Imprinted Onion Skin Eggs/ Serbian Orthodox Eggs

Last Easter a sweet friend taught us her family's (Serbian) tradition of dyeing Easter Eggs.
It was so wonderful, I was excited to try it this year.
I really enjoyed sitting around with her family making these last year.

Each time I visited the grocery store I cleaned up around the onions and put a few skins in a bag and bought them home. 3 visits and I had enough onion skins saved up. Or just ask at your local fruit and veg, I'm sure they will be happy for you to take them.


What you need:

Onion skins
1 litre of water
4 tablespoons of white vinegar
4 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1 dozen eggs
pretty leaves, herbs such as coriander and rosemary, flowers
clean stockings

Put onion skins, water and vinegar in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
Allow to cool and remove skins.

Cut stockings into pieces big enough to surround an egg and tie a knot.
Place leaves, herbs, flowers onto eggs.
Carefully place into stockings and tie knot tightly around egg
Flowers/leaves may have moved, use your fingernail, or toothpick or like to gently push leaves into back into desired position

Place eggs in pot and cook.
Allow to cool and remove stockings and leaves/herbs/flowers

Now you will have cool imprints left behind on the eggs.

Shine your eggs with a bit of olive oil and paper towel.

We are just displaying our eggs, so it didn't matter what foliage I used.
But if eating the eggs stick to things you know are safe to consume.
The tying the stocking around the egg can be fiddly and frustrating to small children.
Best to get the adult/older children to do this. My smaller kids helped in all the other stages.

In Serbia, the first dyed egg is kept until next Easter, guaranteeing family security and health. All the rest hard boiled dyed eggs are used in a traditional game, known as egg dumping, where each player hits the other players' egg with their own. The winner is the holder of the last intact egg. The losers get to eat their eggs. This is a common practice in all Christian Orthodox countries on Easter Sunday.

 A real chicken egg, hard-boiled and dyed or decorated, takes the central place in the Easter celebration. Eggs symbolise the eternal life of Jesus and according to some legends, the white eggs Mary left on her son’s grave as a sacrifice turned red after his resurrection.


I've still got the onion water, the neighbour kid loves our eggs she wants some too.
I'll just have to get more stockings. Water can be reused over and over.

I just love the simple natural method of these eggs.
Almost felt like how people did things in the old days.

Enjoy.