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Easter, Passover, Spring and Egg Salad Week Enjoy these fun facts about Easter, Passover, Spring and eggs! Eggs sales are the highest during the spring. Last year (2005), on average, 72.0 million dozen eggs were sold at U.S. supermarkets each week. But, many, many families decorate eggs for Easter or spring or use eggs as part of the Passover Seder meal. So many families enjoy these traditions- especially decorating Easter eggs- that the total jumped to 76.1 million dozen eggs sold during the week before Easter. During the week of Easter itself, egg sales reached 93.4 million dozen. The week after Easter, sales dropped to 64.5 million and eventually leveled out to normal. Spring egg sales will probably be similar or maybe a bit more this year.  Eggs have been a part of springtime traditions for a very long time. Centuries before Christ was born, pagan people of many nations celebrated the return of the sun and the rebirth of nature each spring. Since new life came from eggs, eggs became the symbol of nature’s rebirth. For Jews, too, a roasted egg on the Passover Seder plate has stood for life and the hope of salvation for many, many centuries. Later, Christians adopted the egg to represent Christ’s Resurrection. Many decorated egg customs developed around the world. These are some of them:  • In China, parents might give family members and friends a red-dyed egg to announce the birth of a child. • Germans use green eggs as a symbol of mourning on Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter. • During the Renaissance in Italy, romantic young men tossed empty eggshells filled with perfume or cologne at young women. The custom spread to Austria, France and Spain. Later, in Mexico, empty eggshells were filled with confetti and used to make wishes. The eggshells, called cascarones, are still used today at Easter and for other happy occasions. • For a special celebration, Japanese parents give their children eggs that are decorated to look just like the children! • When the monarchs called tsars ruled Russia, a jeweler named Peter Carl Faberge made eggs out of precious metals and gems. The tsars gave the eggs to family members as special gifts. Today, both serious egg artists and hobbyists use less expensive materials to decorate eggs that look like the Faberge eggs. • Using wax, many colors of dye and special designs, Slavs make very fancy decorated eggs called pysanky. Long ago, people believed that the pysanky helped keep the world going around. The beautiful pysanky are still made in modern times and some collectors display them all year. Follow a few food safety rules when you decorate hard-cooked eggs. The most important thing to decide is whether or not you want to eat the decorated eggs later. If you won’t be eating the eggs, you can use any decorating materials you want and display the eggs anywhere for as long as you like. If you do want to eat the eggs, follow these rules: • Wash your hands between all the steps of cooking, cooling, dyeing and decorating. • Be sure that all the decorating materials you use are food safe • Keep the eggs refrigerated as much as possible. Keep putting them back into the refrigerator whenever you’re not working with them. • Dye the eggs in water warmer than the eggs so they don’t absorb the dye water. • If you hide the decorated eggs, put them where they won’t come into contact with pets, other animals or birds or lawn chemicals. • After you’ve found all the hidden eggs, throw out any that have cracked or have been out at room temperature for more than 2 hours. Eat uncracked, refrigerated hard-cooked eggs within a week of cooking them.  Hard cook eggs instead of boiling them. Boiling eggs makes eggs tough and rubbery. Eggs that are cooked too long or at too high a temperature also have unattractive green rings around the yolks. Use more gentle cooking to make tender eggs without green rings. Gentle cooking will also help to prevent cracking.
Buy eggs ahead of time for easy peeling. The fresher an egg, the harder it is to peel after you cook it. A fresher eggs has a small air cell and the membranes between the shell and egg white are quite snug. As the egg ages, it takes in air through the shell’s 7,000 to 17,000 pores and it loses carbon dioxide and water. This process makes the egg more alkaline, rather than acidic. It also increases the size of the air cell and helps separate the membranes from the shell, both of which make peeling easier. For eggs that are easier to peel, buy them ahead of time and refrigerate them for a week to 10 days before you cook them. Be sure to crackle an egg all over when you peel it. First, tap the egg gently on a table or countertop while you turn it in your hand. Then, roll the egg between your hands to loosen the shell. After this, you should have a fine web of crackles all over the shell. Begin peeling at the large end (where the air cell is). If the egg is still hard to peel, hold it under running cold water or dip it in water to help ease off the shell. You can use hard-cooked eggs for many different dishes. Because so many people like to make egg salad with their hard-cooked eggs, the week after Easter is Egg Salad Week. You can eat your hard-cooked eggs any way you like, though. Deviled eggs are very popular and many people think creamed eggs are comfort food. You can make any of these dishes to please your own taste: • Egg salad- chop the eggs and add a moistening ingredient- maybe mayonnaise, sour cream, yogurt or a bottled salad dressing. Then, add shredded or chopped pieces of other foods that you like- maybe shredded carrots or chopped olives. If you want, you can also stir in chopped chives, snipped parsley or another herb.Then decide how you want to serve your salad. You can spread the salad on bread or toast slices or roll it up in a tortilla. You can also spoon the salad onto lettuce, spinach or other greens or stuff it into a pita bread pocket, a hollowed-out tomato or a big cooked pasta shell.For a new treat, serve hot egg salad. Spread the salad on English muffin or bagel halves, cocktail rye bread slices or even a frozen waffle. Sprinkle on some shredded cheese. Bake or microwave until the cheese is melted.  Other salads- chop, slice or wedge the eggs. Stir them into a Polka-Dot Egg and Macaroni Salad, potato or rice salad or toss them with lettuce or spinach and other veggies for a green salad or arrange them with other ingredients on a plate for a composed salad.• Deviled eggs- cut the eggs in half either lengthwise or widthwise. If you cut them widthwise, cut a bit off the end, too, so the eggs can stand up. Spoon out the yolks and put the yolks,  a moistening ingredient (like for egg salad) and other ingredients you want to use into a plastic food storage bag. Seal
the bag. Roll the bag around in your hands until everything is well blended. Snip off a corner and squeeze the bag to squirt the yolk mixture into the egg whites.You can eat deviled eggs just as they are. Or, for a quick snack, roll up deviled eggs in ham slices and lettuce leaves. You can also have deviled eggs hot. For a brunch or lunch dish, cook a grain food- maybe rice, spaghetti or green spinach noodles. Put the cooked rice or noodles into a casserole dish. Nestle the deviled egg halves in the rice or noodles and pour on a sauce – maybe a cheese sauce, pesto or salsa. Bake until the sauce is bubbly. • Creamed eggs- chop the eggs and make a white sauce. Add anything you like to the sauce- maybe shredded or grated cheese, chopped olives, pimiento or herbs. Add the chopped eggs and heat to serving temperature. Serve the creamed eggs over toast or biscuits or spoon it into popovers. For Eggs Goldenrod, instead of chopping the whole eggs, just chop the whites and stir them into the white sauce. Spoon the creamed egg whites over whatever you like. Then, use a spoon and a strainer to press out the golden yolks over the top of the creamed whites. • Sandwiches- slice the eggs. Layer the egg slices with other favorite sandwich fixings to make a hearty submarine, hero or hoagie sandwich. |
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