how to blow an egg

[note: Are you wondering why you'd want to blow an egg? Well, with the egg's perishable insides removed, you can keep those lovely easter eggs you worked so hard on indefinitely]

I found a solution to my egg-blowing problem! See, when I was a kid, we always blew our eggs by mouth. We'd use a pin to poke a hole in the top and bottom of an egg, put our mouths over the top hole and blow until our faces turned purple, we saw stars, and the egg's insides came out the other end. I'm not a big fan of this method because it takes a long time, is physically uncomfortable, and the thought of putting your mouth over something that came out of a chicken's nether-regions is just plain disgusting.

Ukranian Gift Shop sells egg blowers and I was going to order one with my pysanky kit, but I forgot and didn't want to pay shipping again. I'd been wracking my brain, trying to come up with an alternative. At one point, I figured I'd try to connect a basketball inflating needle to one of those blue infant bulb aspirators that every mom has floating around the house. I never got a chance to find out if that would work because I came across something much simpler during a trip to the grocery store: a flavor injector. (this one, as a matter of fact)

I found it in the kitchen implements section of my supermarket. You know, the aisle where you can find overpriced whisks, can openers, casserole dishes, etc.? Fortunately my glorified syringe only cost me $2.50 and after a little practice, it's worked like a charm.

Here's what you need to blow an egg:

a flavor-injector-syringe-thingie, a raw egg, and a safety pin

Step 1: Use your safety pin to poke a hole in the egg slightly larger than the flavor injector needle. You'll have to start with a tiny hole and then keep chipping away at the edges of it until it's the right size. I tried poking the hole with the flavor injector, but the eggs kept breaking. You only need one hole when you blow your eggs this way, and I prefer to put mine at the bottom (larger) end of the egg.

Step 2: Pull the plunger of the syringe out, so you've got a syringe full of air. Insert the needle into the egg hole and gently force air into the egg. As the pressure in the egg builds up, the insides will be forced out around the needle and into the bowl that you've so carefully set up for the purpose of catching egg guts (don't throw these away! make omlettes for heaven's sake!). For the very last bits, you'll need to make sure that you're holding the egg upright. The insides will only be forced out if they're completely covering the hole-- otherwise you'll just be pushing air out. Make sense?

Step 3: Use the syringe to push water into the now (mostly) empty egg. Remove the injector needle, cover the hole with your finger and shake shake shake that egg.

Step 4: Hold the egg over a sink, and use the injector to force air into the egg one more time. This'll remove the eggy water. Keep the egg upright (I save an old egg carton for this) to let it dry thoroughly and you're good to go!


You can choose to do this before or after you dye your eggs. If you do it before, you'll need to cover the hole with melted wax and find a way to keep you egg submerged in the dye.

By the way, this technique is good for any sort of decorated egg, not just pysanky.