I hesitate to publish this right before Easter, as it’s really a year round egg hack, not an easter egg hack, but I suppose it is extra useful at Easter, where you might want some pretty brown eggs.

If you’re looking for fancier Easter egg ideas, you can find some here, here, .. and an Easter basket here.

So I usually buy a big thing of eggs, and boil a handful of them ahead of time to throw in lunchboxes or to make tuna salad with, or whatever, and I like to be able to tell them apart from the non-boiled at a glance.  I used to take a sharpie and mark the ends (maybe with a little face so it would be cute in kid’s lunch), but this is my new plan, and I love it.

Also, I love the look of brown eggs, but I’m not going to pay extra for them just because they are aesthetically pleasing.

So, my solution?  Whenever I boil eggs, I throw in a handful of onion skins (I pretty much always have a bag of yellow onions on hand) and a dash of vinegar.

By the time the eggs are done, they are also a lovely peachy brown color.

Other ideas — that might actual be Easter related:

Of course, this is also a way to cheat and make quick easter eggs.  No dying, just dye while boiling!

Or you can do these, then wipe them down right after you take them out.  You’ll leave a speckled brown effect which you could then dye over in blue for a robin’s egg look.

Another idea is to use this as a base, then dye as usual, for a neat natural effect.  I’m not sure how well it would work (let me know if you try it) but I think it could definitely be a cool effect.

How to boil an egg

If you need to know, here’s how I like to do it.

Put your eggs in a large saucepan, covered with water.  Turn up to high, and bring to a boil.

Since I have a gas stove, I turn it down to low for 3-5 min.  Then I turn it off and let it sit for 15 minutes.   (If you have electric burners, you can just turn off after the boil, and let it sit for 15 minutes, as the electric burners retain heat.)