Got Easter eggs?
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EmailHow to properly boil Easter eggs and other egg food safety information.
Are you planning to decorate hard-cooked eggs for Easter? Hard-cooked eggs are an Easter tradition many families. Many like to decorate them and even more, eat them!
To safely prepare your Easter eggs, purchase clean, unbroken eggs from the grocery store. Keep them refrigerated until you are ready to cook them. Place the eggs in a pan and cover with water. Cook the eggs on medium-high heat until the water is simmering. Then cover the eggs, turn off the heat and wait for twenty minutes. Drain the water from the eggs. Cool the eggs in the refrigerator.
Decorate your eggs using food grade dyes. Always keep the eggs refrigerated until you are ready to serve them. If you are going to have an Easter egg hunt, either use plastic eggs, decorated hollow eggs or discard the eggs after the hunt. Eggs are perishable and should not be hidden outside and then eaten after the egg hunt.
Ideas for using colored eggs: Eat them plain, make deviled eggs, egg salad sandwiches, add to potato salad or pasta salad, use them in a tossed salad, add an egg to a sack lunch (be sure to keep the sack lunch cold until time to eat). According to the USDA, hard-cooked eggs should be used within one week.
Decorated eggs are not only fun to make and pretty to look at, Michigan State University Extension says that they are also a good source of protein and vitamin B, and contain many other nutrients including calcium and iron.
