Martin's Mother-In-Law's Deviled Eggs

The recently-referenced Atlanta Journal-Constitution column (http://www.accessatlanta.com/living/content/shared-blogs/ajc/tabletalk/entries/2008/04/29/devilish_eggs.html?cxntnid=din043008e) on deviled eggs was interesting in a few ways. First, it showed that deviled eggs are sort of a trend in the vein of culinary kitsch, memoribilia, and "staycations." People are actually sort of into deviled eggs, even though they are hardly new!

But also interesting was that the AJC column also included a series of user-generated comments. Some of these comments went so far as to attempt to describe recipes that the reader himself, or a friend or relative of the reader, had been using for deviled eggs for years. I will try to duplicate some of these recipes as well, testing and grading them here.

An AJC reader named "Martin" described the "wonderful" recipe his Tennessee-bred mother-in-law made. Lots has been said about mothers-in-law, much of it negative, but Martin's mother-in-law's deviled egg recipe doesn't really warrant any negative comments. Unfortunately, with just a couple of exceptions, it doesn't warrant any glowing positive comments either.

Martin's mother-in-law makes a very simple deviled egg recipe. Interestingly, she uses both mayonnaise AND Miracle Whip, which I guess should give the recipe a little bite. Further, she uses some butter, which stiffens up the filling and really does help with the texture. But beyond that, it's just a little yellow mustard, a dash of white vinegar, and she's done. Nothing really unique, nothing to make the eggs special, and absolutely no garnish that would have made the eggs much more visually appealing.

I thought about adding a garnish to this recipe myself. Often, I do slightly change a recipe - add something here or there to step up a recipe, or even combine suggested elements of multiple recipes to create something I think is really special. In fact, the highest-scoring deviled egg recipe ever tried on this blog (the Crispy-Fried Prosciutto Deviled Eggs) came about from a combination of two deviled egg ideas. But I didn't want to mess with Martin's mother-in-law's recipe. I suspect that, like her recipe, Martin's mother-in-law is a sturdy woman, strong in her convictions, but not gussied up at all. I'm thinking a more masculine version of Janet Huckabee, although a more masculine version of Janet Huckabee is basically Hugh Downs. So maybe Janet Reno.

Anyway, here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs
1 heaping tablespoon mayonnaise
1 heaping tablespoon Miracle Whip
1/2 stick butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard
1/8 teaspoon white vinegar

1. Crumble egg yolks.
2. Add mayonnaise, Miracle Whip, butter, mustard, and vinegar.
3. Combine well and fill egg white halves.
4. Allow eggs to chill for at least an hour before serving.

Here are the pictures:

Above: adding the mayonnaise, Miracle Whip, and softened butter


Above: adding the mustard and vinegar


Above: the finished product.

As you can tell, these eggs don't LOOK very good. The flavor is alright, good even, but nothing spectacular. Using BOTH mayonnaise and Miracle Whip gives a slight tang to the flavor, but there isn't anything here to stand out. The butter in the filling gives the eggs a sturdier texture, but on the second day, the reviewers said the texture was TOO thick. The lesson is: a little butter adds some sturdiness if you are serving your eggs that day, but later on they are too thick.

Here are the scores:

Overall: 65 out of 100
Texture: 18 out of 20 (I like the butter even if the second-day reviewers didn't)
Flavor: 10 out of 20
Uniqueness: 12 out of 100 (gets 4 more points for both mayo and Miracle Whip)
Appearance: 7 out of 100 (really needs a garnish - badly)
Ease of preparation: 18 out of 100

Comments?