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?

Deviled Eggs with Capers

This recipe made me change my mind about a few things.

1. In previous blog entries, I've bashed butter as a deviled egg ingredient.http://thebestdeviledeggs.blogspot.com/2007/08/decadent-deviled-eggs.html and http://thebestdeviledeggs.blogspot.com/2008/04/beckys-deviled-eggs.html However, when used correctly, butter works - less as a flavoring agent and more as a textural ingredient that thickens up a deviled egg filling. In this recipe, it definitely works.

2. I've also been critical of recipes that don't have any "heft" to them, and I define heft as some sort of meat. Doesn't matter if it's chicken, bacon, prosciutto, whatever... I like recipes with meat and have been critical of recipes that tend to rely on herbs for the flavoring. But after the disaster that was the deviled ham in the filling (http://thebestdeviledeggs.blogspot.com/2008/05/double-deviled-eggs.html), I guess I was ready for something new. And this one delivers.

3. Lastly, I've been open about wanting to try a series of recipes that use something other than paprika as a garnish. It started here - http://thebestdeviledeggs.blogspot.com/2008/02/hells-eggs.html. So I've tried recipes that use parsley, herbs, all sorts of stuff, as a garnish. This recipe suggested either parsley or parsley sprigs as a garnish, and I went half and half. The parsley really didn't add much except visual appeal, but frankly, I really liked the paprika! It looked kind of cool, it added a bit of bite, and it was very easy. So... a new appeciation of paprika as a deviled egg garnish has been developed, and I'm going to try to test a few recipes that use DIFFERENT types of paprika. To be continued...

But back to this recipe. A reader sent me this recipe, which is credited to the classic magazine Southern Living, and it worked well on a warm spring day. In fact it worked so well, I made it TWICE - once for testing, and once just to enjoy. When you write a deviled egg blog and have a backlog of about 75 recipes to try, it's a rare occurance to make a deviled egg recipe just for your own personal enjoyment. That says a lot about the quality of this recipe. The capers added a nice crunch, but didn't dominate the flavor. And again, I like the fact that I can use the fresh chives out of my herb garden.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon butter, softened
2 teaspoon drained capers
1 teaspoon fresh chives, chopped
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
salt and pepper to taste
paprika (optional)
fresh parsley sprigs (optional)

1. Mash egg yolks.
2. Sit in mayonnaise, butter, capers, chives, and mustard.
3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Fill egg whites with yolk mixture.
5. Garnish with paprika or parsley.
6. Cover and chill at least 1 hour or until ready to serve.


Above: adding the mayonnaise, butter, and capers


Above: adding the chives and dry mustard

Above: the finished product, half with paprika as a garnish and half with the parsley

This recipe surprised me with how good it was. The butter made the texture sort of thick and manageable, a problem I've had in other recipes where the flavoring is basically herbs. The capers were crunchy and flavorful, but not dominant, and the chives were a nice seasonal hint. Also, the mustard was just BARELY there, but was very good. This recipe really combines and uses all of its ingredients well in every way.

Here are the scores:

Overall: 77 out of 100 (a very good score for an herb-based recipe)
Texture: 18 out of 20
Flavor: 15 out of 20
Uniqueness: 15 out of 20
Appearance: 13 out of 20
Ease of preparation: 16 out of 20

Comments?

Becky's Deviled Eggs

Becky, no! From the best to what surely are the worst. Boring, bland, different in a bad way, just awful. Just egg, a little melted butter, a little mayonnaise, and a little sugar. And it doesn't go together well. At all. And to save Becky the humiliation of submitting what certainly is the worst recipe I've tried, I won't include her last name.

Some people put sugar in deviled eggs. I don't care for it. Others put butter in deviled eggs. I can handle that in some instances, but it's not my favorite. And this recipe is just mayonnaise, butter, and sugar. And in such a small quantity that it was hard to fill the eggs with filling because there just wasn't enough of it! The original recipe actually called for 8 eggs, which would have made for even LESS filling than I used because I used 6 eggs, and the same proportion of other ingredients. The original recipe also called for either mayonnaise or Miracle Whip, and prior to testing this recipe, I thought I might test it with both. But it's not worth it, trust me.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs
2 teaspoons melted butter
2 teaspoons mayonnaise
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1. Mix all ingredients together and fill egg halves.


Above: adding the butter, mayonnaise, and sugar


Above: the finished product

This thing was just a total mess and really doesn't deserve any more discussion. It had really no good flavor, the texture was gritty because of the sugar without much else, and there was no garnish. I've tried to move away from paprika as a garnish, and although it wouldn't be any good on this recipe, at least it would make them more visually appealing.

Here are the scores:

Overall: 33 out of 100
Texture: 3 out of 20 (just too gritty)
Flavor: 4 out of 200
Uniqueness: 5 out of 20
Appearance: 2 out of 20
Ease of preparation: 19 out of 20

Comments?

Cajun Deviled Eggs

It's been a while since I updated the deviled egg blog. I actually have made deviled egg several times - I made 3 types (the three most highly-rated from this blog - Bacon & Cheese Deviled Eggs, Deviled Eggs The Way I Like Them [Round 2], and Chicken Deviled Eggs) for Thanksgiving. And I've tried 2 new recipes, just haven't posted the on the blog yet. So here is one of them, in honor of the LSU Bayou Bengals, who won the SEC Football Championship Game on Saturday and will obliterate a totally outmanned and outclassed Ohio State team in the BCS Championship game after the first of the year. Geaux Tigers!

I had made these Cajun Deviled Eggs before, so I knew that they were pretty good, fairly simple, and needed a slight alteration to the original recipe. The original recipe calls for garnishing the finished deviled eggs with more Cajun spice blend, but when I did this before, the Cajun flavor became overwhelming. I understand that Cajun seasoning is the main flavor of this recipe, but it has to be a pleasant flavor, not one that dominates so much that you can't appreciate anything else.

Here is the recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 teaspoon melted butter
pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper
1/2 tablespoon Cajun spice blend (such as Zatarain's, Paul Prudhomme's Magic, or Emeril's Essence), plus more to garnish

Mix mashed yolks with mayonnaise, mustard, and melted butter. Season with a pinch each of salt and pepper. Mix in Caju spice blend. Fill egg halves and allow to sit in the refirgerator for 30 minutes or more so the texture sets up and the flavors blend.




Above: adding the mayonnaise, mustard, and melted butter.





Above: adding the Cajun spice blend and the finished product.

I think the ingredient that "makes" this recipe is the melted butter. There really isn't butter flavor added, but the texture of these eggs is tremendous - almost perfect. They are fluid enough to easily fill the egg halves, yet firm enough (and they firm up even more as they chill) that they are easy to eat in two bites rather than having to force it all down in one bite. The flavor of these, unmistakably, is the Cajun spice blend, which other than a little salt, pepper, and mustard, is the only ingredient that isn't there to add bulk or texture. All in all, these are very simple and very good. Let's see how they score on the trusty Deviled Egg Blogger scorecard.

Overall: 72 out of 100
Texture: 19 out of 20
Flavor: 14 out of 20
Uniqueness: 10 out of 20
Appearance: 10 out of 20 (these just don't look that cool)
Ease of preparation: 19 out of 20

Comments?

Decadent Deviled Eggs

Again, I didn't make two recipes on the same day. I just added them to the blog on the same day.

These eggs are self-proclaimed "decadent" deviled eggs, although I'm not sure that "made nearly entirely of butter" means decadent. But these deviled eggs are really unique, in that their texture changed from when I made them... to when I shared them with some testers... to the next day.

Recipe:

6 hard-boiled eggs

1/4 cup softened butter (I microwaved it for about 10 seconds to soften it up)

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon hot sauce

1/8 teaspoon celery salt

1. Crumble egg yolks in a bowl.

2. Add 1/2 cup softened butter.

3. Add mustard, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and celery salt.

4. Mix well and fill egg halves.

Above: adding the softened butter, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and celery salt.

Above: the finished "decadent" deviled eggs

My reviewers had a mixed reaction. One claimed he couldn't tell that the deviled eggs did not contain mayonnaise. Another claimed that he tasted mostly hot sauce. And yet another claimed he tasted mostly celery salt. I don't know if this makes this recipe enigmatic, or just a mess. As I noted above, the eggs had a typical "deviled egg" consistency when they were first made. When they were chilled, they had firmed up, and by the next day, the filling was totally solid, like a cube of butter, and easily slipped out of the egg halves. I'm really not sure what to make of these, so I'd like some feedback.

Overall: 55 out of 100
Texture: 10 out of 20 (because it was so weird)
Flavor: 8 out of 20
Uniqueness: 17 out of 20
Appearance: 10 out of 20
Ease of preparation: 10 out of 20
Comments?