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Picnic Eggs
Boil a number of eggs hard and when cold cut each in two lengthwise. Take out the yolks, mash them with a fork, mix with butter and add minced potted ham and French mustard. The hollowed whites of the eggs should be filled with this mixture, the two halves of each being pressed together and then each egg wrapped in white oiled paper, the ends of which are twisted to keep the halves in place.
A picnic version of deviled eggs, reassembled into whole eggs and wrapped so they travel. The only tricky parts are two ingredients that no longer sit on most shelves and the wrapping.
- Potted hamA Victorian and Edwardian staple: cooked ham pounded to a paste with butter and spice, packed into a jar and sealed under a layer of clarified butter. Finely minced cooked ham, or a smooth ham pâté or spread, gives the same effect; use about a tablespoon per two egg halves.
- French mustardIn this period the phrase means a smooth, vinegar-based Dijon-style mustard rather than the sharp English mustard powder. Dijon is the direct equivalent, and a teaspoon goes a long way against six yolks.
- Hard-boiled, not overboiledBring the eggs just to a boil, cover, and hold off the heat 10-12 minutes, then cool in cold water. The book's instruction to work with them cold is the important one: warm yolks mash to a paste that weeps butter, and warm whites tear when hollowed.
- ProportionsNo quantities are given. For six eggs, figure roughly 2 tablespoons softened butter and 1/3 cup minced potted ham with the six yolks, adjusted so the filling holds a shape rather than running.
- White oiled paperThis is thin paper brushed with a neutral oil to keep it from sticking. Parchment cut into squares does the job now, twisted at both ends like a sweet wrapper; waxed paper works but softens against the butter in warm weather.
- Overfill deliberatelyMound the filling above the rim of each white so that pressing the halves together seals the seam. Underfilled eggs come apart inside the wrapper no matter how tightly the ends are twisted.
- Yield and carryingSix eggs make twelve halves, or six wrapped eggs, enough for three or four people alongside other picnic food. Keep them chilled in a cooler until served; buttered egg filling is not a food to leave in a warm basket for hours.
Stuffed eggs are far older than the name "deviled" attached to them: filled and spiced eggs appear in Roman and medieval cookery, and "devilled" came into English kitchen usage in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for anything highly seasoned with mustard, pepper or cayenne. What suggests a date around the turn of the twentieth century is the packaging. The Butterick Publishing Company, better known for dress patterns, also issued cook books, and this recipe reads as though engineered for a journey - reassembled into a whole egg, wrapped in twisted oiled paper so it can be eaten out of the hand without a plate. Potted ham belongs to the same practical world: a buttery meat paste, kept under a seal of clarified butter, that a cook could have on hand and that carried reasonably well before household refrigeration was common.