Deviled Eggs
6 eggs 1/2 teaspoon mustard 1 tablespoon olive oil or butter Salt and red pepper A little vinegar if desired Boil the eggs for fifteen minutes; then throw them into cold water to prevent the whites from darkening. Remove the shells; cut in halves lengthwise; take out the yolks carefully and mash them with the oil or butter and seasoning. If desired, a tablespoon of minced ham or tongue or a little chopped parsley and onion may be added. Fill the cavity of each half with the paste and set in a cool place until needed. Serve on crisp lettuce leaves or on a platter garnished with parsley or watercress.
A clear, workable formula that needs only two adjustments: the boiling time and the identity of two vague seasonings.
- Fifteen minutes is too longEggs held at a rolling boil that long turn rubbery and are prone to the grey-green sulphur ring around the yolk. Bring to a boil, cover, take off the heat and let stand 10-12 minutes, then chill in cold or ice water (the recipe's own reason for the plunge is to keep the whites from darkening).
- Red pepper means cayenneIn this period "red pepper" is ground cayenne, not paprika and not a fresh chile. A pinch is enough for six eggs; it is what makes the eggs "deviled" in the first place.
- Mustard is the dry powderMustard is most likely the dry powder -- half a teaspoon of "mustard" in a recipe of this period usually means English-style dry mustard, which is sharper by volume than prepared mustard. If substituting a jarred prepared mustard you will need noticeably more, and may want to hold back the vinegar.
- One tablespoon of fat is lean by modern habitMany modern versions carry two to three tablespoons of mayonnaise for six eggs. A single tablespoon of oil or softened butter gives a firm, crumbly, distinctly old-fashioned filling. Butter should be soft, not melted, or the paste will separate as it cools.
- "A little vinegar"Genuinely unquantified. Start with half a teaspoon of cider or white wine vinegar, taste, and stop when the filling brightens without tasting sour.
- Minced ham or tongueCold boiled tongue was a routine larder item in this period and is not now. Ham, or any finely minced cured meat, does the same job; chop it fine enough to pass through a piping tip if you intend to pipe.
- Yield and holdingTwelve halves, enough for four to six as a salad course. "Set in a cool place" means refrigerate; filled eggs keep well for a day but the whites weep if held longer.
To "devil" a food is to season it hot -- with mustard, cayenne, and often vinegar -- and the usage is generally traced to Britain in the late eighteenth century, associated early on with grilled bones, kidneys and potted meats before it settled onto eggs. Stuffed hard-boiled eggs themselves are far older, appearing in Roman and later medieval and Renaissance European cookery, while the mustard-and-cayenne paste is a nineteenth-century English pattern that American cookbooks took up.