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How-to: Blow Out Easter Eggs

April 11, 2011 1 Comment

Blowing out Easter eggs is easy. These instructions are from my mom, who made a set of blown out eggs when I was a kid. Maybe it was to preserve our amazing decorations for years, but more likely it was so the house didn’t stink if we couldn’t find all of her hidden eggs. Brace yourself for heightened salmonella awareness and a surprisingly easy how-to!

Supplies

eggs, egg carton
pins/needles in varying widths
sink with drain
1 tbsp vinegar
cooking pot
wooden spoon
squirt bottle

Directions

Work this project over a sink  with a drain, but remember to plug it first! I accidentally lost a pin down my garbage disposal, and the husband wasn’t super psyched about having to dig around in egg waste for something sharp.

To start, gently tap your thinnest needle in to your egg, piercing the shell. I used a kitchen knife rather than any kind of hammer because it exerts less force and will help reduce the risk of smashing your eggs.

Take your next-thickest needle, and tap it in to the existing hole to make it larger. Repeat with your next-thickest needle. Once the opening is ready, grab a long needle and poke around inside your egg to pierce the yolk and separate the egg’s proteins. This will help you when you blow out the egg’s insides.

Poke a second hole in the opposite end of your egg. Make this one slightly larger than the first hole – this will be the end egg guts come out of. The bigger the hole, the faster this will go. Don’t worry about finding really thick needles to make the second hole. Make a small hole just like the first, but increase its size by chipping away at it from the inside with one of your pins.

Time to blow! Turning the larger hole toward the sink, blow in to the smaller one (see my lovely double-chinned face demoing this action above). I blew out about 14 eggs to yesterday, and their guts pretty much all came out in this order: clear, boogery gunk; liquid egg white; thicker cream-colored gunk; yolk. When you pass the first thick gunk and then the second thick cream-colored stuff, it’s all easy.

If your eggs are strictly for dyeing, you might want to consider keeping both openings as small as possible, but I’ll warn you. It will take substantially longer to blow out the guts, but they’ll look a lot more like real, unadulterated eggs if the holes are subtle.

The last step in the hollow eggs creation process, if you want to fill them with candy or chocolate, is to sanitize the shells. Salmonella may only kill a couple dozen people a year, but y’know, safety.

Submerge your hollow eggs in a mixture of 1 tablespoon vinegar and cold water. The eggs will float unless their openings are huge, OR you fill the eggs with cold water using a squirting device. Michael’s craft stores carry a bunch of candy-making supplies, including squirt-bottles.

Bring your pot of eggs to a boil and remove from heat. There will be some foam on the top that can be thrown away. Let the whole mess cool and blow out excess water from eggs. If you’re impatient like me, you can carefully remove each egg from the boiling water and carefully let the water drain down a partially plugged sink. In retrospect, I’m going to admit the impatient method isn’t totally worth it – I may have burned my face/lips and hands doing this. Let eggs dry overnight in carton.

Filed Under: Baking, Easter, How-to Tagged With: blown eggs, easter, eggs, How-to

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. She specializes in knitting, crochet, latch hook and macramé, and her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now!

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Comments

  1. Caroline Sanders

    April 20, 2013 at 10:01 am

    Much easier to blow out the eggs using a nasal aspirator ( aka snot sucker). If you shake the egg up before blowing it out, it is also immensely easier.

    Reply

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Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied / Craft Book Author and Knitting, Crochet, Latch Hook and Macrame Designer

Hi! I’m Heidi (she/her/hers), a craft book author & pattern designer specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. Really anything with yarn! ❤️  My work combines vintage and modern design elements, featuring bold colors and graphic motifs.

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How to to knit throwing (a.k.a. English) style . How to to knit throwing (a.k.a. English) style 
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In knitting, there are a few common knitting styles. Most often you’re going to encounter continental style and English (throwing) style on your knitting journey. I recently had an old video teaching continental style get a lot of views. Based on the comments, it was clear the people wanted to also see a throwing tutorial, so here you go! 🧶
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Please note that there is a LOT of variation in knitting styles, and one isn’t necessarily better than another. Most often, I’ve found it comes down to two things: how you were taught and whether or not you’re really into colorwork knitting (which can involve a mix of styles). 
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Longer-term knitters who’ve made it this far: do you prefer one over the other? And why? 
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#handsoccupied #englishknitting #learntoknit #knitting #howtoknit #knittersofinstagram #knitting_inspiration
How to do a one-step provisional knitting cast on How to do a one-step provisional knitting cast on / a.k.a. crochet provisional cast on, scrap yarn cast on
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I read recently that tiktok and Instagram are being used as search engines more and more. 🤔 I thought since I’m going to all the work of making tutorials on YouTube, I should experiment with making a quick version of them for other platforms. There are obvious teaching limitations to vertical video, short-form content like this, but I think I covered the gist of this cast on in a minute. The YouTube version also covers how to unzip this cast on because there was time for it 👍🏻 L1nk is in my profile. 
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I’m very much looking for feedback as I continue to make instructional knitting & craft videos. Sometimes good tutorials are hard to find, and (ideally polite) feedback helps me improve. 
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#handsoccupied #provisionalcaston #knitting #knititngtutorial #knittersofinstagram #crochethook #knittingtutorial
For the first time in a long time, there’s a new For the first time in a long time, there’s a new tutorial from Hands Occupied! 🎉 The video is live on YouTube & the blog. 
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The post covers what provisional cast ons are & how they differ, and the video covers how to work a one-step provisional cast on using scrap yarn and a crochet hook. (This is a great one to save for future reference.)
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I learned several names for this method while researching this video & post. Crochet provisional cast on, one-step cast on, scrap yarn cast on - if you know even more names for this technique, please share! 
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#handsoccupied #provisionalcaston #knitting #scrapyarn #crochethook
Working on a sample for some upcoming videos. It’s an overcast day with intermittent sunshine & I have a scruffy little sidecar. 🐶 Can’t complain! 
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What’s on your needles this week? 
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Yarn: @debbieblissknits Cashmerino Aran 
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#handsoccupied #knitting #knittinglife
Peg boards and craft room organization go together Peg boards and craft room organization go together like peanut butter and jelly. So, as you can see, do latch hook tools and screwdriver organizers! 🪛 
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I think this trick translates to any tool with a thick handle, so leather working tools, punch needles, print making tools, etc. should work! What other tools am I, a needlecrafter, blanking on right now? 
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#craftorganization #handsoccupied #latchhook #latchhooking
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