Cheddar Deviled Eggs

Do you ever feel like something is missing? Something is very enjoyable, good by any standard... yet there just is something missing. That je ne se quois that is keeping it from being perfect. That's what's going on with this Cheddar Deviled Egg recipe. It's fine, it's good, it's actually VERY good. But I've tried nearly two dozen recipes, and even though the ones with bacon always rank highly, this recipe makes it clear to me. Deviled egg recipes that include bacon must also include vinegar or they seem incomplete.

Further, this recipe might be mis-named. The recipe is called "Cheddar Deviled Eggs" but the cheddar cheese is so scant, it's almost goes unnoticed. I double-checked that I used the right amount of cheese, and I did - it's just not very much of it, and it doesn't stand out at all.

However, this is a pretty good recipe. I enjoyed the eggs, they were relatively simple (the bacon frying notwithstanding), and they went quickly with my testers.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise
4 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
1 tablespoon finely shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 tablespoon prepared mustard

Combine all ingredients with mashed egg yolks. Fill egg whites with mixture, then chill before serving.


Above: adding the mayonnaise and crumbled bacon

Above: adding the cheddar cheese (not much) and the prepared mustard

Above: the finished product (no garnish included in recipe)

Here are the scores:

Overall: 74 out of 100
Texture: 18 out of 100
Flavor: 17 out of 100
Uniqueness: 14 out of 100
Appearance: 10 out of 100
Ease of preparation: 15 out of 100

Any comments?

Deviled Eggs with Blue Cheese

I was ALL OVER THE PLACE on this recipe. Before I made it, I was sure it wouldn't be good because of too much bite from the blue cheese; then once it was made, I thought it was surprisingly good and would score very well; yet after sampling a couple, I ended up with extra deviled eggs that no one would eat. Down, then up, then down again. I guess this recipe is what it is - easy-to-make, somewhat unique, but totally average.

The blue cheese, clearly, is the dominant flavor. And the texture of the blue cheese with the mayonnaise worked out nicely. But there is nothing else to these. Yet somehow, it just was totally average.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup blue cheese (about 4 ounces)
paprika for garnish

Mix all ingredients with mashed egg yolks. Pile yolk mixture into whites and sprinkle with paprika. Cover, and chill before serving.


Above: adding the mustard and the salt

Above: adding the mayonnaise and the blue cheese

Above: the finished product, garnished with paprika

Here is the rating:

Overall: 65 out of 100
Texture: 17 out of 20
Flavor: 8 out of 20
Uniqueness: 10 out of 20
Appearance: 12 out of 20
Ease of preparation: 18 out of 20

Comments?

Jacque's Bacon and Vinegar Deviled Eggs

I have no idea who Jacque is. But he/she makes some kick-ass deviled eggs. As I've made more than 20 deviled egg recipes, my all-time favorite has been the Bacon and Cheese Deviled Eggs. And now that I have made Jacque's wonderful deviled eggs, I know that the secret to the Bacon and Cheese deviled egg recipe is... not the bacon... not the cheese... but the VINEGAR!

I don't think vinegar would go great with EVERY deviled egg recipe, but I think it goes great with bacon in a deviled egg. Maybe I need to test this theory by making a bacon deviled egg recipe that does NOT use vinegar. Stay tuned...

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard
1/8-1/4 cup mayonnaise (enough to get the texture right)
3 slices bacon, cooked very crisp and crumbled
paprika, for garnish

Mix yolks with all ingredients, adding more mayonnaise (if necessary). Fill egg whites with mixture. Garnish with paprika. Let eggs chill for 1 hour for flavors to meld.


Above: adding the vinegar and mustard


Above: adding the mayonnaise and crumbled bacon


Above: the finished product, garnished with paprika.

So I followed these instructions to the letter. First, I added (as you can see) the ingredients vinegar-first, rather than the usual method of adding mayonnaise first. I have no clue if that makes any difference, but I will say that the vinegar flavor was very noticeable and very good. Second, I added only 1/8 cup of mayonnaise (the minimum amount suggested) and did not add any more. At first, I thought that there wouldn't be enough filling to fill the 12 egg halves, but alas, there was! More mayonnaise would have thinned out the filling and may also have dulled the great flavor.

And I really liked the result ! Here is the rating:

Overall: 79 out of 100
Texture: 18 out of 20
Flavor: 18 out of 20
Uniqueness: 14 out of 20
Appearance: 12 out of 20
Ease of preparation: 15 out of 20 (again, losing points because I had to fry the bacon)

Comments?

Zesty Mediterranean Deviled Eggs

I got this recipe from a newspaper clipping that credited Rayma Essex Korber of Goddard, KS, the "Deviled Egg Queen." These eggs are pretty good, but royal? I think not ! Surely deviled egg royalty has better recipes than this, particularly royalty pretentious enough to use three names like she's the Immediate Past President of the Junior League of Jackson, MS, or something.

This deviled egg recipe seems to examplify the age old saw of "If you have it in your kitchen, add it to your recipe!" There is just a LOT of stuff going on here - almost too much. There are a lot of really cool things going on here, the main one is the garnish which not only looks really cool but also adds noticeably and uniquely to the flavor, but there also seem to be a lot of extra things going on here, too. With an ingredient list that includes pickle relish, kalamata olives, balsamic vinegar, garlic, AND hot sauce in addition to mayonnaise, mustard, salt, and pepper, there is just a little too much going on here. Further, I've debated in the past the merits of mayonnaise vs. Miracle Whip, and decided that the Miracle Whip just adds a little "bite" the the finished product. So instead of just ONE ingredient that's sort of bland, this recipe calls for Miracle Whip. Nonetheless, the recipe is pretty good and certainly different from the standard deviled egg recipe.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs
1/6 cup mayonnaise-style salad dressing (Miracle Whip)
1/2 teaspoon Balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard
6 kalamata olives, pitted
1/8 cup sweet pickle relish
1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8-1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 drops hot pepper sauce
6 stuffed green olives, halved, for garnish

Mix yolks with mayonnaise, vinegar, and mustard. Finely chop kalamata olives. Add olives, relish, and garlic to the egg yolk mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Add hot sauce. Fill egg halves with mixture. Garnish with halved stuffed green olives.




Above: adding the mayonnaise, balsamic vinegar, and mustard




Above: adding the olives, sweet pickle relish, and minced garlic



Don't those sliced olives look cool as the garnish? And they actually add in a great way to the flavor. Unfortunately the filling looks like something I saw in the 2 Girls 1 Cup video. Here is the rating:

Overall: 68 out of 100
Texture: 13 out of 20
Flavor: 15 out fo 20
Uniqueness: 16 out of 20
Appearance: 15 out of 20 (plus 5 because of the garnish; minus 5 because of the appearance of the filling
Ease of preparation: 10 out of 20 (a lot of work chopping all those ingredients)

Comments?

Cajun Deviled Eggs

It's been a while since I updated the deviled egg blog. I actually have made deviled egg several times - I made 3 types (the three most highly-rated from this blog - Bacon & Cheese Deviled Eggs, Deviled Eggs The Way I Like Them [Round 2], and Chicken Deviled Eggs) for Thanksgiving. And I've tried 2 new recipes, just haven't posted the on the blog yet. So here is one of them, in honor of the LSU Bayou Bengals, who won the SEC Football Championship Game on Saturday and will obliterate a totally outmanned and outclassed Ohio State team in the BCS Championship game after the first of the year. Geaux Tigers!

I had made these Cajun Deviled Eggs before, so I knew that they were pretty good, fairly simple, and needed a slight alteration to the original recipe. The original recipe calls for garnishing the finished deviled eggs with more Cajun spice blend, but when I did this before, the Cajun flavor became overwhelming. I understand that Cajun seasoning is the main flavor of this recipe, but it has to be a pleasant flavor, not one that dominates so much that you can't appreciate anything else.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 teaspoon melted butter
pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper
1/2 tablespoon Cajun spice blend (such as Zatarain's, Paul Prudhomme's Magic, or Emeril's Essence), plus more to garnish

Mix mashed yolks with mayonnaise, mustard, and melted butter. Season with a pinch each of salt and pepper. Mix in Caju spice blend. Fill egg halves and allow to sit in the refirgerator for 30 minutes or more so the texture sets up and the flavors blend.




Above: adding the mayonnaise, mustard, and melted butter.





Above: adding the Cajun spice blend and the finished product.

I think the ingredient that "makes" this recipe is the melted butter. There really isn't butter flavor added, but the texture of these eggs is tremendous - almost perfect. They are fluid enough to easily fill the egg halves, yet firm enough (and they firm up even more as they chill) that they are easy to eat in two bites rather than having to force it all down in one bite. The flavor of these, unmistakably, is the Cajun spice blend, which other than a little salt, pepper, and mustard, is the only ingredient that isn't there to add bulk or texture. All in all, these are very simple and very good. Let's see how they score on the trusty Deviled Egg Blogger scorecard.

Overall: 72 out of 100
Texture: 19 out of 20
Flavor: 14 out of 20
Uniqueness: 10 out of 20
Appearance: 10 out of 20 (these just don't look that cool)
Ease of preparation: 19 out of 20

Comments?

Deviled Eggs with Tarragon

And it had been so much fun. The last few recipes, maybe a half dozen or so, had all been pretty good. They weren't all the same, but they were all good in their own ways. Then I tried a recipe for "Deviled Eggs with Tarragon." Ouch.

Tarragon, known as the dragon herb, supposedly pairs well with fish, chicken, or egg. So these eggs should be good, right? A little tarragon as the dominant flavor? A little mayonnaise for texture, and a little Dijon mustard and capers to give the flavor a little more complex profile? Doesn't work. Here's the recipe.

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and sliced in half
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon minced capers
1 1/2 teaspoons minced tarragon leaves
2 tablespoons minced chives.

Mix yolks, mayonnaise, mustard, capers, and tarragon leaves. Fill egg halves with mixture. Allow to chill for at least 1 hour for flavors to meld. Garnish with minced chives.


Above: adding the mayonnaise and Dijon mustard

Above: adding the minced capers and the minced tarragon leaves

Above: the finished "Deviled Eggs with Tarragon, after garnishing with chives

So these are just not that good. I guess the best way to describe them is just "blah." The tarragon flavor is there for sure, it just doesn't work. The texture is alright, although I honestly can't tell that the Dijon mustard adds anything to either the texture or the flavor. The capers are evident in the flavor, but unlike the smoked salmon deviled egg recipe from earlier this week, the capers don't seem to add anything. I guess I like deviled eggs that have a little more flavor to them.

Overall: 45 out of 100
Texture: 13 out of 20
Flavor: 3 out of 20
Uniqueness: 4 out of 20
Appeareance: 10 out of 20
Ease of preparation: 15 out of 20

Comments?

Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs

I've been trying to move away from the deviled egg recipes that just incorporate different quantities of the standby ingredients - mayonnaise, mustard, pickle juice or something, salt and pepper, etc. The last one, which I really enjoyed, has some finely diced chicken thrown in the mix. This one adds some smoked salmon. Although I'm not usually a fan of smoked salmon, I was very impressed with this recipe for some ancillary reasons. Here goes:


6 hard-boiled eggs
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons French Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons smoked salmon, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons scallions, finely chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
capers, for garnish (can also be garnished with caviar)


Combine the mashed egg yolks with the sour cream, cream cheese, and mustard. Stir in the smoked salmon and scallions. Season to taste. Fill the egg whites with mixture and garnish each deviled egg with a couple of capers (or some caviar).



Above: adding the sour cream, cream cheese, and Dijon mustard. Note: I microwaved the cream cheese for a few seconds so it was soft enough to fully incorporate into the egg mixture.


Above: adding the smoked salmon (which must be VERY finely chopped) and the scallions


Above: the final product, with each deviled egg garnished with 2 capers


As I said, I'm not a huge fan of smoked salmon. But this recipe was actually very good. First of all, the texture was great. Rather than the typical mayonnaise base, this recipe uses a base of sour cream and softened cream cheese. I realize that the sour cream is part of the base because of how well it matches with the smoked salmon (which is the intended dominant flavor), but adding the softened cream cheese to thicken the mixture is a stroke of genius. The second reason this recipe is so good is that each of the ancillary ingredients serves to enhance the flavor of the dominant flavor, the smoked salmon. Adding scallions, the sour cream, even the touch of Dijon mustard really help to accent the smoked salmon flavor. And the capers as a garnish, while not only kind of cool looking, also add to the flavor. I didn't use caviar as a garnish, as the recipe said was possible, but I am sure it would be just as good as the capers.

Overall: 79 out of 100
Texture: 19 out of 20 (again, nearly perfect, like the Chicken Deviled Eggs)
Flavor: 12 out of 20
Uniqueness: 19 out of 20 (bonus points for the cream cheese in the mix to help the texture)
Appeareance: 18 out of 20
Ease of preparation: 11 out of 20

Chicken Deviled Eggs

Nearly all of the deviled egg recipes I have tried so far seem to follow a simple pattern. Mash up the yolks, add in some combination of mustard, mayonnaise, maybe a liquid like vinegar or relish, garnish with parsley or paprika. Maybe bacon here, maybe cheese there, maybe even some cream cheese. But these chicken deviled eggs seem to move beyond that simple deviled egg paradigm. Totally unique and delicious. Here's the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs

1/2 cup finely chopped cooked chicken

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tablespoon grated sweet onion

1 tablespoon capers, drained and finely chopped

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon minced parsley

paprika, for garnish

Cook one chicken breast at 350 F for 20 minutes, then chop into very small pieces. Next grate sweet onion, drain and chop capers, and mice parsley. Add chicken, mayonnaise, sweet onion, capers, mustard, and parsley to the mashed yolks. Fill egg white halves with filling and garnish with paprika.

Above: adding the chicken, mayonnaise, and sweet onion to the mashed egg yolks. (Note: at the suggestion of a reader, I have mashed the yolks more finely.)

Above: adding the capers, mustard, and parsley.

Above: the finished product, garnished with paprika.

So there were a lot of interesting things going on in this recipe. First, the filling is basically a chicken salad - and this chicken salad is very good. It has a lot of ingredients, yet none of the ingredients dominate and each contributes something. Most deviled egg recipes I have tried that use parsley use it as a garnish, and here it goes into the filling and paprika is used as the garnish. Yet I think the parsley is needed - maybe it adds just a dash of green, maybe it's just for texture - who knows?

But I really liked these, in spite of the large amount of ingredients and the fact that so many ingredients have to be chopped. The texture, also, is perfect - thick enough to stand up in the egg halves, but not so thick that it can't be easily moved from the bowl to the eggs.

Overall: 77 out of 100 out of 100

Texture: 19 out of 20 (nearly perfect)

Flavor: 18 out of 20

Uniqueness: 17 out of 20

Appearance: 15 out of 20

Ease of preparation: 8 out of 20

Comments?

Horseradish and Black Pepper Deviled Eggs

This recipe has been quite an adventure. I have made it twice so far and I'm STILL not totally satisfied. Unlike the disastrous Sour Cream and Lemon Deviled Eggs from July, I see potential in this recipe. It might not be perfect, but it continues to be worth tinkering with and trying again.

So here is my Horseradish and Black Pepper Deviled Egg adventure:

When I made these the first time three weeks ago, I was never comfortable with the horseradish I was using. The original recipe called for "prepared horseradish" and I used some horseradish that I had in my refrigerator. According to http://www.horseradish.org/facts, prepared horseradish loses its potency and turns slightly brown as it ages. I think this is what happened with the horseradish I used in my first crack at this recipe (this attempt is represented in the pictures).


The second time I made this, I used "horseradish sauce" rather than prepared horseradish. Although horseradish.org does not distinguish between "prepared horseradish" and "horseradish sauce," I think the horseradish sauce that I used was horseradish cut with some mayonnaise. The result is that the horseradish is not nearly as hot as it was in the first attempt, and not nearly as hot as I think the recipe intends, but is actually a nice flavor. The problem, however, is that the texture is too runny when using "horseradish sauce."



So I'm going to make this recipe again, a third time, using a little less mayonnaise and using prepared horseradish that I know is fresh. But I'm going to try a couple of new recipes first. Perhaps the third time will be the charm.


Recipe:


6 hard-boiled eggs
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 1/2 tablespoons (or more) prepared horseradish
1 tablespoon sweet pickle juice from jar of sweet pickles
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
12 fresh parsley leaves

Above: adding the mayonnaise and the original prepared horseradish

Above: adding the pickle juice, the freshly ground pepper, and the salt

Above: the finished product, with the parsley garnish

Overall: 65 out of 100

Texture: 8 out of 20 (just too runny)

Flavor: 14 out of 20

Uniqueness: 17 out of 20 (the pickle juice bumps this up a couple points)

Appearance: 12 out of 20

Ease of preparation: 14 out of 20

Comments?