“The Baltimore Sun rises to remark that its idea of a ‘sane Fourth [of July]’ is ‘oodles of fried chicken, deviled eggs and chocolate ice cream. It may be all right for the Fourth, but it does not argue well for a comfortable fifth.” – Racine Journal, WI, July 4, 1911
For a while now I’ve been wanting to do a post where I compared some of the many deviled egg recipes in my collection. This post is hopefully part one of at least two.
When I pulled my various recipes for “Deviled Eggs,” “Picnic Eggs,” or “Stuffed Eggs,” I found some surprising trends. The “Stuffed Eggs,” as most 19th century recipes called them, were often broiled, baked, or even… deep fried. The fried eggs were typically seasoned then the halves reassembled, bound together with raw egg, and then breaded and fried. I decided that type of recipe was another category altogether so I set those aside for another day.
Other “Stuffed Eggs” recipes pretty much resemble a deviled egg with the added step of heating the eggs up. I’m not sure why exactly this fell out of favor – it may have been because deviled eggs became associated with picnic food.
The concept of “deviling” dates as far back as 1786, allegedly referring to the spicy mustard or cayenne pepper used to season foods.
The term was not limited to eggs and the wildly-popular deviled crab.
The 1845 UK cookbook “The Cooks Oracle” follows a recipe for an anchovy toast spread, adding that a “Deviled Biscuit” could be made with the same spread on a warm biscuit “with a sufficient quantity of salt and savoury Spice, Zest, Curry Powder, or Cayenne Pepper sprinkled over it.” In Maryland cookbooks, I have found recipes for deviled: oysters, turkey, fish, tomatoes, clams, ham, lobster, chicken, pecans, crackers, and cheese.
Eggs are probably one of the easiest items to “devil,” and as a result, the most enduring. Early 20th-century newspaper recipes offer a few variations – meats mixed in, using the vinegar from pickled beets. It was in the mid-century that people really started getting creative with deviled eggs. For this post, I present two 19th century recipes*, served cold, plus one from nearly a century later.
“Chutney Eggs,” from the Park School cookbook contain a salty-sweet mixture combination that was not as weird as I first expected. One taster commented that they tasted like “peanut butter and jelly.”
Next go-round, I’ll take a stab at some of the hot and deep-fried eggs. Maybe I will discover why they didn’t remain popular!
Stuffed or Picnic Eggs:
- 19 eggs, hard-boiled
- ham, chopped
- .5 Cup cream
- 1 raw egg, beaten
- .5 Teaspoon salt
- .5 Teaspoon pepper
- 1 Teaspoon mustard powder
- .5 Teaspoon sugar
- .5 Cup vinegar
Boil nineteen eggs twenty minutes, then put in cold water, when cool take off the shells, and cut in half, remove the yolks and fill the whites with this mixture: one cup fine chopped ham, yolks of seven of the boiled eggs moistened with a salad dressing of one-half cup cream, one egg, one-half tea- spoonful of salt, one-half teaspoonful black pepper, one level teaspoonful of mustard, one half teaspoonful sugar, beat all together, andthe last thing, add one-half cup sour vinegar, set in a kettle of boiling water and stir till it thickens.
Recipe from “The Favorite Receipt Book and Business Directory,” Ladies Aid Society of the Church of the Holy Comforter, 1884
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Deviled Eggs:
- 12 hard-boiled eggs
- a piece of butter the size of an egg
- salt to taste
- .5 Teaspoons sugar
- .5 teaspoons mustard powder
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- parsley
1 dozen eggs; boil 20 minutes; throw into cold water to cool; peel and cut exactly in half; take out yolks; put them in small saucepan; add to them a piece of butter the size of an egg, a little salt, ½ teaspoonful of sugar, ½ teaspoonful of mustard, 1 tablespoonful of vinegar. Stir all together over fire until well mixed. When mixed put back into the place from which the yolk was taken so as to look like the natural egg; cut off the lower end of the egg, so as to make them stand on the dish. Dress with parsley; if used for breakfast put in oven and brown lightly.
Recipe from “Tried Recipes”, The Ladies Guild of the Associate Reformed Congregation, 1896
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Chutney Eggs:
- 12 hard-boiled eggs
- ¼ to ½ Cup chutney
- 6 slices cooked, crumbled bacon
- 3 Tablespoons mayonnaise
Halve eggs. Mash yolks and add next 3 ingredients. Stuff eggs.
Recipe from Mrs. George Dalsheimer in “The Park School Cookbook,” 1964
* Special thanks to Atomic Books/Eightbar for hosting a deviled egg gathering, and to Kristina Gaddy for successfully creating the 1896 recipe for deviled eggs – accompanying photos c/o Gaddy.