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?