Have you ever used onion skins to dye your Easter eggs?
Easter is around the corner, so I’m sharing my grandmother’s recipe of the most beautiful, cheap, easy and natural egg dye: onion skins.
Growing up my vanaema (Estonian for grandmother) always dyed her Easter eggs with onion skins. As a kid, I thought the patterns were cool but found the shades of orange and brown too "old school". Like many young kids, I preferred the vibrant colours that came from food colour and store-bought egg painting kits. But by the time I was a teenager old school became retro. The neon and pastel dyes of my childhood had lost my interest and I found myself drawn to my vanaema's retro eggs. Natural egg dye with onion skins is a tradition in Eastern Europe and probably the most popular way to dye Easter eggs.
These eggs are so easy to make, they're all natural and always unique.
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You will need dry skins from about 12 onions for 12 eggs. I use both yellow and red onion skins for a variety of shades. If you plan ahead, you can start collecting skins in the weeks before you plan to dye them, but if like me you decide to dye on a whim, then I suggest heading to your local grocery store where there are usually plenty of loose dried skins under the fresh onions.
If you want solid coloured eggs, you can boil the onion skins in a pot of water, then cook the eggs in the red water.
Personally, I prefer the look of the skins wrapped around the eggs. The idea is to wrap the the onion skins tightly around the eggs before boiling. After you boil the wrapped egg, the pattern of the skins will be printed on the egg.
To do this, wrap the onion skins around the egg in a layer or two.
You can use whatever you have on hand to keep the skins in place. I find cheesecloth or a nylon stocking are easiest to use, by placing the wrapped egg into the piece of cheesecloth, twisting it tightly around the egg and then tying a string around it. But if you don't have cheesecloth on hand, I've also used elastic bands and butchers twine to keep the onion skins in place. In a pinch, I once used hair elastics. As long as the onion skins are wrapped tight against the egg, it doesn't matter what you use to fasten them.
Bring the water to a boil and reduce heat to medium then add the wrapped eggs. Boil the wrapped eggs for 12-15 minutes then remove the eggs from the pot and place them in a bowl of cold water.
You can use the dye water more than once, but your next batches will be darker than your first.
When the eggs are cooled remove the onion skins and enjoy!