Red Pascha Eggs: Question

[xenia]

Hello,

I have been given the task of dyeing some of the red eggs for Pascha, which Fr. will pass out to the people. In the past, some of the eggs were dripping wet and he had to use gloves and it was a huge mess all around. The reason the eggs were drippy is because they had been stored in the refrigerator and recently removed and the condensation caused the moisture problem.

Being aware of this, in the past I always dyed the eggs a few days in advance (like today- Wed) and kept them out of the refrigerator. They were nice and dry but now I am reading on the Internet that I am in danger of giving all my parishioners salmonella if I don't keep them in the refrigerator until they are needed. This produces those drippy messy eggs I mentioned.

So how long can boiled eggs stay out of the refrigerator safely?

I've boiled and dyed them today (Wed) but I am thinking to store them in the refrigerator and taking them out Sat AM to air out and dry off.... but according to some things I've read, this is still not safe enough.

Seriously, in the past we left boiled eggs out for many days w/o problems but I don't want to poison my parish so I am re-thinking the whole thing.

What is traditionally done? And what do you all think?

 

[ChirpChirp]

Why don't you cover them with grease/fat? Like duck fat or something that's solid at room temperature. You can keep them in the fridge and it makes them shine beautifully. And it also keeps the air out to keep them from spoiling a little longer.

I wouldn't leave them out of the fridge overnight.

Are you using the special egg dye?

 

[xenia]

ChirpChirp, yes, I used that powdered red Greek dye. No duck fat on hand... or bacon grease, either.

 

[ChirpChirp]

Hmm that's a pity because it works really well Can you not buy some in the shop? Or collect some of the fat from any Easter cooking you're doing?

 

[xenia]

ChirpChirp, the timing won't work. Maybe I can plan things differently for next year. The thought of rubbing the eggs with duck fat sounds pleasantly rustic and I might just try it next year. Too late for this year, though. (Too complicated to explain why.) I appreciate your suggestion.

 

[Antony in Tx]

just use butter to polish the eggs. And as for dye, you should be using yellow onion skins with a few purple mixed in. This is the truly traditional dye.

 

[Joseph Hazen]

We use olive oil to 'polish' our eggs, and just yellow onion skins with a little vinegar. I don't think we've ever had dye rub off? Maybe next year try the onion skins - we collect them during all of Lent, and then go to the store and collect one final huge bag of onion skins the day of the dying. You might have less trouble with messiness then.

But our eggs sit in the basket, which is outside, for all of the service until we devour them in the wee hours of the morning...I'd never thought about it being bad in any way.

If they sit out for just the service will that be long enough to form condensation? Maybe you could take them out just before everything begins and by the time Father distributes them, maybe it'll be ok?

 

[ma2000]

If you dye them a few days before, like today , you can keep them in the fridge until Saturday afternoon and then at room temperature. They should be dry by Saturday night and no risk for salmonella.

 

[buzuxi]

For polish do as the greeks. Olive oil on a linen

 

[Greg the byzantine]

Yeah Xenia, Traditionally my grandmother would die them today (Holy Thursday) and just leave them out on the table until Pascha, and we never got sick eating them. I'm a bit hesitant to do the same as I have guests coming for Pascha and wouldn't be too thrilled if they all went home with food poisoning. However, on a curious note, even raw eggs here in the UK are kept out at room temperature in the supermarket, so I really wonder if it is such a big deal to keep hard boiled eggs out of the fridge.

 

[buzuxi]

Greg,

You are correct. In the restaurant business in recent years the health department bagan enforcing temperature on eggs. Basically during breakfast restaurants will have their eggs next to the grill (common sense). Basically they want you to have just enough trays of eggs where you can use them up before they reach room temperature. Then you can run into the walk in and grab some more

This enforcement which is quite recent is also quite absurd. I joke with the health inspector if he thinks that the eggs will hatch if their out for 6 hours. I guess people don't realize eggs have been eaten even before refrigeration existed .

 

[xenia]

Thank you all for the advice. If these eggs were just for me and my family I would have dyed them Thursday, polished them up with some fatty substance (duck grease if I had any) and would have put them in a basket on the table for who knows how long.

But since I love my fellow parishioners, I dyed them Wed, put them in the refrigerator, and will take 'em out on Saturday AM to dry off. If I had time (I don't) I would still polish them up with a little olive oil. All's to say, I need to plan better next year.

All the eggs came from my own hens, though.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Eggs from chickens will stay "good" for a long time. After all, the hens will leave the oldest eggs on the nest for up to a few weeks before ever setting on them, and they still hatch into healthy chicks.

I always keep fresh, clean, unwashed eggs (from my own chickens) on the counter. During very hot weather, they don't keep quite as long, but I've tested and eaten them myself for weeks after they were laid. When you wash them or refrigerate them, you compromise the ability of the egg to stay fresh. Which of course, dyeing would probably do.

I don't have answers to your exact question (for next year, LOL, since eggs are over). We wrapped all our eggs on Saturday afternoon to give out after midnight and the following day, and they came to us very wet, some of them! We dried them off, wrapped them in tulle and ribbon, and kept them in a basket for a day or less under air conditioning.

As a side note, there were a lot of difference in color. The older ladies told me they used brown eggs and Greek dye to get that amazing deep dark red color. The ones from the younger ladies - white eggs and American dye - were pink and often marbled looking.

We had a huge basket of eggs. It had to be carried on a rolling cart because last year the worker who tried to move them put his back out! It makes me wonder how the ones on the bottom didn't get crushed under so much weight.

 

[Dylan Michael]

We never refrigerate hard boiled eggs, unless they aren't going to be eaten for a while.

 

[xenia]

Hi Kylissa,

The eggs all turned out fine, nice and dry. Like those old Greek ladies, I used brown eggs from my own hens and Greek dye and the eggs were that deep red color.

I usually leave fresh eggs from the hens out on the counter, unwashed, for days and days w/out mishap, too. I am not personally very cautious with things like this and never get sick, nor does my family. But I felt I shouldn't take liberties with my fellow parishioners!

I have a lot of red eggs in a basket on the kitchen table that I don't intend to refrigerate, which is my usual practice. I never worried about this until I read some articles on the Internet. But you can read scary articles about just about everything on the Internet. I think the Internet itself is more of a danger than unrefrigerated eggs!

Next year it's gonna be cabbage and onion skin egg coloring.

Christ is risen!

 

[~Anastasia~]

Hi Kylissa,

The eggs all turned out fine, nice and dry. Like those old Greek ladies, I used brown eggs from my own hens and Greek dye and the eggs were that deep red color.

I usually leave fresh eggs from the hens out on the counter, unwashed, for days and days w/out mishap, too. I am not personally very cautious with things like this and never get sick, nor does my family. But I felt I shouldn't take liberties with my fellow parishioners!

I have a lot of red eggs in a basket on the kitchen table that I don't intend to refrigerate, which is my usual practice. I never worried about this until I read some articles on the Internet. But you can read scary articles about just about everything on the Internet. I think the Internet itself is more of a danger than unrefrigerated eggs!

Next year it's gonna be cabbage and onion skin egg coloring.

Christ is risen!

Glad to hear it all worked out well.

I have left eggs in winter for as long as 6 weeks or so (when I had 100 chickens and more eggs than we could eat or sell!). I never got sick from them either.

But I baked brownies for the parish picnic, and I didn't want to subject anyone to possible sickness either. Our eggs have not been as clean as I want lately, because we've had a lot of flooding. So instead of my fresh eggs, I used some I had from before that I collected fresh, washed, and refrigerated. They are fine for baking, and I know they are safe. Just in case, I wouldn't want to give the eggs from the past couple of weeks to anyone else. So I know what you mean.

Yes, the internet gives lots of scary advice. I had to explain to all my fresh egg customers back when a lot of information came out online. I offered to sanitize and refrigerate eggs just as the commercial egg sellers do, if they preferred. But once they understood why I don't wash or refrigerate them, they were all happy to have them just clean and fresh. No one ever got sick, and I sold many thousands of eggs.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Next year it's gonna be cabbage and onion skin egg coloring.

Christ is risen!

Truly He is risen!

(I hit post too quickly, lol)

I think during the year (soon so I remember) I will try to dye my brown eggs with cabbage and onion skin, to see what happens. My barred rock lays nice dark brown eggs, so hers should be pretty.

Maybe next year I will be able to bring eggs some eggs.

 

[Dorothea]

Hi Kylissa,

The eggs all turned out fine, nice and dry. Like those old Greek ladies, I used brown eggs from my own hens and Greek dye and the eggs were that deep red color.

I usually leave fresh eggs from the hens out on the counter, unwashed, for days and days w/out mishap, too. I am not personally very cautious with things like this and never get sick, nor does my family. But I felt I shouldn't take liberties with my fellow parishioners!

I have a lot of red eggs in a basket on the kitchen table that I don't intend to refrigerate, which is my usual practice. I never worried about this until I read some articles on the Internet. But you can read scary articles about just about everything on the Internet. I think the Internet itself is more of a danger than unrefrigerated eggs!

Next year it's gonna be cabbage and onion skin egg coloring.

Christ is risen!

Awesome. Truly He is risen!

 

[ArmyMatt]

I had the worst egg this year. both ends were smashed within 5 minutes.

 

[All4Christ]

Just my 2 cents...as a vegetarian (pescetarian actually), I really wouldn't like it to be greased in animal fat, as it'd be awkward for the priest to give fair warning and I wouldn't enjoy not knowing it was on it.