Harvesting Spring Colors | #9
Preserving a Rainbow
When yellow wood sorrel sourgrass flowers spread across hillsides, appear in crevices, cluster along sidewalks and crowd into my neighbors’ flowerbeds, I feel the urge to once again experiment with natural dyes and experience the surprises they hold. Before I wash my colorful soaking or cooking liquid down the drain, I daydream about how it might be re-purposed to celebrate the new growth and seasonal colors of spring.
This year what comes to mind are the beet-dyed pickled eggs that my mom made after experimenting for weeks to match the ones she bought from huge jars displayed on the stainless counters at Philippe’s (originator of the French-dipped sandwich) in Los Angeles.
As kids, we weren’t too enthusiastic about eating this crimson-colored food. My sister Barbara remembers the anticipation of a Sunrise Service at the Hollywood Bowl in the late 50s when mom opened up the picnic hamper and handed her a “purple egg.” Where were the Peeps and pastries? The rest of the morning is lost to history; only the stain of the purple egg remains in her memory. But now Barb laughs when she tells me about it.
Time changes our perspectives and tastes. Today the deep brown liquid from soaking dried shiitake mushrooms and the purple-blue of the water I’ve soaked my black beans in seem too flavorful, colorful, and vitamin-rich to waste. And what about the water I’ve used to steam my red cabbage leaves? It pours out brilliant purple until it hits the discarded lemon halves in my sink. Then it turns pink. And I know that if I add a little baking soda to the pot, the remaining water will turn crystal blue.
That’s when I realize I can use the skills I’ve developed for using natural dyes on fiber to color the prodigious collection of eggs left at our house by the Easter bunny.
This year I’ll recreate my mom’s pickled eggs but in a rainbow of colors. My new challenge is that these dyes must be edible and limited to colors that reflect a pickling solution’s acidic nature.
This recipe is pretty simple and adaptable to your personal taste. I start with a 1-cup batch for one egg to put into an 8-ounce canning jar. That way, I can find out which dyes produce the best color and experiment with my seasoning choices in small batches.
To Create the Pickling Brine/Dye
The important ratio here is a minimum of 1 cup of vinegar per cup of soaking or cooking liquid. For food safety, the CDC recommends a pH of 4.6 or lower for pickled eggs. All other ingredients can be increased or decreased to taste. More tips can be found here.
1 cup soaking or cooking liquid
1 cup vinegar of your choice
½ teaspoon Kosher salt (or more to taste)
1 tablespoon red or white wine (optional)
1 or 2 drops honey (optional)
Seasonings such as herbs, spices, garlic, ginger, etc.
1–2 peeled hard-boiled eggs
Strain soaking liquid OR pour boiling water over dyestuff and let sit until cool. You can also put this into a thermos to steep overnight for more color. Repeat if it looks like more color can be extracted. Strain before using.
Add remaining pickling brine ingredients, tasting and adjusting as you go. I use two spoons—one to take some brine out of the jar to pour into the other spoon for tasting.
Choose from the list of items to season and flavor your pickling brine. Explore your own ideas as well.
Write down what you use because it's hard to remember later.
Heat brine to boiling, then pour some liquid into the jar and add a peeled hard-boiled egg. Fill the jar to the top. Extra brine can be saved to top off the level when you remove eggs for use.
Let cool, then cover and refrigerate overnight. Check color. Eat the ones that aren't perfect.
Hard-Boiled Eggs
Use your favorite method. I put mine on a rack in my Instant Pot and add about 1 cup of water. I set the Pressure to High for 3 minutes and usually let it release naturally, about 10 minutes. Put your boiled eggs into an ice bath to cool before refrigerating them.
Peeling the eggs can be tricky. My mom left her eggs out overnight before boiling, which helped the membrane separate from the white. I've found that if I take a hard-boiled egg from the refrigerator and run hot water over it, then start peeling from the pointed end, the peel seems to come off more easily. It also might help to cross your fingers three times before starting. Note that bits of membrane left on the egg will absorb the dye differently than the white.
Dyestuff Suggestions
Natural dyes are often unpredictable and sometimes magical. It’s easy to become obsessed and find yourself stripping quince blossoms from the tree growing next to your driveway or harvesting sourgrass in your friend’s yard (because someone weeded out all the sourgrass you’d carefully planted in your raised beds last year).
Brown and tan
Leftover coffee or coffee grounds
Adzuki bean soaking water
Dried shiitake soaking water
Red and pink
Red beets
Red cabbage
Red grapes
Red bean soaking water
Quince blossoms
Orange
Yellow and red onion skins
Avocado seeds, chopped up. When exposed to the air, these seeds turn a brilliant orange.
Yellow
Fresh turmeric
Wood sorrel (Oxalis stricta). As kids, we chewed on the stems and called it sourgrass.
Lemon peel
Golden beets
Green
This is a difficult color to capture. Most greens produce a yellow liquid that doesn’t share much color. My best green came from fresh mint leaves steeped in boiling water. The liquid was brownish golden but slowly turned my eggs green. You can also simmer the brine briefly in a cast iron pan and let it cool in the pan to deepen the color.
Blue
The most difficult color to produce in an acidic environment. I finally settled for using red cabbage water with salt but no vinegar. The plain water is a brilliant purple, but it will dye my eggs blue. Since this is not pickled, it should be used sooner after coloring than the others. A hint of vinegar will shift the color into the red range. This is the variable nature of natural dyes.
Purple
Black bean soaking water
Blueberries or blackberries—overripe berries are good.
Seasoning Suggestions
Try any of the following: bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, allspice, cinnamon stick, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, peppercorns, sliced garlic, sliced ginger, sliced shallots, chili flakes.
When you are ready to make a larger quantity of your favorite blend, try a quart canning jar, which holds about seven eggs. Make about 2½ cups of pickling brine to fill the jar.
My hunt for new sources of color is enhanced by help from family and friends. Rosminah Brown, who has written an article about dyeing and stenciling eggs with onion skins, joined me in brainstorming.
Rosminah invited me to harvest sourgrass from her yard and introduced me to Kimberly Hahn, a local artist who forages for local plant sources for ink colors. Kimberly and her daughter experimented with greens and blues and sent me pictures. You know you are working with the right person when she tells you, “I’ve just been reading about the history of the color blue.”
A note of warning: Never expect a natural dye to come out the same twice. The exact color will probably be a one-time-only experience. Part of the fun is sharing your limited-edition egg with friends who appreciate the unpredictability that makes it unique and exciting.
–Nancy Oster
More Egg Recipes
Our favorite dish to make with hard-boiled eggs: Edible Santa Barbara’s Egg Curry recipe.
This sounds intriguing from The Spruce Eats: How to Make Kimchi Pickled Eggs.
We’re craving this Spring Nicoise salad recipe from Edible Marin & Wine Country.
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Amazing what colors are produced! Red Cabbage? Avo seed? So fun!
A little clarity please: you die the peeled egg? So pretty! Kat