Deviled eggs are not just for potluck dinners and picnics. I make them all the time. They were one of the favorite things my mother made, along with southern style potato salad, creamy coleslaw and heavenly mac and cheese (baked in the oven, of course). Actually, everything she cooked was my favorite.
She never measured anything. She just made things the way she was taught by her mother. My mom grew up during The Great Depression in the 1930s. She could make a feast out of pretty much anything. She and my dad both grew up on small farms in the rural Ozarks. They were dirt poor.
So, here is my current thinking regarding deviled eggs. I use six hard boiled eggs cut in half, mash the yolks in a bowl with a fork, add 2 tbsp of mayo, one tbsp mustard, 1 tbsp plus one tsp vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, mix well with a spoon and top the finished eggs with paprika. That's it.
That simple recipe is very close to duplicating what my mother used to make.
I use eggs that have set in the refrigerator for a week as it makes them easier to peel. Also, I steam them rather than boil them. The vegetable steamer that I use has a tray with indentations to hold the eggs in a vertical position. This forms an air pocket at the top which makes them easier to peel. I steam them for 20 minutes and they come out perfect and easy to peel every time.
Like all recipes, this one can be varied and experimented with to tailor it to your individual taste. Different ingredients and different quantities can be used.
Mayonnaise is an emulsion of oil, egg yolk, and an acid, either vinegar or lemon juice. There are many variants using additional flavorings. The color varies from near-white to pale yellow, and its texture from a light cream to a thick gel. There are many different types of mayo to experiment with.
The same goes for mustard. Mustard is made from mustard seeds mixed with water, vinegar, lemon juice, wine, or other liquids, salt, and often other flavorings and spices, to create a paste or sauce ranging in color from bright yellow to dark brown. There are many possibilities.
I typically use spicy brown mustard. Back in the old days my mother used plain yellow mustard. Dijon mustard gives the egg filling a little extra kick. There are a lot of different types of mustard.
My mother always used plain white distilled vinegar. That was all they had. That's what I still use most of the time. White or red wine vinegar also works well.
Vinegar (vyn egre; sour wine) is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains from 5% to 18% acetic acid by volume. Vinegar has a typical pH of 2 to 3.
There are even variations of salt and pepper to play with. I generally use white sea salt or pink Himalayan salt. I always use fresh ground pepper, usually black pepper.
Peppercorns are berries that grow on Piper nigrum, a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae. The fruit (yes, black pepper comes from a fruit!) is most often dried and used as a seasoning. That shaker of ground black pepper you have in your kitchen was made from dried peppercorns. There are three varieties of true peppercorns: black, green, and white.
And finally, the topping. Paprika is a spice made from dried and ground red peppers. It is traditionally made from Capsicum annuum varietals in the Longum group, which includes chili peppers. Paprika can have varying levels of heat, but the chili peppers used for hot paprika tend to be milder and have thinner flesh than those used to produce chili powder.
So, there you have it. A devilishly simple recipe with a multitude of variations.
Enjoy!
I'm trying that recipe soon!
I too steam the eggs for 12 mins, drop them in ice water for 5 mins and peel away. Works every time!! Can't wait to turn them into deviled eggs 👍
It’s funny you bring this up. My buddy and I were just on a bear hunt in north Idaho and lamenting that we didn’t have any deviled eggs even though his wife usually sends them with him on these trips. It seemed to me that they are pretty labor intensive. So we forgave her.