Deviled eggs or angel eggs Archives - View from the Front Porch

8 07, 2019

Deviled Eggs or Angel Eggs

By judythemorgan|2019-07-07T15:30:37-05:00July 8th, 2019|A Writer's Life, Make Me Think Monday|1 Comment

Deviled eggs and cookouts go together like PB&J. They are a mainstay at our cookouts.

I use my mother’s recipe. She never wrote it down, but I watched her enough to know to mix enough egg yolks, mustard, mayonnaise, and sweet relish to fill the hollowed whites. Sometimes I use dill relish instead of the sweet. Don’t tell Mother, she’d be appalled.

We serve our deviled eggs on a plate that belonged to my husband’s sister. Most of the time, cookouts around our house also include 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) and my daddy’s homemade ice cream. It’s a way to include those who have gone before.

On July 4^th, as we sat around munching deviled eggs, our conversation turned to why the eggs are called deviled.

Fingers of techno-device-loaded guests raced on iPhones, iPads, and Androids for the answer. In one click Google came to the rescue, revealing interesting things about deviled eggs.

Deviled eggs have been around since the first century.
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 here

Google also provided the answer to our original question. The term deviled is assumed to come from the heat level of the stuffing ingredients. Spices such as mustard, paprika, cayenne and wasabi add spicy heat. That lends itself to the association between the devil and the excessive heat in Hell, hence deviled.

When served at church functions, deviled egg hors d’oeuvres are called mimosa eggs, stuffed eggs, dressed eggs, salad eggs, or angel eggs. To avoid an association with Satan, of course.

So, do you make deviled eggs? More importantly, do you call them angel eggs?

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?