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?

"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?

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?

Parsley and Vinegar Deviled Eggs (Round 2)

I originally tested this recipe on January 6 (http://thebestdeviledeggs.blogspot.com/2008/01/parsley-and-vinegar-deviled-eggs.html) and made an error. This recipe called for half mayonnaise and half Miracle Whip, and I used all Miracle Whip. Since then, I've taken some classes in basic reading fundamentals, and I was able to successfully test this recipe AGAIN, this time actually following the recipe.

And the difference was noticeable. Whereas in the original recipe, the Miracle Whip became the dominant flavor, in the redo the Miracle Whip just provided a little tang and the mayonnaise provided the rest of the substance. That allowed the other ingredients - the parsley, the vinegar, and the hot sauce - to stand out a little more.

But the change didn't make this recipe "great." It's adequate - in fact, it was VERY popular with the tasters when I made it - but it's just nothing special.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and sliced in half
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 each salt and fresh ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry parsley flakes
1/2 tablespoon white vinegar
couple dashes hot pepper sauce (to taste)
just less than 1/4 cup mayonnaise
just less than 1/4 cup Miracle Whip
paprika, to garnish

1. Mash yolks with a fork until crumbly.
2. Add mayonnaise and Miracle whip a little at a time until the yolk mixture if of a paste consistency.
3. Add dry mustard, salt, pepper, and parsley and mix with fork.
4. Add vinegar and hot pepper sauce.
5. Fill egg white halves.
6. Sprinkle with paprika to garnish.
7. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Above: adding the mayonnaise, Miracle Whip, and dry mustard

Above: adding the salt, fresh ground pepper, and parsley flakes.

Above: adding the white vinegar, the hot sauce, and the finished product.

The texture and flavor were improved, but everything else remains the same. A slight bump in score, but not a lot. And I'm so goddamn tired of seeing paprika as a garnish of deviled eggs (it's a lazy garnish - just sprinkle, nothing else required) that I vow to make five consecutive recipes that use ANYTHING OTHER THAN PAPRIKA as the garnish.

Here are the scores:

Overall: 58 out of 100
Texture: 13 out of 20 (held up better with mayonnaise used appropriately)
Flavor: 13 out of 20
Uniqueness: 8 out of 20
Appearance: 7 out of 20 (I've had enough of paprika as the garnish - see above)
Ease of preparation: 17 out of 20

Comments?

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?