Pancetta and Maytag Blue Cheese Deviled Eggs

I REALLY loved this recipe. Pretty simple, yet uses some unique ingredients. Doesn't get too fancy, yet the double use of the pancetta is a creative way to incorporate into the flavor AND the appearance. Just egg yolks, mayonnaise, Maytag blue cheese, pancetta, and a little salt and pepper. As simple as it seems, I honestly believe that adding ANYTHING else (mustard, relish, red pepper, even paprika) would just take away the brilliant simplicity of this recipe.

And the requirements of using Maytag blue cheese might seem like mere conspicuous consumption, but because the result was so good, I think it might be necessary.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and sliced in half

1/4 lb pancetta, finely diced before cooking

2 1/2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 1/2 tablespoons Maytag blue cheese, crumbled

salt and pepper to taste

1. Finely dice pancetta before cooking.

2. Cook pancetta over medium heat until crispy.

3. Slice eggs in half and remove yolks.

4. Mash yolks in a bowl until fine.

5. Add mayonnaise and Maytag blue cheese.

6. Add 2/3 of the cooked pancetta.

7. Add salt and pepper to taste.

8. Mix well and fill egg halves with mixture.

9. Allow eggs to chill for an hour before serving.

9. Garnish with remaining 1/3 of cooked pancetta.

Note: do NOT chill the pancetta as a garnish. In fact, 10 second in a microwave before garnishing and serving will really punch up the crispiness and flavor of the pancetta garnish.

Here are the pictures:

Above: adding the mayonnaise, Maytag blue cheese, and pancetta

Above: the finished product, garnished with the pancetta.

And now a couple of caveats so you enjoy this recipe as much as I did. One of my tasting panelists did not like this recipe. Why? He doesn't like blue cheese. So, to enjoy this recipe, and to believe it's high score, you must be a lover of blue cheese. It is a strong flavor, and is clearly the dominant flavor in this recipe.

Another caveat: do NOT allow the pancetta garnish to chill. Chill the eggs so the flavors meld and so the texture sets up nicely, but a few tasters didn't like the chilled pancetta as a garnish. So just garnish the eggs immediately before serving - something that is very different from most deviled egg recipes.

One last comment. One taster asked why this recipe required pancetta rather than just bacon. Well, pancetta and bacon are VERY similar, but pancetta is cured and spiced, and those spices are what provide enough subtleties in the flavor in this recipe that the simplicity of just mayonnaise, Maytag blue cheese, and pancetta (and a little salt and pepper, if you wish) provides, counter-intuitively, enough complexity.

Here are the scores:

Overall: 86 out of 100

Texture: 17 out of 20 (the blue cheese MUST be crumbled and well-blended, which is a bit of a challenge)

Flavor: 19 out of 20

Uniqueness: 18 out of 20

Appearance: 18 out of 20

Ease of preparation: 14 out of 20 (because you have to fry the pancetta)

Comments?

Southern Living Buttery Dijon Deviled Eggs

Deviled Eggs, in many people's eyes, are a distincly Southern delicacy.

So who better to suggest a Deviled Egg recipe than that bastion of all things Southern, Southern Living magazine?

This recipe (supposedly) comes from a recipe that originally appeared in an issue of Southern Living magazine. If that's true, I'm a little surprised and a little more disappointed. While this recipe is good, it's not great... and I expected great from that scion of Southern culture, Southern Living magazine.

This recipe is called "Buttery Dijon Deviled Eggs" but that title doesn't really describe what's going on here. First of all, as we have learned throughout this blog, the use of butter in deviled egg filling is less about the flavor and more about the texture. And as with all deviled egg recipes I have tried that use butter, the filling in this recipe solidifies when the eggs are chilled. There isn't a whole lot of butter flavor, per se, but the butter has a large effect - most of it negative and most of it on the texture of the deviled egg filling. Perhaps if someone wanted to thicken a deviled egg filling, he or she could use a LITTLE butter - but equal parts butter to mayonnaise just makes a solid filling when chilled, not a good result.

Second, the title implies that Dijon mustard will be a dominant flavor, but it wasn't. In fact, there wasn't really a dominant flavor - just the thickness of the butter.

That doesn't mean that this recipe was bad, because it wasn't. It just wasn't as good as I expected from Southern Living magazine.

Here is the recipe:

6 eggs, hard-boiled, peeled, and cut in half
1/8 cup butter, softened
1/8 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
salt to taste
ground white pepper to taste
paprika (optional)

1. Cut eggs in half lengthwise and remove yolks.
2. Mash yolks in a smal bowl.
3. Stil in butter, mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, and ground red pepper

4. Stir in salt and white pepper to taste.

5. Spoon mixture evenly into egg white halves.

6. Sprinkle with paprika, if desired.

7. Cover and chill at least 1 hour or until ready to serve

Here are the pictures:

Above: adding the mayonnaise, softened butter, and Dijon mustard

Above: adding the lemon juice and red pepper

Above: the finished product, garnished with paprika

Here are the scores:

Overall: 59 out of 100

Texture: 8 out of 20 (I just don't like the thickness the butter provides)

Flavor: 10 out of 20

Uniqueness: 12 out of 20 (extra for the use of white pepper)

Appearance: 14 out of 20 (again, extra for the use of white pepper)

Ease of preparation: 15 out of 20

Comments?

Grandma Stanley's Deviled Eggs

An eagle-eyed deviled egg fan recently sent me this piece, which originally ran in the Atlanta (GA) Journal-Constitution as part of its amazing Southern Recipe Restoration project.

http://projects.eveningedge.com/recipes/grandma-stanleys-deviled-eggs/

It's always great to read a brief story along with a recipe, and this recipe has that story. Unfortunately for Grandma Stanley and her progeny, this blog does not have a scoring category for "background story."

However, it doesn't really matter in this case. This recipe boils down to one thing: sometimes, simple is better.

These may be the simplest deviled eggs that I have made since I began this blog, but believe it or not, they do not disappoint. Just mayonnaise, sweet relish, and some salt and pepper. That's it. Yet, it's great.

In case you didn't read the link, here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and sliced in half
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
salt and pepper to taste.

1. In a small bowl, combine the yolks, mayonnaise, and pickle relish.
2. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Fill the egg white halves with the filling.

Yep, that's it.

Here are the pictures:

Above: adding the mayonnaise and relish

Above: adding the pepper and salt

Above: the finished product

Is this recipe perfect? Of course not. When I made it, I did have to add more salt and pepper than I had expected in order to "season to taste", in this case, my taste. Plus, with no garnish at all, these eggs look very plain.

But the tasting panel loved them, one panelist even calling them "the best yet." Well, they aren't the BEST yet, but they are damn good. And they are good enough that I will even try some of the suggested relish substitutions like chopped sun-dried tomatoes or chopped ham. If I do, I will grade them on here as well.

This recipe is also serves as a great base recipe for deviled eggs. If you have a serving idea or topping idea and need just a BASE recipe, this is it. Maybe a little mustard, maybe a little less relish (since that's clearly the dominating flavor), but this is a great base.

Here are the scores:

Overall: 69 out of 100
Texture: 15 out of 20
Flavor: 14 out of 20
Uniqueness: 13 out of 20 (extra points because their simplicity is so unique)
Appearance: 8 out of 20
Ease of preparation: 19 out of 20

Up next will be a report on the OTHER recipe suggested in the backstory of Grandma Stanley's deviled eggs.

Comment?

Trudy's Deviled Eggs

After the disaster that was the Norwegian Deviled Eggs, I was ready for something different. ANYTHING different.

Trudy's Deviled Eggs did not let me down.


These aren't the best deviled eggs I've tried, nor are they necessarily unique. They basically use horseradish, both horseradish sauce and horseradish root, and some vinegar. They also use Miracle Whip rather than mayonnaise, which provides a little bite that the horseradish ingredients also provided. (Note: the original recipe I used called for either mayonnaise or Miracle Whip, and I went with Miracle Whip. The recipe was good, but not good enough to try again with mayonnaise.)

And again, this recipe calls for "1 tablespoon horseradish" and the debate between horseradish root and horseradish sauce rages again. I went with the Solomonic solution of using half of each, which serves two purposes. First, it allows enough horseradish root to give the eggs some bite without making them overwhelming. Second, it allows me to confidently use Miracle Whip rather than mayonnaise as the base, since horseradish sauce has some mayonnaise in it.


But most importantly, this recipe was NOT the disaster that was the Norwegian Deviled Eggs. My tasting panel KIND OF liked this (one taster does NOT like horseradish, so was turned off), but no one absolutely raved. It was just "good". But compared to the Norwegian Deviled Eggs, just by virtue of being palatable, this recipe is great.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and cut in half
2 tablespoons Miracle Whip
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash of pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 tablespoon horseradish root
1/2 tablespoon prepares horseradish
paprika, for garnish

1. Mash egg yolks in bowl.
2. Mix in Miracle Whip, vinegar, salt, pepper, mustard, and both horseradishes.
3. Blend well and fill egg whites with mixture.
4. Garnish with paprika.


Above: adding the Miracle Whip, apple cider vinegar, and salt.

Above: after the pepper was added, adding in the dry mustard, horseradish root, and horseradish sauce

Above: the finished product, garnished with paprika.

All in all, this recipe is OK. It's not entirely unique, and some of the vagaries (the mayonnaise vs Miracle Whip; the horseradish root v horseradish sauce) mean that there is probably some wiggle room in the flavor here, but given the banality of the rest of the ingredients, I'm not going to futz around trying different variations of this. Since school has started back, I give this recipe a solid C+

Here are the scores:

Overall: 57 out of 100
Texture: 14 out of 20
Flavor: 11 out of 20
Appearance: 1o out of 20 (again, paprika as the only garnish isn't creative enough)
Uniqueness: 8 out of 20
Ease of preparation: 14 out of 20

Comments?

Norwegian Deviled Eggs

Now that people know I have been testing and reviewing deviled egg recipes for my blog, they often ask, "What is the WORST deviled egg recipe you have tried?"

Well, now I have the answer!

"NORWEGIAN DEVILED EGGS", hands down, are the WORST DEVILED EGGS I have tried. This is the only recipe I have tried that literally made me gag while trying them, and I could not even eat a single egg. Neither could my tasters... and all of them went to waste.

This recipe, in theory, should be THAT bad. It's got smoked salmon, a little swiss cheese, and some dill which matches with the smoked salmon. But... this recipe doesn't have any mayonnaise!

20% of the score in this blog is for "uniqueness," just like 1/3 of the score was for "originality" on Puttin' On The Hits back in the 1980's. And I guess that using softened butter and sour cream is somewhat original, but this recipe... if there ever was one that did... SCREAMS for some mayonnaise.

Not all recipes that eschew mayonnaise as the binding are terrible. In fact, I recently tested one by a well-known chef (soon to be reviewed on the blog) that uses an aioli in place of mayonnaise. But sour cream and butter, especially with salmon and dill, just fails miserably.

Beyond that, the original recipe I used called for 8 hard-boiled eggs, and I use recipes on this site based on 6 eggs (which are easily doubled to a nice round dozen). Further, they mis-spelled "Norwegian" in this recipe, and I guess that should have been a major hint. Alas, it wasn't, and my gag reflex was tested.

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and sliced in half
1/4 cup chopped smoked salmon
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1 tablespoon sour cream
3 tablespoons grated Swiss cheese
1/2 teaspoon dill.

1. Mash egg yolks in bowl.
2. Add in smoked salmon, butter, sour cream, cheese, and dill.
3. Mix together well and stuff egg whites with yolk mixture.


Above: adding the smoked salmon, butter, and sour cream

Above: adding the Swiss cheese, and the finished product

Where to start... hmmm...

First of all, the texture was just a grainy disaster. The filling didn't stuff correctly, and the texture was so bad that I literally gagged. There wasn't really anything "smooth" to make the filling work like a deviled egg filling should.

The proportions were all out of whack. Let's assume that butter and sour cream are an acceptable substitute for mayonnaise. There was only 2 total tablespoons of butter and sour cream, whereas there was 3 tablespoons of the cheese, which didn't make the filling smooth at all.

The recipe called for incorporating the dill into the filling, but that looked so disgusting to me that I just used the dill as garnish. Dill and smoked salmon and sour cream... should be great, right? Well, in a deviled egg, it was gag-inducing.

Here are the scores:

Overall: 31 out of 100
Texture: 0 out of 20
Flavor: 3 out of 20
Uniqueness: 13 out of 20
Appearance: 5 out of 20
Ease of preparation: 10 out of 20

Comments?

Old-Fashioned Deviled Eggs

Who the hell knows what the term "old-fashioned" really means? This recipe is touted as "Old-Fashioned Deviled Eggs," so in this case, I guess old-fashioned could mean simple. Or boring. Or quaint. Or really pretty expressionless. There just wasn't anything special, at all, about this recipe.

When I established this blog nearly a year ago, a very important component was the scoring system I chose. I selected five criteria by which to grade deviled eggs - texture, flavor, uniqueness, appearance, and ease of preparation. Texture and flavor were givens. I considered proportion, but declined to include it since so many deviled recipes are not written, and since I can always adjust proportions according to the ingredients. I also think the appearance of a deviled egg is important, so I included that.

The two "wild card" scoring criteria I chose were uniqueness and ease of preparation. These run sort of counter, as something unique may have an ingredient that is somewhat difficult to find or prepare. Similarly, something really easy to prepare may just have a few ingredients, and thus may not be unique. A great recipe finds the middle ground and is both unique AND easy to prepare.

This recipe certainly is easy. But unique? Nope. Just "old-fashioned," which I now think is code for "boring." There's nothing WRONG with this recipe, there's just nothing special about it.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and cut in half
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 1/4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
Tabasco sauce (to taste)
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper (to taste)
3 tablespoons minced fresh chives.

1. Mash egg yolks in a bowl until fine.
2. Add mayonnaise, mustard, Tabasco sauce, salt and pepper.
3. Fill egg whites with mixture.
4. Garnish with chives.
5. Allow eggs to chill in refrigerator for at least an hour before serving.


Above: adding the mayonnaise and Dijon mustard


Above: adding the Tabasco sauce, and the salt and pepper


Above: the finished product

I guess I do have to give these eggs some credit for using fresh chives - a topping I like because of both the visual appeal and the flavor they provide. But all in all, just boring.

Here are the scores:

Overall: 58 out of 100
Texture: 14 out of 20
Flavor: 10 out of 20
Uniqueness: 7 out of 20
Appearance: 12 out of 20
Ease of preparation: 15 out of 20

Comments?

"Here It Goes" Deviled Eggs

This recipe is called the "Here It Goes" Deviled Eggs because that's how the recipe was introduced when posted on a popular message board. The recipe goes on to not give any amounts for each ingredient, and also suggests making them "a couple times" to suit them to a person's taste.

I don't mind taking a person's recipe that has never been quantified and testing and quantifying it, but the recipe has to be worth the effort. This recipe was just all over the place - the instructions referring mayo even though the ingredient list calls for Miracle Whip. The honey Dijon added as an afterthought. The overwrought masturbatory praise using terms like "very addictive flavor" and "soo good". But all in all, I'm not sure these are worth making more than once, and I also am not going to take the time to tinker with the ingredients.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and sliced in half
2 tablespoons Miracle Whip
1/4 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
2 dashes Tabasco sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon honey Dijon mustard
Hungarian sweet paprika



1. Mash egg yolks very finely in bowl.
2. Add Miracle Whip, apple cider vinegar, Tabasco sauce, sugar, and honey Dijon mustard.
3. Mix well and fill egg whites with mixture.
4. Garnish with paprika.
5. Allow eggs to chill for 1 hour for flavors to blend.




Above: adding the Miracle Whip, vinegar, and Tabasco sauce


Above: adding the sugar and honey Dijon mustard



Above: the finished product

I just don't think everything went well together. The bite of Miracle Whip cut with the sweetness of sugar AND honey Dijon mustard doesn't make a ton of sense. And then add in the heat of the Tabasco sauce, and it's basically a mish-mash. Oddly, the dominant flavor ended up being the mustard - not the Tabasco, not the honey, not the sugar, not the vinegar. But the mustard. Everything else just sort of mish-mashed together, and then the eggs were garnished with the boring garnish of paprika. I've come to appreciate Hungarian paprika, but the filling itself wasn't good enough to warrant just paprika as a garnish. All in all, while not bad, sort of a disappointment

Here are the scores:

Overall: 53 out of 100
Texture: 14 out of 20
Flavor: 7 out of 20
Uniqueness: 9 out of 20 (adding too many ingredients doesn't make a recipe unique)
Appearance: 9 out of 20
Ease of preparation: 14 out of 20

Comments?

(Supposedly) Hot Deviled Eggs

It's been a while since I've posted. Lots of reasons:

1. I've been traveling a bit and haven't made deviled eggs for my travels.
2. I've made a few recipes, but have yet to post them.
3. I HAVE made deviled eggs a few times to share with people, but I've been sticking to "tried and true" recipes rather than experimenting.

And I've realized something else in making "tried and true" recipes. I LOVE the Bacon And Cheese Deviled Eggs (http://thebestdeviledeggs.blogspot.com/2007/09/bacon-and-cheese-deviled-eggs.html) tested last September, and I make them relatively often. In fact, they received a VERY high composite score of 83 out of 100. However... other people don't like them as much. Such is life, and this serves as a reminder that my personal preferences influence the deviled egg grading more than the opinions of my panelists.

Here is the newest recipe, which I actually made a few weeks ago but just now got around to posting.

The key to this recipe, which supposedly originated in Gourmet magazine btu I'm not so sure - and the key to a few others I will make and post about intermittently - is HOT Hungarian paprika. Hungarian paprika comes in several varietes, and the most common is sweet Hungarian paprika. But this recipe specifically calls for HOT Hungarian paprika, which I found at a local international grocery. It is pictured below:

The recipe doesn't call for much of it (just 1/8 of a teaspoon) but the recipe ALSO calls for 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper. So I expected heat, and lots of it. In fact, I looked forward to the reactions of the tasting panel to the heat in this recipe. And alas... it wasn't that hot. Really, it was OK, easy to make, and just sort of plain. Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and halved
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon HOT Hungarian paprika
chopped fresh chives

1. Mash egg yolks in a small bowl.
2. Add mayonnaise, mustard, cayenne pepper, and paprika.
3. Blend well and fill egg whites with mixture.
4. Garnish with fresh chopped chives.
5. Allow eggs to chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving.

Above: adding the mayonnaise and Dijon mustard

Above: adding the cayenne pepper and HOT Hungarian paprika

Above: the finished product, garnished with the fresh chives.

Part of the scoring of deviled egg recipes, to me, considers the expectations. In other words, there wasn't anything WRONG with this recipe, but it didn't match my expectations. Could I make it again and double the amount of cayenne and paprika? Sure... but the flavor itself wasn't good enough to warrant additional tries to perfect this recipe, like I do with others. I have other recipes that use HOT Hungarian paprika, and I'll try them and grade them, but I'm not really going forward with this specific recipe. It just doesn't have anything in it that warrants more effort.

Here are the scores:

Overall: 63 out of 100
Texture: 15 out of 100
Flavor: 6 out of 100 (lowered because of the heat expectations)
Uniqueness: 12 out of 100 (2 extra points because of the hot Hungarian paprika)
Appearance: 12 out of 100
Ease of preparation: 18 out of 100

Comments?

Shallot Deviled Eggs

A shallot is simply a smaller, slightly milder version of an onion. While an onion's strong smell and flavor might be overwhelming in a deviled egg recipe, a shallot seems like a perfect idea. Nice flavor, nice scent, shallots just would seem to be a great idea as the primary component in a deviled egg recipe.

And they were. This recipe uses the deviled egg staples - mayonnaise and mustard - and supplements the shallots with a little celery salt, a dash of cayenne pepper on top, and an additional topping of fresh chives. I like the idea of the double garnish, if only for visual reasons. These eggs look really cool and very appetizing.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and sliced in half

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoons yellow mustard

1 shallot, finely minced

pinch celery salt

pepper to taste

cayenne pepper, as needed

minced fresh chives, as needed

1. Mash egg yolks with mayonnaise, mustard, shallot, celery salt and pepper.

2. Place a scoop of the mixture in each egg white half.

3. Sprinkle with chives and a generous amount of cayenne pepper.

4. Allow eggs to chill for at least an hour for flavors to blend.

Above: adding the mayonnaise, mustard, and shallots


Above: adding the pinch of celery salt, the eggs with the cayenne pepper garnish, and the final product with the chives as a garnish.

This recipe is easy, quick, a bit unique, looks good with the double garnish, and is tasty to boot!

Here are the scores:

Overall: 79 out of 100
Texture: 16 out of 20
Flavor: 16 out of 20
Uniqueness: 15 out of 20 (extra because of the double garnish)
Appearance: 15 out of 20 (more extra because of the double garnish)
Ease of preparation: 17 out of 20

Comments?