Scratched eggs

Salomon, 14 March 2026

Easter is my favorite time of year. Coloring eggs for the occasion was always a highlight of my childhood. We’d use Doc Hinkle’s dyes to paint our designs. The egg dye was first made in 1893 in Lancaster County and continues to be a Pennsylvania tradition. I remember trying to hold on to the hot egg and smelling the alcohol-scented dye. At night, my parents would hide them around the living room for us to find the next morning before sunrise service at church. I always stock up on these dyes when I head home — Easter doesn’t have the same meaning here in Wisconsin. It’s usually far too cold to decorate graves with hyacinths and the only egg dyeing here is full color immersion of the more readily available dye kits.

Decorating eggs the Doc Hinkle way with a cotton swab and colors harkens back to scratching the eggs, oier gratze, something that resonates through the ages in the Pennsylvania Dutch country. In the early days, eggs were dyed with onion skins to create a reddish-brown color. Some were then scratched with a sharp tool to create a design; Gram never scratched hers, but she certainly dyed with onion skins. The earliest surviving example is from 1774, but most still around today are from the latter half of the nineteenth century. They were gifts, not eaten, and cherished by the recipient.

I have recipes for dyeing with onion skins from both the Schwenkfelder Museum & Library and Landis Valley, but my way is more or less a combination of the two.

Onion Skin Dyed Eggs

4.5 cups of water (or enough to cover the eggs, plus a little more)

2 T vinegar

12 white eggs

12 yellow onion skins (a well filled gallon bag works just fine)

Combine water, onion skins, and vinegar. Bring to boil. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and remove the cover for one hour. Strain. Add the eggs and boil for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and let eggs sit in dye bath for 30 minutes.

My grandmother used to just dye them and not scratch them, but if you want to scratch them, just scratch enough with something sharp to reveal the white underneath. To shine up the eggs a bit, rub a bit of olive oil into them and leave to dry. To keep it as an heirloom, make sure to make a bandbox for storage: Making bandboxes!

My scratched egg on a bed of flax