Happy Easter What is ALUM?

[cynyc]

HOW TO WRITE UNDER THE SHELL OF AN EGG

Dissolve one ounce of Alum in a half pint of Vinegar. Use a small
pointed brush to outline whatever design or write whatever words
you want on the shell of an egg. After the solution has dried out
thoroughly on the egg, boil it for about 15 minutes.
If you follow these directions the design will disappear from the
outside of the shell but the writing will plainly show on the white of
the egg when you remove the shell. Keep the messages short and
have a ball.

[Alan Smithee]

It's the stuff that made Tom's mouth pucker up so that he had to suck Jerry up through a straw!

Seriously, it's a chemical used as (among other things) a preservative in pickling. Supposedly, you can find it in the spice section of a grocery store. If that doesn't work, it's also what those "Thai deoderant crystals" are made of.

[Inner Stickler]

It's a white powder. I used it once when I was in elementary school to grow crystals. They were underwhelming. Try looking in the grocery store.

[Malacandra]

Chemically, it's potassium aluminium sulphate dodecahydrate, KAl(SO₄)₂.12H₂O. The water is "water of crystallisation" and can be boiled off (that's not uncommon; copper sulphate's another common example). I have a styptic pencil that I sometimes use for shaving cuts; that's basically a stick of alum.

[Monty]

When I lived in Davis, California, I ordered alum through a pharmacy.

[Derleth]

Happy Easter What is ALUM?

These Easter carols are just getting weirder and weirder.

[bibliophage]

I second the recommendation to look in the spice aisle of your grocery store. McCormick sells it in small squat plastic jars of 1.9 ounces. I pay $3 or $4.

[MikeS]

Originally Posted by Derleth

These Easter carols are just getting weirder and weirder.

"Happy Easter, what is alum? / Potassium aluminum sulphate" actually works to the tune of "Christ the Lord is risen today", though the stresses are in weird places in the chemical name.

[cynyc]

Re the styptic pencil:

Halleluiah!

[freckafree]

Originally Posted by Alan Smithee

It's the stuff that made Tom's mouth pucker up so that he had to suck Jerry up through a straw!

This. When I was a kid, if any of us said something hateful, mean, dirty, or otherwise objectionable, Mom would threaten to get out the can of alum.

[samclem]

If the supposed General Question is "What is Alum,?" then searching on Google/Wikipedia would be more appropriate.

If there wasn't truly such a question, then I've moved it to MPSIMS, to which it is more suited.

samclem, MOderator

[ducati]

I am so doing this the next event that requires boiled eggs. July picnics, Thanksgiving, Easter - you name it.

I can't think of a better way to terrorize my nieces and nephews:

You will die today
REDRUM
Put me down
Don't eat me, Grant
Look behind you!
Brush your teeth

Who has better suggestions to scare the bejeebus out of picnickers and holiday guests?

[Malacandra]

Or !EREH NI PEDDART M'I !PLEH

[cynyc]

Every year I lipstick RedruM on my door. Parents get a kick out of it. But this isn't why I came back...

The guy who told me the egg trick is a Vietnam veteran. He said the prostitutes over there used gobs of the stuff in themselves with bowls of it next to their beds. He thinks it was for tightening. I don't know.

FWIW.

Originally Posted by ducati

I am so doing this the next event that requires boiled eggs. July picnics, Thanksgiving, Easter - you name it.

I can't think of a better way to terrorize my nieces and nephews:

You will die today
REDRUM
Put me down
Don't eat me, Grant
Look behind you!
Brush your teeth

Who has better suggestions to scare the bejeebus out of picnickers and holiday guests?