How to cook Easter eggs. Easter eggs

On April 12, Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter. One of the main culinary attributes of the holiday is colored eggs. It would seem that a simple action - boiling eggs - sometimes causes difficulties for housewives. If you overcook or undercook eggs, they, for example, may either burst, or be unsuitable for a particular salad recipe, or even become tasteless. the site offers several tips for housewives planning to boil and paint eggs for the Resurrection of Christ.

Rules

• Never boil eggs straight from the refrigerator because very cold eggs placed in hot water are more likely to burst.
• Use a timer - there is no point in trying to guess how long the eggs were cooked.
• Never cook eggs too long, otherwise the yolks will turn black and the whites will look like rubber.
• To cook eggs whole, always use a small saucepan - too much space can cause the eggs to smack together and crack.
• Never bring water to a boil; you need to cook the eggs over medium heat.
• White eggs cook faster than brown eggs. The latter have a stronger shell, so they are less likely to crack.
• To increase the boiling point and to avoid cracks, add a pinch of table salt to the water.
• To clean the shell better, after boiling the eggs, you should immediately dip them in cold water for 1-2 minutes.

Eggs can be placed in either cold or boiling water. However, they will turn out very different.

1st method

Pour boiling water into the pan until it completely covers the eggs. Then quickly but carefully, using a tablespoon, drop the eggs into the water one at a time. Set the timer and cook the eggs at a simmer for exactly one minute. Remove the pan from the heat and cover it with a lid. Set the timer again and measure the time:

• 6 minutes to obtain a soft yolk with set but runny white;
• 7 minutes to obtain a firmer yolk with a completely set white.

2nd method

Place the eggs in a saucepan, cover with cold water, put on high heat and, as soon as they boil, reduce the heat and measure the time:

• 3 minutes if you want a semi-liquid egg;
• 4 minutes for the white to set and the yolk to remain runny;
• 5 minutes so that both the yolk and white are cooked, but a bright yellow liquid spot remains in the very middle.

Fresh homemade eggs are boiled for 8-13 minutes from the moment of boiling.

We paint

Open sources on the Internet.

A classic of the genre - onion skins. Depending on the volume, the color is more or less saturated. Green eggs are obtained by boiling them with herbs (for example, nettle), yellow eggs with turmeric, purple eggs with violet flowers, brown eggs with walnut shells or ground coffee.

In the last few years, there has been a special film with pictures on sale that, when compressed in boiling water, “hugs” the egg. The eggs are painted by hand with special food paints and decorated with beads.

According to legend, when Mary Magdalene presented an egg as a gift to Emperor Tiberius as a symbol of the Resurrection of Christ, the emperor, having doubts, said that just as an egg does not turn from white to red, so the dead do not rise again. The egg immediately turned red. Although eggs are painted in different colors, the traditional one is red as the color of life and victory.

Almost every family used to know how to paint eggs for Easter. Many people traditionally paint with onion skins. Today you can purchase a variety of dyes, stickers, and special wrappers before the holiday.

Buying eggs for Easter: should you buy them fresh or not?

To boil eggs, you must first buy them. Or keep laying hens. If you buy loose eggs from the supermarket, check each one. A barely noticeable crack will send the egg into an omelet or Easter cake.

Eggs have a relatively long shelf life. When it is completely fresh (up to two days), it is better to cook it soft-boiled for a light breakfast. Eggs older than five days can be painted for Easter. They are easier to cook and easier to clean.

How to check the freshness of eggs?

Shake. A stale egg has a squishing sound. With a fresh one, nothing inside dangles when shaken.

Launch the egg on the counter or any flat surface like a top. An egg suitable for hard-boiled cooking, that is, one that is at least 5 days old, will spin like a spinning top for a long time and happily. A daily allowance won’t even make a circle.

You can drown an egg at home. A floating egg runs the risk of becoming rotten. But you will only know this when you break it.

How to choose the right color?

You can paint eggs with different colors, but the main color has traditionally been bright red.

According to legend, after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, his disciples and followers everywhere proclaimed that they no longer had to be afraid of death: Christ himself had risen and would resurrect everyone who believed in him. Mary Magdalene came with this news to the Roman Emperor Tiberius. It was not customary to come to him without gifts. Maria came with a simple chicken egg. When she began to tell Tiberius about the resurrection of Christ, the emperor laughed: “This is as impossible as your white egg turning into red.” The egg in Magdalena's hands turned red. In memory of this event, we paint eggs.

If we paint with onion peels, depending on the color of the peel and its quantity, the color of the eggs turns out to be from light red to dark brown. If you want the color to be more saturated, you need to take more husks and cook them for about half an hour before adding the eggs to the broth.

Eggs can be rubbed with beets and blueberries to get red shades, carrots for a yellow shade, orange and lemon too. Grate eggs with spinach and you'll get a green color; red cabbage will give you a pretty bright blue color.

They also make patterns on eggs: they put different blades of grass and leaves on them - parsley, for example - wrap them tightly in cloth and boil them.

How to boil eggs?

Do not boil eggs that have just been taken out of the refrigerator. Because cold eggs that fall into hot water will burst. They need to be kept at room temperature for about an hour; when cooking, you can add a tablespoon of salt to the water.

Place the eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, after seven minutes you will have fully cooked eggs. Then pour cold water over them and hold them in it until they are cool enough to handle - about 2 minutes.

Don't cook eggs for too long. Otherwise, the yolks will turn black and the whites will look like rubber. If the eggs are very fresh (less than 4 days), cook them 3 minutes longer. Remember that in a large pan there is a lot of space; eggs, if there are few of them, may bump against each other and crack.

Sometimes eggs are washed in a soapy solution before painting, and after cooling, they and the dye are dipped in it overnight. It is believed that the color will be more saturated.

To make colored eggs shine, they are wiped dry and greased with sunflower oil.

Welded and painted. What's next?

Painted eggs are served at the festive Easter table; it is customary to give them to each other throughout the Easter week. The egg was a symbol of nascent and renewed life.

At Easter festivities, games with eggs were often held. For example, in villages they “rolled” eggs. They chose a small plot of land and trampled it down to make a flat area. Shallow holes were made in the ground. Each of the participants brought their own colored eggs, which were laid out in holes. The task of each participant was to roll the egg he liked out of the hole - then he became the winner. The eggs were rolled out using a special rag ball with flattened sides, similar to a wheel.

Children and adults, lightly hitting eggs against each other, competed to see whose was stronger. The owner of the “winning egg” took away the cracked one.

To store eggs for a whole year until next Easter, they began to be made of wood and painted with patterns. Later, eggs made of porcelain and silver with precious stones appeared.

The meanings of the symbols used when painting Easter eggs:

pine- health;

pigeon- soul;

mesh– fate (white color is the beginning of all beginnings: fate, which is being built in the sky, yellow mesh is a symbol of the sun and fate, which is being built here);

oak tree– strength;

hops, dots, any berry– fertility;

plums- Love;

flowers- girlhood.

How to quickly peel eggs?

Crack the shell of the egg, then begin removing it from the blunt end under running water. The water will wash away all the little pieces of shell.

Very soon, entire baskets of boiled eggs for Easter will appear on every table in Belarus. It is from this product, beautifully painted and, of course, consecrated in the church, and also from the threefold greetings - “Christ is risen!”, “Truly is risen!” — Easter breakfast will begin in Belarusian families on May 5th.

It's no secret that chicken eggs are a tasty and healthy product - they are a valuable source of protein necessary for the development and proper functioning of the body. And in general, they have a lot of good things: amino acids, macro- and microelements, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium and much more. But how to properly boil these same eggs so that the holiday is not overshadowed by the peeling of the shell from the white and vice versa? The culinary portal site, especially for its readers, cooked... eggs day after day for a week, using the most popular methods. We’ll find out which of them are the most effective right now.

For the experiment, we used 4 fresh eggs and 4 eggs that were far from being fresh, but had been aged for 10 days in a kitchen cupboard. By the way, ten days of aging, contrary to our fears, did not spoil their taste and color at all. And yes, we marked eggs that were not quite fresh with a cross so as not to confuse them.

First, we boiled two eggs, adding plenty of salt to the water. The fresh egg was not cleaned very well: the shell did not come off and came off with a layer of white.

The “baptized” egg generally burst during the cooking process. But the presence of salt in the water did not allow it to “spread” throughout the pan, and it cleaned just fine!

Conclusion: Boiling fresh eggs in salt water is a bad idea. But, if you don’t want the cracked egg to spread all over the pan, then always salt the water.

Shall we add vinegar?

But of course! After all, the second method of boiling eggs popular on the Internet is boiling with the addition of vinegar. This, to put it mildly, unusual option did not inspire confidence at first. And it showed itself, like the previous method, in two ways. The fresh egg was not peeled at all - just torture! It was a shame to even crumble it into a salad, let alone serve it on the table. But the shell of the “old” egg came off without any problems.

Conclusion: If there is still a bottle of vinegar left in the refrigerator from the autumn sunset season, feel free to pour its contents into a pan with eggs.

The following option is described in many cookbooks. Its essence is to pierce the blunt end of the egg with a thin needle before cooking. Next, put it in cold water and gradually bring it to a boil. Some recipes add salt and some don't. We decided to add (a proven method!). Both the fresh egg and the one that had been sitting in the cupboard were cleaned perfectly!

Conclusion: Feel free to use this method with all the eggs in the refrigerator. Cleaning them afterwards is a pleasure. How to determine the blunt side of an egg? Tell the egg your favorite joke, the side that won't laugh, and poke it! ;)

"Lenten" cooking

Finally, we decided to boil the eggs just like that - without anything. The fresh egg was not very clean, but the old one was great, as always!

Conclusion: Even eggs don’t like to be skimped on and prefer to be boiled in water with additives.

What's the secret? Judging by the experiment, in order to have a delicious and beautiful breakfast with a hard-boiled egg, you need to wait... a week until the product is ready for such a significant event. Well, or, as an option, stock up on a needle and a spoon of salt.

On topic

Researchers at the University of Louisiana have experimentally proven that eggs for breakfast are a great way to get rid of extra pounds. The results of the study are as follows: women who ate eggs for breakfast lost weight many times faster. One thing is unknown - how did Louisiana scientists boil their eggs? Nobody knows?..

At Easter, it is customary to paint eggs with different colors, but among the colorful eggs, the central place belongs to bright red eggs. Why?

History has preserved this legend for us. After the resurrection of Jesus Christ, his disciples and followers dispersed to different countries, everywhere proclaiming the good news that there was no longer any need to be afraid of death. Christ, the Savior of the world, defeated her. He resurrected Himself and will resurrect everyone who believes Him and loves people just as He loved.

Mary Magdalene dared to come with this news to the Roman Emperor Tiberius himself. Since it was not customary to come to the emperor without gifts, and Maria had nothing, she came with a simple chicken egg. Of course, she chose the egg with meaning. The egg has always been a symbol of life: in a strong shell there is life hidden from view, which in due course will break out of its lime captivity in the form of a small yellow chicken.

But when Mary began to tell Tiberius that Jesus Christ had also escaped from the deadly shackles and was resurrected, the emperor only laughed: “This is as impossible as your white egg turning into red.” And before Tiberius had time to finish his sentence, the egg in the hands of Mary Magdalene turned completely red.

Since then, in memory of this event, symbolizing our faith in the Risen Lord, we paint eggs.

Painted eggs are not only served at the festive Easter table, it was customary to give them to each other throughout the Easter week. Since ancient times, the egg has been a symbol of nascent and renewed life. Many customs that existed among different peoples are based on this idea. For example, in some places in Russia, an egg was placed in its foundation so that the work of the builders would be carried out, and happiness and prosperity would not leave its future owners.

At Easter in Rus', it was customary to place colored eggs on fresh sprouted greens of oats, wheat, and sometimes on soft green tiny leaves of watercress, which were specially sprouted in advance for the holiday.

At Easter festivities, games with eggs were often held. For example, in villages they “rolled” eggs. They chose a small, flat piece of land and trampled it down to make a flat area. Shallow holes were made in the ground. Each of the participants brought their own painted eggs, which were laid out in holes. The task of each participant was to roll out the egg he liked from the hole - then he became the winner. The eggs were rolled out using a special rag ball with flattened sides, similar to a wheel.

Since there was a custom to store eggs for a whole year until the next Easter, over time, eggs began to be made of wood and painted with ornaments and patterns. Later, eggs made of porcelain, silver and precious stones appeared.

How to boil eggs?

The answer to this question is very carefully. First you need to remember a few rules.

Never boil eggs straight from the refrigerator, because very cold eggs that are placed in hot water are likely to burst. Use a timer—trying to guess how long the eggs were cooked and constantly reminding yourself to look at the clock is not worth it. Never cook eggs too long (unless you have a timer) - the yolks will turn black and the whites will be rubbery. If the eggs are very fresh (less than 4 days), cook them 3 minutes longer. Always use a small saucepan - too much space can cause the eggs to smack together and crack. Never bring to a boil; you need to cook them over medium heat. Remember that eggs have a pad at the blunt end where air collects. During cooking, pressure may build up there and the shell will crack. To To avoid this, pierce the egg at the blunt end with a needle to allow steam to escape. Of course, everyone likes eggs cooked differently.

I offer the simplest method for boiling eggs that you can rely on regardless of taste.

Soft-boiled eggs, method 1

First of all, you need to pour boiling water into a small saucepan so that the water exceeds the eggs by 1 cm. Then quickly but carefully, using a tablespoon, lower the eggs into the water one at a time. Then turn on the timer and cook the eggs at a boil for exactly 1 minute. Then remove the pan from the heat and cover it with a lid, set the timer again and measure:

6 minutes to obtain a soft yolk with set but runny white

7 minutes to obtain a firmer yolk with a completely set white.

Soft-boiled eggs, method 2

Another method that works just as well. This time you need to put the eggs in a saucepan, add cold water, put on high heat and as soon as they boil, reduce the heat and measure:

3 minutes if you want a semi-liquid egg

4 minutes for the white to “set” and the yolk to remain runny

5 minutes so that both the yolk and white are cooked, but a bright yellow liquid spot remains in the very middle.

Hard-boiled eggs

Place the eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, set the timer for 6 minutes if you want eggs slightly runny in the middle, 7 minutes if you want fully cooked eggs.

Then it is very important to quickly douse them with cold water. Run them under cold running water for 1 minute, then let them sit in the cold water until they are cool enough to handle—about 2 minutes.

Peeling hard-boiled eggs

Peel boiled eggs It can also be difficult, especially if the eggs are too fresh. So rule number one is to cook your eggs at least 5 days after the date they were packaged. The easiest way to peel them is to first crack the shell all over the egg, then hold it under running water, starting with the blunt end. The water will wash away all the little pieces of shell. Then the eggs need to be placed in cold water again until they are completely cool. If you don't cool the eggs quickly, they will continue to cook, overcook, and the blackened yolk problem will reappear.

The beautiful coloring of quail eggs makes them an excellent alternative to chicken eggs, and they are just as easy to prepare. Again, they should not be too fresh, and it is better to cook them using the first method, putting them in boiling water for 5 minutes. Then cool them quickly and peel as described above.

HOW TO PAINT EGGS

1. To color eggs, it is best to use onion peels, which are collected in advance. Depending on the color of the husk, the color of the eggs ranges from light red to dark brown. If you want the color to be more saturated, you need to take more husks and cook them for about half an hour.
   sa before lowering the eggs into the broth. The almost purple eggs come from the skins of red onions. You can also paint with birch leaves or food coloring.

   To prevent the eggs from bursting during cooking, they must be kept warm or at room temperature for about an hour; during cooking, you can add a tablespoon of salt to the water.

   Some families maintain the custom of dyeing eggs “speckled.” To do this, wet eggs are rolled in dry rice, wrapped in gauze (the ends of the gauze must be tied tightly with thread so that the rice sticks to the egg) and then boiled in onion skins in the usual way.

   To make colored eggs shine, they are wiped dry and greased with sunflower oil.

   You can boil eggs wrapped in multi-colored threads, then they will produce interesting patterns.

   In order for the eggs to be colored from the inside and not the outside, you need to boil them for 3 minutes, then take them out and pierce the shell with a needle in some places, and then boil for another 1-1.5 minutes in a strong brew with the addition of cloves, cinnamon and coriander.

   To quickly color eggs, boil them for 10 minutes with some vegetable: spinach (green) or chopped beets (bright red). For a marbled effect, wrap the eggs in onion skins and tie some cotton material over the top.

NATURAL DYES FOR EGGS

Ocher
4 cups red onion skins. Boil eggs for 30 minutes - 1 hour. Depending on the soaking time, the eggs will turn from bright scarlet to dark red.

Gilding
Add 2-3 tablespoons of turmeric to hot water and boil to make the color more intense.

Pink
Soak boiled eggs in cranberry or beet juice.

Violet
Add violet flowers to hot water and soak overnight. Adding a little lemon juice to water will give you a lavender color.

Blue
Two heads of finely chopped red cabbage, 500 ml water and 6 tbsp white vinegar. Soak overnight to create a deep blue color.

Green
Add 1 teaspoon of soda to the mixture to obtain a purple color or boil eggs with spinach.

Lavender
Soak eggs in grape juice.

Pastel colors
For soft pinks and blues, rub the shells with a handful of blueberries or cranberries.

Beige
4 cups yellow onion skins. Boil for 30 minutes - 1 hour. The amount of husk and the duration of boiling affect the color saturation.

Dark brown
Boil eggs in 250 ml of coffee.

Reference
The meanings of the symbols used when painting Easter eggs:

Pine- a symbol of health.
Black- the color of sorrow. A bright pattern was necessarily applied to the black base. The child had a pysanka made on a cherry background, not on a black one.
Pigeon- symbol of the soul.
Mesh- a symbol of fate.
White- the beginning of all beginnings: destiny, which is built in the sky.
Yellow mesh- a symbol of the sun and fate that is being built here.
Oak- a symbol of strength.
Dots- a symbol of fertility.
Plums- a symbol of love.
Hop- a symbol of fertility.
Any berry- symbol of fertility; mother.
Flowers- a symbol of girlhood.

Cook the eggs until fully cooked (hard-boiled) from the moment of boiling, placing them in cold water.
Slightly undercooked eggs are cooked a little less: to obtain soft-boiled eggs, they are boiled in a bag -.
Cook homemade fresh chicken eggs longer - from 8 (soft-boiled) to 13 minutes (hard-boiled).

How to simply color eggs

For Easter, eggs are painted and Easter cakes are baked during Holy Week on Maundy Thursday, which in 2019 falls on April 28. At Easter, eggs are not only eaten, but also given to each other with the words “Christ is Risen!” and receive the answer: “Truly he is risen!” - this must be taken into account when calculating the required number of Easter eggs. Usually at least a dozen are painted.

Products
White eggs - 10 pieces
Salt - 1 tablespoon
Vegetable oil - 1 teaspoon
Water - 1.5 liters
Onion peel - 3 handfuls

How to color eggs with onion skins
1. Prepare onion peels; to do this, remove the dry shells from about 15 onions (you can also buy the peels in large stores in advance; there are usually none left for Easter).
2. Wash the eggs thoroughly under running water; the type stamp can be erased with a sponge and detergent. There should be no cracks on the shell into which paint will penetrate during cooking, since it will leave unappetizing stains on the protein.
3. Place 25 grams of onion peels (3 handfuls) in a saucepan and add 1.5 liters of cold water. Onion peels can stain the enamel of the pan, so it is better to use old cookware.
4. Place the pan with onion skins on the stove, bring the contents to a boil and cook for 10 minutes over low heat with a lid.
5. Cool the resulting broth, which by the end of cooking will acquire a rich red-brown color.
6. Strain the broth through a sieve or colander. In order for the eggs to color evenly, there should be no pieces of husk in the coloring composition. You don’t have to strain it, but in this case, streaks may remain on the eggs.
7. Add 1 tablespoon of salt to the slightly cooled coloring broth and lay out the eggs, which should be completely covered with the broth. It is better to lay out the eggs in one layer, and if they do not fit, paint in several batches.
8. Bring the contents of the pan to a boil and cook over low heat for 10 minutes.
9. After finishing cooking, you can immediately remove the eggs, or you can leave them in the broth until they cool to get a richer color. The coloring composition can be reused if you need to color a large number of eggs.
10. Place the cooled eggs on a paper towel and blot the water.

The resulting Easter eggs will be bright red in color. To get light-colored eggs, boil the eggs in onion water and then remove from it. To get richly colored eggs, just keep the eggs in onion broth for 2 hours. To get burgundy eggs, use red onion skins.

Quail and chicken eggs boiled in onion skins
The color of Easter eggs is from bright red to burgundy, the total cooking time is 1-2 hours.

Not only chicken eggs, but also quail eggs are dyed in onion peels. Onion peels can also be used in a more original way: put on eggs, secure with cotton thread and then boil. The eggs will acquire color and an original pattern.

To make a colored egg: pour 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil into your palms and rub. Take each egg and roll it in your palms. As a result of this manipulation, the eggs will become shiny and their color will become brighter.

How to color eggs with dyes

If you want even more originality, paint quail eggs, turkey eggs or guinea fowl eggs for Easter.

How to make original colored eggs 1. Soak the eggs in water and roll in rice. Place each egg in a piece of bandage and tie it on top. Next, cook in any of the described coloring compositions: onion peels, beet broth or brilliant green solution.
2. Similarly, instead of rice, you can use buckwheat, herbs, leaves, and millet.
3. Wrap the eggs in cotton threads, preferably thick ones, and cook in any coloring composition. Under the threads, the shell will be slightly stained, so an intricate pattern will appear on the egg.

Eggs in rice
4. Place the eggs in a saucepan, add water and cook after boiling for 10 minutes. Cool under running cold water and dry with paper towel. Using a sponge, apply freshly squeezed juice from carrots, beets, red or yellow bell peppers to the eggs.
5. Young birch leaves easily stick to the egg. If such an egg is boiled in a coloring composition, a stencil of a leaf will remain on it.
6. You can use various wrappers and stickers on industrially produced eggs, or you can show your imagination and paint painted eggs with food paints, varnish or gouache.
7. Various wrappers and stickers for eggs are sold - during the pre-Easter season in almost all grocery stores. They look cute, but there is no personal participation in the creative process of decorating eggs. In addition, eggs with thermal stickers are not suitable for long-term storage; after a couple of days their shelf life will expire.
8. Easter eggs can be painted with watercolors - they are harmless to health.

How to color eggs with beets

How to dye eggs with tea

How to dye eggs with turmeric

How to dye eggs with coffee

How to paint eggs with birch leaves

How to paint eggs with brilliant green and onion peels in a marbled manner

How else to paint eggs