is in a hardboiled egg mood. He made nearly two dozen this morning, then insisted on buying two dozen more eggs at the store. He then made one more dozen, setting the final dozen aside for actual cooking. Some of the eggs he cooked were cracked, so we pulled those to make deviled eggs tomorrow; the rest were mine to color. Well, except the few that got eaten.
After last year's tie-dye kit, I opted to go with the marble kit this time. I haven't tried marbleized eggs in a couple decades, at which point I was too young to actually do them myself and it was mainly my dad doing the coloring. I recall it being a pain and messy. However, it being a long-ago-enough time that I'm basically the same age my dad was when he did it, let's give it a go again. This was a totally different brand, too; I don't recall the original, but it wasn't Paas. This is the only brand I see at our store. Not that I'm looking that hard.
At first, I wasn't too impressed by it. You do get nine dyes, and they've finally gotten smart--to figure out which color is which, they tell you to rub the dye pellets on a damp paper towel. Why it took them this long to think of mentioning that, I'll never know, but it worked pretty well. I should've gotten a picture of it, but at least now I know the trick. I ended up doing a set of regular-dyed eggs first, then went with the way the kit described.
To make the marbling, you add vegetable oil (I used canola, specifically) to the dye. This then ruins the dye for anything else, so if you want standard, solid-colored eggs, do them first. I had done a quick dip of another nine eggs to get a sort of base coat on them, then dipped them in the oily dye. Doing the same color on itself didn't really work that well, save for one of the blue dyes; otherwise it didn't really show up. That was a bummer. I finally took those eggs and started dipping them in different colors, and that worked better. It really worked best on the plain white eggs, except the oil prevented the dye from going too many places, it seemed. Like, the first time I dyed the white eggs in the oily dye, not a lot got colored. Even after a few more dips, you could tell I'd started with a white egg, except for the one that went in the purple, which permeated the whole thing. I will say some of the color combos ended up kind of interesting-looking, and overall I think I did like this better than the tie-dye, which was very time-consuming because of the technique. Since you got so many dyes, you could in theory do multiple eggs at once, but you're supposed to turn them continuously for 30 seconds to get the dye around the whole egg. That really didn't happen, but sometimes it did; mostly, it just beaded up and rolled right off, and it was only on the initial dipping that you got any color. I also tended to dip mine for a full minute, which also seemed to help.
Equipment-wise, you do need to cover your workspace with a couple layers of newspaper. I'd keep a roll of paper towels handy--I found myself wiping off the oily eggs after their dry-time, just before dipping them again. The oil gets everywhere, including your hands, though on the plus side they'll probably get softer temporarily. Gloves would be a good idea for little hands. Definitely have adult supervision for little ones. The oil gives an extra layer of mess to things, plus it makes the eggs slippery. Also, since you are using oil, you'll need to throw out anything the eggs touch while they're drying. This meant I lost two egg trays today, which was a bummer--I lost the tie-dye box from last year, and a general box from at least two years ago, if not longer, that I was able to reuse from past years. If it's just water and dye, it'll dry, but oil will turn rancid. Nobody wants that in their cupboards. This problem could be solved by buying eggs in cardboard containers, but I don't think our store stocks them in anything but styrofoam, which I've found prevents the eggs from drying properly. I may need to look up a solution.
Overall, this wasn't a bad way to dye eggs, though I'm not sure it's something I'd want to do yearly. Maybe every 2-3 years, once I stock up on egg trays again.
After last year's tie-dye kit, I opted to go with the marble kit this time. I haven't tried marbleized eggs in a couple decades, at which point I was too young to actually do them myself and it was mainly my dad doing the coloring. I recall it being a pain and messy. However, it being a long-ago-enough time that I'm basically the same age my dad was when he did it, let's give it a go again. This was a totally different brand, too; I don't recall the original, but it wasn't Paas. This is the only brand I see at our store. Not that I'm looking that hard.
At first, I wasn't too impressed by it. You do get nine dyes, and they've finally gotten smart--to figure out which color is which, they tell you to rub the dye pellets on a damp paper towel. Why it took them this long to think of mentioning that, I'll never know, but it worked pretty well. I should've gotten a picture of it, but at least now I know the trick. I ended up doing a set of regular-dyed eggs first, then went with the way the kit described.
To make the marbling, you add vegetable oil (I used canola, specifically) to the dye. This then ruins the dye for anything else, so if you want standard, solid-colored eggs, do them first. I had done a quick dip of another nine eggs to get a sort of base coat on them, then dipped them in the oily dye. Doing the same color on itself didn't really work that well, save for one of the blue dyes; otherwise it didn't really show up. That was a bummer. I finally took those eggs and started dipping them in different colors, and that worked better. It really worked best on the plain white eggs, except the oil prevented the dye from going too many places, it seemed. Like, the first time I dyed the white eggs in the oily dye, not a lot got colored. Even after a few more dips, you could tell I'd started with a white egg, except for the one that went in the purple, which permeated the whole thing. I will say some of the color combos ended up kind of interesting-looking, and overall I think I did like this better than the tie-dye, which was very time-consuming because of the technique. Since you got so many dyes, you could in theory do multiple eggs at once, but you're supposed to turn them continuously for 30 seconds to get the dye around the whole egg. That really didn't happen, but sometimes it did; mostly, it just beaded up and rolled right off, and it was only on the initial dipping that you got any color. I also tended to dip mine for a full minute, which also seemed to help.
Equipment-wise, you do need to cover your workspace with a couple layers of newspaper. I'd keep a roll of paper towels handy--I found myself wiping off the oily eggs after their dry-time, just before dipping them again. The oil gets everywhere, including your hands, though on the plus side they'll probably get softer temporarily. Gloves would be a good idea for little hands. Definitely have adult supervision for little ones. The oil gives an extra layer of mess to things, plus it makes the eggs slippery. Also, since you are using oil, you'll need to throw out anything the eggs touch while they're drying. This meant I lost two egg trays today, which was a bummer--I lost the tie-dye box from last year, and a general box from at least two years ago, if not longer, that I was able to reuse from past years. If it's just water and dye, it'll dry, but oil will turn rancid. Nobody wants that in their cupboards. This problem could be solved by buying eggs in cardboard containers, but I don't think our store stocks them in anything but styrofoam, which I've found prevents the eggs from drying properly. I may need to look up a solution.
Overall, this wasn't a bad way to dye eggs, though I'm not sure it's something I'd want to do yearly. Maybe every 2-3 years, once I stock up on egg trays again.