Alfred5.gif (191809 bytes)

Caerthe's Cooks Guild

Recipes from 1999
 

March 1999 Natural Egg dyes

Take clean fresh eggs. Place leaves or other decorative material on/around the egg. We used fresh sage, strawberry, orange, and other leaves. Cover egg and decoration tightly with a layer of cheesecloth (a run, but CLEAN!, nylon stocking works well.) Make sure the cloth is holding the decoration tight to the shell - you are creating a relief or outline of your decoration) Dye as below. When desired color is reached rinse in cold water, and pat dry (or air dry, never rub, or you may remove dye) Refrigerate promptly.

Blue eggs

1 head red cabbage, chopped
water
eggs, already hard boiled
Place chopped cabbage in a clean pot (I used corning, because I did not know if metal would react.) Cover with water and boil 30 minutes. Remove cabbage. When cool the purple water will result in robins egg blue dyed eggs. I strained the water into a bottle and refrigerated overnight. The next day we poured the water into a bowl and let the eggs soak for approximately 30 minutes. The result was beautiful robins egg blue.
For a different shade add 1 tablespoon vinegar to a separate bowl with cabbage water - creates a purple-ish egg.

For all following recipes use clean raw eggs (you will be boiling the eggs in the dye.) Prepare your dye bath by boiling your colorant (dye stuff), along with 3 tablespoons vinegar, in water for 20 minutes before adding the eggs. We averaged 6 eggs per pot, and boiled for 20 minutes after adding the eggs. If you have more eggs in the pot you may need to boil longer to be sure all are hard-boiled.

Yellow eggs

1 tablespoon ground turmeric
We used turmeric, but you might also try calendula petals.

Reddish-Brown eggs

Large handful yellow onion skins
These came out a strong bronze-brown color.

Tan eggs

1 tablespoon ground coffee (not true to period)
This resulted in a pale beige color.

Pink eggs

1 teaspoon crushed cochineal
These eggs turned out an amazing strong pink.

The green egg in the center of the basket started out in the tumeric yellow, and then went into the cabbage blue, and came out that greenish. You can see the leaf outlines quite clearly.

 
 
January 1999
The following recipe was based on a "Cauldron Cookery Primer" by Lady Gwynnyd of York, CW and a class taught by Baron Richard (he of the cheesecakes) at the cooking collegium of 1993. The basics of cauldron cookery involve a large kettle of boiling water with several different items cooking therein at the same time. Items that should not be waterlogged were placed in crockery, the top of the crock was covered with a dough and a greased (to make it waterproof) cloth. The waterproof crock would then be placed in the water of the cauldron and could boil for several hours without the contents scorching or burning.

Leeks and Walnuts

Leeks
Walnuts
Butter
Salt
Thoroughly clean leeks and slice into rings or half-rounds, including some of the green part. Layer in crock with chopped walnuts, pats of butter, and salt to taste. Fresh ground pepper would be good too. Make a cloth and pastry "lid" and cook in cauldron 3-4 hours.