deviled egg recipes Archives - View from the Front Porch

28 06, 2021

Deviled Egg or Angel Egg Time

By judythemorgan|2021-06-22T07:58:34-05:00June 28th, 2021|Make Me Think Monday|0 Comments

Summertime means deviled eggs, one of my all-time favorite treats. I have a difficult time associating the eggs with the devil, though.

Some people use other names like mimosa eggs, stuffed eggs, dressed eggs, or salad eggs to remove any whiff of the devil.

My personal favorite is angel eggs. That name removes all hints of the Satanic.

But deviled as a culinary descriptor to describe something spicy has been around since 1786.

The recipe—slicing eggs, mashing the yolks, and stuffing the mixture back into the hollowed-out egg white—dates even longer, back to the ancient Romans.

By the 19th century, deviled eggs were a cookbook staple in the United States. Special dishes called egg plates with wells to hold the eggs arrived on the scene. Tupperware even created a carrier for them. (Also collectible now.)

The plates were popular wedding gifts in the 1950s-60s-70s. Today, vintage egg plates are highly collectible. Just check out eBay or Etsy.

The recipe ingredients for deviling have changed through time. In the 1940s Fannie Farmer suggested adding mayonnaise to the mustard, paprika, and yolks. This modern recipe hardly seems “devilishly” spicy.

Twenty-first century cooks add pickles, dill, bacon, crabmeat, sriracha, kimchi, wasabi, and caviar among other ingredients. Those additions would definitely add taste to the filling. Not necessarily devilish in my opinion.

Our family recipe calls for sweet pickle relish. I use dill relish instead, but don’t tell my mother. She’d be appalled.

Whatever you call them or however you make them, deviled eggs are popular for picnics and potlucks.

They’ll be a part of our family celebration this 4^th of July served on our special deviled egg plate shown above. The 1970s plate belonged to my husband’s sister.

We’ll also serve my aunt’s baked beans, my mother-in-law’s chocolate cake (the one with the secret coffee ingredient that we never told my father-in-law about–he didn’t like coffee, you see).

And, of course, daddy’s homemade ice cream. It’s a way to include those who have gone before and feel like they’re with us in spirit.

How about you? Will you be serving deviled eggs or angel eggs this summer?

7 07, 2014

DEVIL eggs or ANGEL eggs?

By judythemorgan|2014-07-07T06:00:19-05:00July 7th, 2014|Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

We had deviled eggs for our cookout on July 4^th. I guessing a lot of holiday cookouts included the dish.

My recipe comes from my mother. She never wrote it out, but I watched her enough to know you mix the egg yolks, mustard, mayonnaise, and sweet relish until the stuffing will fill the hollowed out egg whites.

Sometimes I spice the mixture with dill relish instead of the sweet. Mother would be appalled so don’t tell.

I served our deviled eggs on the plate that belonged to my husband’s sister. It’s a way to include those who have gone before in our celebrations.

We always have my aunt’s baked beans, my mother-in-law’s chocolate cake (the one with the secret coffee ingredient that we never told my father-in-law about–he didn’t like coffee, you see.) and, of course, daddy’s homemade ice cream for family cookouts.

The tradition makes us feel like they’re all with us in spirit.

But I digress. Back to the deviled eggs…

As we sat around waiting on fireworks, we talked about how deviled eggs came to be called deviled.

Surrounded by techno-device-loaded friends and family, the race for the answer commenced. Fingers moved on iPhones, iPads, and Androids.

Soon Google came to the rescue, revealing interesting things about deviled eggs.

Did you know?

Deviled eggs have been around since the first century and ancient Rome.
The recipe was first compiled sometime between the fourth and fifth century A.D.
By the 15th century, stuffed eggs had made their way across much of Europe.
By 1800, deviling became a verb to describe the process of making food spicy.

You can read more fascinating details about the origin of deviled eggs here

Googling also turned up the answer to our quest:

The popular egg hors d’oeuvres are also called “mimosa eggs,” “stuffed eggs,” “dressed eggs” or “salad eggs”—especially when served at church functions.

Why, you wonder…in order to avoid an association with Satan, of course.

We also learned that, though most standard recipes include mayonnaise, the condiment didn’t appear in published deviled egg recipes until the 1940s.

That fact led to a discussion of recipes, which included pickles, dill, bacon, crabmeat, sriracha, kimchi, wasabi, and caviar among other ingredients. Some of which I am so glad were not in my family recipes!

So how do you make your deviled eggs?

More importantly, do you call them angel eggs?