Cracking a Classic: Southern Deviled Eggs (2024)

FAQs

How do you crack eggs for deviled eggs? ›

To peel a hard boiled egg, crackle the shell all over by tapping the egg on a hard surface, then roll the egg between your hands to loosen the shell. Begin peeling at the large end. Hold the egg under cold running water or dip it in a bowl of water to help remove the shell.

At church functions in parts of the Southern and Midwestern United States, the terms "stuffed eggs", "salad eggs", and "dressed eggs" occur instead, to avoid reference to the word "devil". For this reason, the term "angel eggs" is also occasionally used.

Some believe that deviled eggs may have originated in ancient Rome, where eggs were often boiled and served with a spicy mustard sauce. Others think that deviled eggs may have originated in medieval Europe, where they were considered a luxurious and decadent snack.

Each half of an egg is filled pretty high with a smooth and creamy egg yolk mixture. Each deviled egg is then topped with a piece of bacon, smoked paprika, and chives. It's definitely a rich appetizer, but it's so good.

Hold the egg (over a bowl) with your thumb near the middle of the egg and your pointer finger near the top, curling other fingers around the egg. Swiftly crack the egg against a surface or bowl, and use your thumb, pointer and middle fingers to pull apart the shell and release the egg into the bowl below.

But you only use one hand! No safety issues of holding the egg with one hand and slicing with a knife in the other one. The cooked egg is placed on a cutting board and while placing gentle pressure on the knife, you roll the knife on the egg around the yolk.

“I wasn't able to say I was lucky, because my mother would rather us say that we were blessed, and she also didn't like that lucky sounded like Lucifer,” she told Rolling Stone in 2010. “Deviled eggs were called 'angeled' eggs. I wasn't allowed to eat Lucky Charms, but I think that was the sugar.

Deviled eggs are hard-boiled eggs that have been peeled, cut in half, then stuffed with a paste made from the yolk and other ingredients. Basic deviled egg filling is made with egg yolks, mayonnaise, relish, mustard, salt, and pepper. The eggs are often seasoned with spices like paprika or cayenne pepper.

How many deviled eggs do you need per person? Plan 2 to 3 deviled eggs per person for your get-together. A dozen eggs will make 24 deviled eggs, and that will be enough for 8 to 12 people. If you have leftovers you can store them in the fridge for 24 hours and snack on them the next day.

For National Deviled Egg Day, we're taking it back to Ancient Rome…. where serving deviled eggs was often referred to as “ab ova usque ad mala.”

What is a fun fact about deviled eggs? ›

If we rewind time, we find deviled eggs in ancient Rome, where boiled eggs flavored with spicy sauces were so commonly served as an appetizer that a Roman saying, “ab ovo usque ad mala,” meaning “from egg to apples,” referred to the expected bookends of a meal.

Fresh eggs, with their smaller air sacs, are more likely to have a smooth ovoid shape when peeled, which looks more appealing in applications as deviled eggs. OFF-CENTER YOLK: Fresher eggs are more likely (though not guaranteed) to have centered yolks, again leading to more attractive deviled eggs.

The evolution of deviled eggs

Many cookbooks in puritanical early America, though, stuck with labels like "stuffed eggs, "dressed eggs" or "salad eggs" to avoid association with Satan, who is typically not invited to or welcome at church socials.

The term dates to the 19th century, and it was used to refer to foods that were spicy or zesty with the addition of mustard or pepper. In some regions of the South and the Midwest, deviled eggs are also called salad or dressed eggs when they are served at a church function, to avoid the term "deviled."

The church prohibited the eating of eggs during Holy Week, but chickens continued to lay eggs during that week, and the notion of specially identifying those as Holy Week eggs brought about their decoration. The egg itself became a symbol of the Resurrection.

Steam the eggs and the peeling is much easier. I take a boiled egg to work ever day. Here is the simplest way to get an easy peel. Boil for 12 minutes, with the cold water running, pour out the hot water and hit them with the cold water, pour out and hit them with the cold again.

Adding white vinegar or apple cider vinegar to your pot of water allegedly results in softer, easier-to-peel eggshells. That's because the acid in vinegar dissolves some of the calcium carbonate that makes up the egg's hard exterior.

Add vinegar to the water.

Use one teaspoon of vinegar for each egg, and pour it directly into the water before you turn the heat on. Adding vinegar to the water helps the proteins in the egg white coagulate faster to plug any cracks that develop in the shell.

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