Can you really make dyes in all colors of the rainbow with vegetable scraps and other earthy organic things?
Tons of Pinterest posts claim that you’ve got the option to.
We wanted to be sure.
Onion Skins Just Make Eggs Brown
I had high hopes for this one.
Ive used onion skins successfully in the past to dye wool yarn.
(They turned white yarn a beautiful golden yellow).
My results here were disappointing, though.
First, lets clarify: we are indeed talking about onionskins, not the onions themselves.
Pick up a few onions and put them down, and the skins will slip off into your hand.
Stuff your bag: it feels like youre stealing, but this is literally the grocery stores garbage.
To dye the eggs, you boil them with onion skins.
And some say you need vinegar in the mix.
I tried every combination of these and got basically the same result every time.
Red onions are supposed to give you…pale green?
What Actually Happened: Brown.
Do you like brown eggs?
Then you probably would have bought brown eggs in the first place and dont need this technique.
I did not get any yellow, or any red, or any pale green.
I got differenthonestly beautifulshades of brown.
The first egg I boiled with red onion skins came out looking like it was made of wood.
Go for it if you like it, I guess.
Your Kitchen Will Smell Like: Onions.
Not a bad smell.
Or onions and vinegar, which is maybe less nice.
You just boil the onion skins, and theres nothing much to clean upjust rinse out the pot.
Also, red cabbage is purple, definitely not blue.
Cabbage is easy to find in the grocery store, but mine only had it in massive quantities.
I had to buy a head of cabbage the same size as my own actual head.
I chopped about a third of it, and added it to boiling water with an egg.
At first, I was disappointed.
I boiled the egg with the cabbageforeverand got lavender cabbage in lavender water, with the egg still white.
I added vinegar and boiled a bit longer, and the waterturned pinkbut still no luck.
This egg had maybe a faint tinge of lavender and thats it.
What Youre Supposed to Get: Robins egg blue
What Actually Happened: I got robins egg blue!
Some magic must have happened in the fridge overnight.
The egg I pulled out in the morning was a very deep blue.
Your Kitchen Will Smell Like: Cabbage and vinegar.
Im sure I have ancestors who will disown me for saying this, but cabbage smells awful.
Anyway, the color is worth it.
Also, youll have lots of leftover cabbage.
Pull out your best sauerkraut recipes!
The eggs picked up no red color, even after an overnight soak.
So I went back and got the giant bunch of fresh beets.
Where were we again?
Oh yes, dyeing eggs.
What Youre Supposed to Get: Pink.
What Actually Happened: At first, I thought I was in for more disappointment.
I boiled an egg with the beets, and got a pale canary yellow.
Twenty minutes in the dye gives an egg a nice shade of light hot pink.
Overnight, it gets even deeper.
Unfortunately, the pink color began to fade after a few weeks in the fridge.
Your Kitchen Will Smell Like: Beets (faintly), then vinegar.
And after you boil them, theyre perfectly cooked and ready to eat, so hey, free dinner.
Turmeric Reliably Makes Eggs Yellow
Turmeric is the yellow spice we all know from Indian cooking.
Its what gives store-bought curry powder that yellow color.
Go to an Indian grocery instead,and get a quart-size bag of the stuff for next to nothing.
What Youre Supposed to Get: Yellow.
What Actually Happened: I got yellow.
Do you like yellow?
This gives you yellow.
Its not a strong smell, so dont worry about it.
I didnt venture to strain it out with a paper towel, but that might be possible.
If you want yellow eggs, simmer 6 tablespoons of turmeric with a cup or two of water.
Dip the eggs in the resulting soup for a few minutes.
If you want pink eggs, start with fresh beets.
Dyeing time is minutes to hours, depending on how deep you want your pink.
If you want blue eggs, boil some cabbage and let the cabbage water cool.
Onion skins are fun to experiment with, but dont expect to get blood red or pale green.
Youll see shades of orangey-brown to browney-brown.
If thats your thing, enjoy!
