Breakfast in Bed – Mom’s Deviled Eggs

Post by: Alison Hein.

You can’t eat deviled eggs for breakfast? Wow. Someone should have told me that a long time ago. Mom taught me to make these when I was just knee-high to a grasshopper (that’s a saying, right?), and they’re still one of my absolute summertime favorites.

We’ve made deviled eggs before on this blog. Not Mom’s cozy comfort food, but the more sophisticated Ebbitt Room Deviled Eggs (http://www.charlesprogers.com/blogs/archives/6243). Mom knew what she was about long before “five ingredient” dishes came around, and kept it really easy adding only mustard (she preferred Gulden’s), mayo and paprika. “Deviling” in the kitchen refers to the addition of a hot or spicy ingredient, in this case, mustard. The term first appeared in print in 1786, the association made between condiments like mustard or cayenne pepper and the fires of Hades.

While Mom’s eggs called for only a couple of simple staples (and really aren’t all that fiery), I learned on Wikipedia that people around the world commonly use the following ingredients in their deviled eggs: tartar sauce, Worcestershire sauce, pickles, relish, vinegar, olives, pimentos, onion, caviar, cream, capers and sour cream. They may use spices like chipotle, turmeric, poppy seed, thyme, and cilantro, and toppings including caviar, anchovies, bacon, shrimp and herring!

French people use pepper and parsley; Germans prefer anchovies, cheese and capers; and Hungarians add milk-soaked bread, parsley and sour cream, then bake them and serve them with a side of French fries! (Look for these exciting recipes here in the future!)

So, it’s summertime. People around the globe are making crazy eggs. And I’m grabbing a cup of coffee, one of Mom’s chilled eggs, and partaking in the devil of a breakfast in bed.

Ingredients

8 eggs
½ cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 to 2 tablespoons paprika

Preparation

Place eggs in a small heavy saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil on high heat and continue to cook eggs for 10 minutes, until hard-boiled. Cool and peel.

Carefully slice eggs in half lengthwise. Remove cooked yolks and add to small bowl, setting whites aside. Mash the yolks finely with the back of a fork (or use a fine-mesh sieve for a very smooth filling). Stir in mayonnaise and mustard until smooth and creamy. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon or pipe filling into reserved whites, mounding yolk mixture in each half-egg. Sprinkle generously with paprika. Place in refrigerator and chill until ready to serve.

Makes 16 deviled eggs.

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