Calling all Deviled Egg Recipes

[Artichoke]

I am not from the South, but I sure love her food and enjoy my Southern Foodways Alliance membership. I just received this in my e-mail and thought I would pass it along in case any eGulleters wish to enter.

Deviled Egg Invitational

The Southern Foodways Alliance, an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, seeks deviled egg recipes and recollections. Let the world know about how your family reunions revolve around eating deviled yard eggs. Tell us about how your aunt piped her filling with a pastry bag. Tell us a story of 100 or so words about what deviled eggs have meant to you and your people. Include a recipe and please detail the recipe's provenance.

Email submissions to deviledeggs@olemiss.edu are highly preferred. Deadline for entries is August 31. Three finalists will be announced on September 15. The winner will receive a free pass to the Southern Foodways Symposium, to be held October 7-10 in Oxford, Mississippi. That Friday, the King or Queen of Deviled Eggs will be crowned at a tasting of deviled eggs and champagne, staged on the Oxford Square.

All qualifying entries will be included in an online deviled egg diary that we'll share with the world by way of our website, www.southernfoodways.com. (By the way, when you send your deviled egg tale our way, you grant us the right to publish it free of charge, both online and as printed text.) Questions should be directed to Melissa Hall, Mistress of Deviled Eggs, at deviledeggs@olemiss.edu.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEVILED EGG

The Southern Foodways Alliance is interested in the history of deviled eggs. What's more, we are interested in matters of nomenclature, like explicating the difference between a true deviled egg and what some folks know as a stuffed egg.

Here's what we know:

- Deviled eggs are usually hard-boiled eggs from which the yolks have been removed, creamed with mayonnaise, spiked with mustard and other piquant condiments, and then lovingly stuffed back into the whites.

- A perusal of the library reveals that the cookery term deviled has been in use since at least the early nineteenth century. In his 1830 work, The Sketch Book, Washington Irving used the term to refer to a highly seasoned dish similar to curry.

- In time, deviled eggs came to be standard fare at church picnics, family reunions, and box suppers. Perhaps a good measure of the popularity of deviled eggs comes from their portability. Back in the early days of auto travel, when decent restaurants were few, a shoebox filled with fried chicken and a sleeve of wax paper-wrapped deviled eggs was a preferred on-the-road meal. For African Americans in the age of Jim Crow, a shoebox stuffed with good eats was not so much a gustatory choice as a matter of practicality in an out-of-kilter world that often denied them seating alongside white diners.

Here's what we would like to know:

- Why did deviled eggs become so popular down South? Is our portability theory valid? Or did rural Southerners have lots of hens and thus lots of eggs? Was the rise of the broiler industry a factor? The SFA welcomes your theories, your recipes, your recollections.

And one more thing:

Please don't dismiss our invitational as an exercise in camp nostalgia, foisted upon you by eaters pining for the good ol' days when the preferred American amuse bouche was a tin of Jiffy Pop, and the transcontinental entrée of choice was a Swanson's turkey dinner, its readiness for the table signaled by the ping of a Radar Range.

No, we like our deviled eggs served absent the irony that informs much of what some call comfort food. And we resent the tendency to serve deviled eggs with a wink, a nod, and a sly smile of condescension. In the hands of a competent cook supplied with quality ingredients, deviled eggs speak to the inherent virtue of Southern cookery and, by extension, the unsullied appeal of provincial cookery the world over.

Mary Beth Lasseter

Southern Foodways Alliance

Center for the Study of Southern Culture

P.O. Box 1848 - Barnard Observatory

University, MS 38677

662.816.2055

sfamail@olemiss.edu

www.southernfoodways.com

[tryska]

i think i might make some deviled eggs tonight.

[Mayhaw Man]

O.K. I'm in. Not a bad entry if I do say so myself.

He says while mentally picturing himself on the podium in a Deviled Egg King Crown, waving in a particularly regal and stylish manner to the admiring masses bowing before him-(where is that Deviled Egg King Icon when you really need it?)

If I win I will donate my reservation to Maggiethecat. She will owe me for the rest of her days and I will spend the rest of mine trying to collect, no doubt.

[Varmint]

A proper southern deviled egg should have some sort of pork product in it, of course. Minced country ham with some cracklins atop would be delightful.

[Mayhaw Man]

Dean, I love you but-

Eggs with additives like ham are stuffed. Not deviled. Not ever.

They're damn tasty, but a whole nother matter.

Pretty soon you'll be telling me that a McRib is BBQ.

Sheesh.

[joiei]

I agree with Brooks, now I have got a craving done flung on me, where are those eggs.

[Varmint]

Dean, I love you but-

Eggs with additives like ham are stuffed. Not deviled. Not ever.

They're damn tasty, but a whole nother matter.

Pretty soon you'll be telling me that a McRib is BBQ.

Sheesh.

Hmmmm. Is a touch of onion permissible in a deviled egg, or must the consistency be totally smooth? If the onion is OK, then why not a touch of country ham or jalapeno? Could lard be used in a deviled egg? Duck fat? If someone has some time on their hands, please obtain for us the "History of the Deviled Egg." Thanks.

[Varmint]

Here's a good source: http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/kid/foodeggs.html. I did notice that there is no definitive deviled egg standard, and at least one source mentions the addition of finely minced meat.

Carry on.

[agbaber]

I hadn't had me some proper deviled eggs in a coons age!!

[pogophiles]

Hmmmm. Is a touch of onion permissible in a deviled egg, or must the consistency be totally smooth?

I think some "chunky" additions are OK (you frequently find them with chopped pickle added). I've made them with minced slab bacon and chopped scallions mixed in. My favorite though is smooth textured and includes a bit of horseradish...

[phaelon56]

I made some for my GF this past weekend when I was visiting Charlotte. She had a recipe that called for using frozen chopped spinach. We used fresh cooked baby spinach (drained, water squeezed out and chopped) instead of the frozen and we also used real bacon chopped up instead of the recommended bac-o-bits (it was one of those magazine recipes). It also called for some apple cider vinegar and sugar. We were out of apple cider vinegar - used the red wine type instead and reduced the amount. I don't recall the other little things I did to spice these up but it was indeed the best deviled egg recipe that I've yet tasted.

[Toliver]

A proper southern deviled egg should have some sort of pork product in it, of course.  Minced country ham with some cracklins atop would be delightful.

←

Dean, I love you but-

Eggs with additives like ham are stuffed. Not deviled. Not ever.

They're damn tasty, but a whole nother matter.

Pretty soon you'll be telling me that a McRib is BBQ.

Sheesh.

←

ronnie_suburban puts crumbled bacon on top of his deviled eggs which deftly sidesteps the stuffed versus deviled controversy. Perhaps Dean can do the same with his minced ham and still be able to toe the legal line, so to speak.

And I can sleep soundly this evening knowing that there is a "Mistress of Deviled Eggs" in this world.

[Milt]

A few weeks ago, this or some similar post on some board got me excited about making deviled eggs. I grew up with deviled eggs, but haven't had them at home very often in recent years. At pot luck dinners, I always am drawn to the deviled eggs. It must be this thread which motivated me, because I remember the discussion regarding deviled versus stuffed eggs. I didn't know there was a difference, since I have eaten and have enjoyed both. It's nice to know the difference.

Recently, I have tried various recipes for deviled and stuffed eggs and have done some experimenting on my own - using the printed recipes as guidelines. So far, the most popular presentation at my home has been when I simply mixed six egg yolks with three tablespoons of honey mustard dressing.