My Blog

Friday, March 12, 2010

Deviled Eggs

With the approach of Easter, I find myself wistfully contemplating the problem of deviled eggs. I feel as though the dish has so much potential, and yet it has never lived up to its potential any time it has ever entered my mouth. I dream of deviled eggs with thick, sturdy whites surrounding smooth, creamy, ultra-light filling that's tangy, salty, and egg-yolky. These deviled eggs would look something like this:


My disappointment in the dish lies in the fact that every time I've made them, and every time I've ever tried anyone else's deviled eggs, the whites are unsturdy, uneven, and often breaking apart, and the filling is thick, lumpy, way to tangy, or they just taste like egg yolks and mayo. They usually look something like this:

Nevermind. I was going to post a picture of a gross looking deviled egg, but then I felt bad because the picture was from someone's blog and they took a picture of it trying to make it look appetizing. And I was going to make fun of it. So...I decided not to.

Anyways, Yuck.

What could be a devilishly tasteful dish, has, on every occasion, proven to be a gag-inducing one for me.

I know the perfect deviled egg exists, otherwise we wouldn't all try to make them every year. I know it. My goal is to find it this year. Give me ideas or recipes if you have any.

This Easter, accompanying my ham and cold spinach salad, will be the perfect deviled egg. I'll close my eyes, take a bite, and drift off to heaven.

4 comments:

  1. dear hayley,

    please, on your quest, understand that if miracle whip is used in deviled eggs, they are no longer deviled eggs. they are pukey eggs.

    i LOVE deviled eggs. i used BEST FOODS because it is best. i don't have a recipe, but i do it by eyeballing it and it comes out great. i use a smidge of french's yellow mustard. i used salt and pepper. one time, i omitted the pepper and i put in a little pureed green olives (with the pimento). yes, you need to puree the whole mixture really well, and here's the final test:
    i put the mixture into a ziploc and snip the end off. i pipe the mixture into the eggs. if it is lumpy at all, it will cause the bag to burst and you will have a big mess. so that is your extra motivation to get it really smooth.

    i like a little paprika sprinkled on them myself, but eric doesn't, so i don't do it any more. that's called love.

    i have heard that older eggs peel easier once they are boiled. so i don't use fresh eggs for this.

    and everyone has their favorite way to hard boil eggs. i bring them to a boil and then take them off the heat and let them sit for 20 minutes.

    then i pour out the water, replace it will cool and put ice in it to stop the cooking.

    so, i'm looking forward to seeing which recipe you go with and how they come out for you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think it has to do with how you boil them. Research that. I've heard that makes all the difference with the whites.

    ReplyDelete
  3. uh, why did i make so many verbs past tense? so weird. musta been tired.

    yeah, i agree with heather. you gotta hard-boil hard-boiled eggs. i was also gonna say, i'm sure you're going to pipe the egg mixture in with a better decorating tip than just a snipped off end of a ziploc. if you do, you really have to make sure the mixture is smooth.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Until Cynthia said she eyeballs it, I was going to say that the majority of deviled eggs you had ever tasted were from my kitchen and no wonder they were disappointing, it is because I've never looked for a recipe, I've always eyeballed it, and I HAVE (quite often) used Miracle Whip because it was the only thing in the house. I agree with Cynthia's way of boiling the eggs, everything she said about old eggs, etc. What I don't understand is how you know where to cut the egg so that the yolk leaves the most centrally-located place for the filling. AND some of my boiled eggs end up not having centrally located yolks at all! -- leading to one side of the white being paper-thin and the other side being VERY THICK. Does anyone know how to prevent that problem?

    ReplyDelete