Sunday, January 6, 2008

Parsley and Vinegar Deviled Eggs (Round 1)

The main ingredient in deviled eggs is either mayonnaise or Miracle Whip. It's always intriguing to see which way a recipe will go (I lean toward mayonnaise when only a flavorless base is needed) and this recipe uses Miracle Whip to provide a little bite. But the rest of the flavors - dried parsley, white vinegar, a dash of hot pepper sauce - just aren't strong enough to overpower the tang of the Miracle Whip. Thus, the dominant flavor of these eggs is Miracle Whip.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon each salt and fresh ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry parsley flakes
1/2 tablespoon white vinegar
dash of hot pepper sauce
just less than 1/2 cup Miracle Whip
paprika to garnish

Combine mustard, salt and pepper, parsley, vinegar, hot pepper sauce, and Miracle Whip with mashed egg yolks. Blend well and fill egg white halves with mixture. Garnish with paprika.


Above: adding the dry mustard, salt, and fresh ground pepper


Above: adding the parsley flakes, white vinegar, hot pepper sauce, and Miracle Whip


Above: a coincidentally suitable picture of the final product; just as this picture is blurry and not very good, the appearance of these eggs wasn't that great either

Here are the scores:

Overall: 52 out of 100
Texture: 10 out of 20 (it seemed good when I made it, but eventually they were a little runny)
Flavor: 10 out of 20
Uniqueness: 8 out of 20
Appearance: 7 out of 20
Ease of preparation: 17 out of 20

So this recipe, looking at the scores, was easy to make but was a letdown in every other way. The texture seemed good when I made it, but whereas most eggs "set up" when they chill, these seemed to become a little runnier. The flavor was entirely average, as the Miracle Whip seemed to drown out the parsley, vinegar, hot pepper sauce, etc. Not very unique, and these eggs didn't look too appetizing - almost taking on a grayish tint.

But... a caveat. I messed up when I made these. I made them in a hurry and didn't notice that the base is supposed to be half mayonnaise and half Miracle Whip. So, all these negatives could, conceivably, be my fault. As such, I'm going to try them again. I have a couple of other recipes I have already made and need to post on the blog, so it might be a couple weeks before the "Parsley and Vinegar Deviled Eggs: Round 2" appears, but wait for it. It will be interesting to see the new score compared to this one.

Comments?

1 comment:

Joanie K said...

yum - the taste of miracle whip. I'm interested to see what happens during round 2!