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Joni T.

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Traditionally Greeks dye their red eggs on the Thursday of Holy Week. Greeks are really into tradition. I'm wondering what other people have come up with as being easiest. It has taken years of analyzing the way that works best for me, so I thought I'd share.... So, when I was a kid my mother used Ritz red dye, and we used to EAT the eggs. It's a miracle we didn't get poisoned. Then I decided to use red food coloring and eggs came out pink, not the rich red symbolic of the blood of Christ. Then I discovered that the Greek store (I go to Sophia's in Lowell, MA) sells dye specific for dying eggs with directions in both English and Greek on the back. So I followed the directions on the back and dumped the whole packet into a huge pan which ended up hard to clean. As time went on, I discovered I could use only ½ of the packet and use a small container, doing 4 eggs at a time. This year I only used ⅓ of the contents of the packet. So what do you do?
 

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Traditionally you can use red and white onion leaves to color red eggs and tumeric to color yellow eggs.They result in pretty good.(ofcourse not as bright as chemical coloring)
 
Traditionally you can use red and white onion leaves to color red eggs and tumeric to color yellow eggs.They result in pretty good.(ofcourse not as bright as chemical coloring)
Oh wow. Bet that's what Greeks in Greece do. They figured out how to do everything from what they have in nature. Our ancestors were unbelievable!
 
My mother used the same red dye. I don't think you can get that deep red color with anything else. Sometimes the dye would seep into the egg, but we just cut it off. I'm smiling because I remember one Easter when my brother realized what she used. He had a hissy fit! I said to him, "You've been eating these eggs for over 50 years and you're still fine." His response "Who says I'm fine?!" After the eggs were cooled, she would take a soft clean cloth with a little olive oil on it and "polish" the eggs. They looked so beatiful - so red and shiny.
Happy Easter to all from the Boston area! (Though I have been vaccinated, I'm still pretty much in lockdown.
 
My mother used the same red dye. I don't think you can get that deep red color with anything else. Sometimes the dye would seep into the egg, but we just cut it off. I'm smiling because I remember one Easter when my brother realized what she used. He had a hissy fit! I said to him, "You've been eating these eggs for over 50 years and you're still fine." His response "Who says I'm fine?!" After the eggs were cooled, she would take a soft clean cloth with a little olive oil on it and "polish" the eggs. They looked so beatiful - so red and shiny.
Happy Easter to all from the Boston area! (Though I have been vaccinated, I'm still pretty much in lockdown.
What do you use now to dye your eggs?
 
My dying red eggs for Easter is over. When my sister and I retired we de-cluttered our house. The saucepan i made the red eggs in was given away. Ii only used that saucepan for red eggs.i now go to our local Greek cake shop and order them. I still make sort of koulourakia - I just cannot roll them, melamoukarona without syropi, kouranbries without additional icing sugar. Please do not think other Australian-Greeks do that. I have a blended family and I would rather they eat what they enjoy.
 
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My dying red eggs for Easter is over. When my sister and I retired we de-cluttered our house. The saucepan i made the red eggs in was given away. Ii only used that saucepan for red eggs.i now go to our local Greek cake shop and order them. I still make sort of koulourakia - I just cannot roll them, melamoukarona without syropi, kouranbries without additional icing sugar. Please do not think other Australian-Greeks do that. I have a blended family and I would rather they eat what they enjoy.
I didn't know you could order eggs! That's a cool idea i'll have to try it out
 

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