[Sca-cooks] apple eggs

[Pixel, Queen of Cats]

On Tue, 22 May 2001, Olwen the Odd wrote:
>
> The apple eggs are made quite eaisily.  First you boil the eggs.  The trick
> is to peel them while they are hot and pinch them between your fingers top
> and bottom to form the dimples.  Then you smear some yellow food coloring on
> the eggs in a random mottled fashion and then you do the same with red food
> coloring.  I place a clove (without the little ball part) in the bottom and
> a rose leaf (or some such) in the top dimple with a clove that has the
> little ball part for the "stem".  These are best made shortly before
> serving.  They can be made the night before but the colors seem to go flat
> and take away that "textured" effect.
>

Hmmm. Your hands must not be that temperature-sensitive. I could never
hold a hot egg for that long.

Do you hold them until they are cool, or just pinch them briefly? I wonder
this because I have one of those really odd gadgets ($.50 at a flea market
years ago) designed to make hard-boiled eggs square, and you're supposed
to let the egg cool in the mold so it keeps its shape (my grandmother
likes it, what can I say?). I found that if you take the egg out when it
is still warm, it loses its shape gradually.

Do you use liquid or paste or gel or powder food coloring? Have you tried
using period coloring agents?

Margaret FitzWilliam