What is a deviled egg?
Simply put, a deviled egg is a hard boiled egg, with the shell removed, and cut in half lengthwise. Once cut, the yolk is scooped out into a bowl with other yolks, and mashed with other ingredients into a paste. Most often mayonnaise, seasonings, some sort of spicy heat, and something chunky like diced onion, diced celery, or relish, is mixed into the yolks, with then is filled back into the yolk’s indent in the white of the egg. Usually, this is then lightly sprinkled with paprika.
Who made the first deviled eggs?
The technique of the deviled egg – a hard boiled egg seasoned with a sauce and served as an appetiser – has it’s earliest roots in Ancient Rome. From there, various cultures around the world had their own versions of hard boiled eggs decorated in some way. 13th century Spain appears to by the first time mashed yolk with other ingredients were written about. In the late 1800s, deviled eggs, sometimes called stuffed eggs, dressed eggs, and other names, to avoid the whole “devil” thing, started appearing in American cookbooks.
I’m not finding anything about when they first showed up in Canada, but I’m going to assume it was about the same time as in the US.
Why are they called Deviled Eggs?
The term deviled generally means spicy, and many modern deviled egg recipes include hot sauce (like this one, below), cayenne powder, or other spicy options.
How do I peel hard boiled eggs so they don’t tear apart?
Two words: Instant. Pot.
5/5/5 (in general).
Wait, sorry, you might not be a “pot head”.
What I just said in normal-person-speak, is that you use an Instant Pot to pressure cook eggs to create hard boiled eggs. 5/5/5 means that you cook then for 5 minutes on high pressure, then let them come down in pressure on their own for 5 minutes before flipping the vent, then putting them in a bowl of ice water for 5 minutes.
Then all you need to do is tap the egg on the counter several times, so it’s cracked all around, and gently peel the hard shell away.
This works better than most techniques, because the cause of so much trouble for pot of water cooked hard boiled eggs: the membrane that wraps around the egg between the actual egg and shell – it sticks to the white after boiling. In the Instant Pot, the pressure does whatever science-y magic happens inside a pressure cooker and allows the membrane to come away neat and clean from the white. Instead of sticking like super glue and ripping it in 500 places.
Pre IP, I would use the stovetop method mentioned in the recipe below, but the whites always had pitting, where the membrane ripped pieces away. Still tasty, but it’s satisfying to take nice looking as well as tasting foods for holiday meals.
What about Deviled Eggs, Egg Salad?
Instead of Deviled Eggs, chop the hard boiled eggs, mix it with the rest of the ingredients in a small bowl, and adjusting the mayo and seasonings. For the absolute best Egg Salad Sandwich, use homemade bread.
Deviled Eggs
Ingredients
- 6 eggs
- 1/2 celery stalks diced very fine
- 1/4 onion diced very fine
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 dash hot pepper sauce (we like Frank’s Red Hot)
- salt to taste
- paprika for garnish
Instructions
Hard Boil Eggs
- Instant Pot: We use the 5/5/5 method: 5 minutes on high pressure, 5 minutes to natural release then flip the release valve to quick release the rest, then 5 minutes in an ice water bath.
- Stovetop: Place eggs in a medium saucepan and just barely cover with cold water. Turn stove burner on high, place pan of eggs on burner. Turn on timer to 20 minutes. When water hits a hard boil, turn to med/med high. Remove from heat when timer rings; place in sink and fill pan with cold water. Replace water until eggs are cool.
Mix and Fill
- Peel eggs. Cut eggs in half, lengthwise. Remove yolks and place in a medium bowl. Mash together with celery, onion, mayonnaise, salt and hot pepper sauce.
- Place egg mixture in a pastry bag or zip lock bag (cut a small corner off and seal the bag), and fill the egg white halves with the egg yolk mixture. Sprinkle eggs with paprika. Chill, covered, in the refrigerator until serving.
Nutrition
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