5 Amazing uses for eggs (besides eating them!)

We think eggs are great. Not only are they incredibly versatile in cooking – use them in sweet or savoury baking or on their own scrambled, poached, boiled or fried – but they also have many other uses outside of the kitchen. 

So, whether you’re into crafting, gardening, baking or just have a keen interest in what these elliptical little curiosities can do, here are our top 5. 

1. Eggs-tra sticky crafting glue

You’re in the middle of crafting your next masterpiece and you realise… OH NO… you don’t have any glue! Worry not: just grab an egg from the kitchen, beat the egg white with a little bit of water and leave it to set in the fridge. 

You’ll need to practice a little bit of patience though, the longer it settles (preferably overnight), the stickier your new organic glue will be! 

2. Eggs-quisitely colourful cookie paint

There’s nothing better than combining baking with art. So next time you bake yourself a batch of delicious cookies, give them a burst of colour with a bright homemade eggy wash. 

All you do is mix an egg yolk with a teaspoon of water and some food colouring. Before you put your cookies in the oven, glaze them with your egg yolk mix and when they come out of the oven, you’ll be amazed at their shiny colourful design. 

3. Get cracking in the garden

If you like to get your hands dirty and love the idea of using natural rather than chemical ways of getting your plants and flowers to bloom, then look no further than the humble egg!

The first thing you can do is use your eggshells to give your plants a bit of extra TLC. Clean the shells first, break them up, and scatter them around new shoots. They act as a natural deterrent to slugs and snails that like to munch away at your tender little saplings. Because they have soft undersides, they hate the feel of the brittle shells underneath them.

And here’s the other fab thing about eggshells is that they’re full of calcium. Crushed up and added to the soil around roses or tomato plants, they can really help with the blossoming and fruiting and stop them from rotting. 

4. Your eggs-traordinary first-aid companion

Next time you get an annoying cut or graze and find that you’re all out of plasters, worry not: the trusty egg is here to help! 

It’s been found that egg membranes are an ideal substitute for a traditional dressing, promoting healing, providing pain relief and protecting the wound from further damage. 

It can be a bit fiddly so best to practice when you’re not in a full-blown first-aid emergency: crack an egg and empty its contents into a bowl. You should see a thin membrane that sits between the egg white and the shell. Grab this membrane with your fingertips and pull it away gently, to lay directly onto your cut or graze.   

5. Here’s a hard-to-beat jewellery trick

If you love the vintage jewellery look, but only have bright sparkly bangles, you can accelerate the natural process of tarnishing with a simple egg trick.

But first, what do we mean by “tarnishing”? 

When jewellery (like silver) tarnishes, it means that a substance called sulphur in the air comes into contact with the metal, causing a reaction and turning the surface layer of the metal dark grey. This process happens over the course of months and years, especially when jewellery is left out in the elements. 

But eggs can cause tarnishing immediately. Simply by boiling up a couple of eggs for 10 minutes, leaving them to cool, deshelling and, here’s the best bit, smashing them up to a pulp, you can create the perfect sulphuric environment for your jewellery. Simply rub your treasures with your egg mush, leave it in a sealed bag and, before you know it, you’ll have the more exquisitely old-fashioned-looking trinkets. 

Introducing… the Potent Potions Box

If you’re interested in learning more about fascinating substances, check out our Potent Potions box!

This is a bit of a messy one and is for all those curious kids who love mixing things together then seeing what happens –  which is most!  This box contains 4 activities that bubble, heat up, foam, ooze,  and change colour.

Our Potent Potions box contains:

⛲ Fizzing Fountains – test chemical reactions to discover which mixture makes the best fizzing fountain.

🌈 Colour Changing Potion  – craft a potion that’s the envy of any witch or wizard!

🌋 Erupting Slime (Jumbo/Tots only) – mix chemicals to make a foaming slime.

💭 Big Bubbles (Jumbo/Tots only) – make the best bubble mixture ever and engineer a bubble blower for enormous bubbles!

⚛️ PLUS a collectable Molymod mini kit! *Jumbo only*

Photo by Hannah Tasker on Unsplash