Deviled Egg Recipe
August 12, 2013 9:56 AM

I'm going to a deviled egg contest this weekend and I want to win. Please help me. What is your award winning deviled egg recipe?
posted by josher71 to Food & Drink (34 answers total) 80 users marked this as a favorite
Whatever recipe you end up going with, add worcestershire sauce.
posted by phunniemee at 9:57 AM on August 12, 2013


Add a healthy dose of curry powder!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:03 AM on August 12, 2013


Use creme fraiche, dry mustard and smoked paprika--either pimenton or the Hungarian kind. Make sure it actually smells smoky before you sprinkle it on--everything else is just flavorless colored dust.
posted by crush-onastick at 10:06 AM on August 12, 2013


April Bloomfield's Deviled Eggs from the Spotted Pig:

"A bit of crème fraîche, a tablespoon of Champagne vinegar, and flaky sea salt along with a sprinkle of chopped chives and chervil are the unexpected but absolutely spot on ingredients that make for some of our most often craved deviled eggs." The drizzle of olive oil (I believe they use Olave) and sprinkles of sea salt (Maldon) at the end is key.

Ana Sortun's Deviled Eggs with Tuna and Black Olives from Oleana - make sure you can get a hold of very fresh tuna, that's what makes these great, alongside the homemade mayo.

Blue Smoke's deviled eggs - the use of BBQ dry rub is what makes this version excellent
posted by kathryn at 10:09 AM on August 12, 2013


Smitten Kitchen's Caesar salad deviled eggs are so, so good. I've had to make these mid-party because the first batch went so quickly and people were about to riot for them.
posted by punchtothehead at 10:16 AM on August 12, 2013


Sometimes, life calls for good recipes, and sometimes it calls for showmanship.

Instead of filling the centers with any old glop, try constructing something in there. My first idea is to layer bacon and layers of a more traditional deviled egg filling. So you'd put a smear of filling, a tiny piece of bacon, another smear, a slightly larger piece of bacon, and so on.

In another direction, you could take your inspiration from sushi rolls and create something that stand out of the center like the end of a roll is often presented. Strips of pickled carrot and daikon with radish sprouts, cemented in with a wasabi/yolk concoction. YES!

OK, now I need to have a showoff deviled egg competition.
posted by advicepig at 10:28 AM on August 12, 2013


I don't know crap about deviled eggs, but I will say that if this is like any food contest I've ever participated in, stupid presentation gimmicks is the way to win. I kind of hate that it's true, but also I kind of understand it. When you're tasting a bunch of similar things, "this one tasted really good" is a lot harder to keep track of in your head than "that one had horns and a tail carved out of pickled beets" or whatever.
posted by aubilenon at 10:29 AM on August 12, 2013


(But don't slouch on the actual culinary side either, because people sure will remember "oh that's the one looked great but wasn't really all that good")
posted by aubilenon at 10:30 AM on August 12, 2013


I press the yolks through a strainer to get a really smooth, fluffy texture for the filling. It makes a big difference.
Then I add good mayonnaise (I love Spectrum Canola), yellow mustard and the pickling liquid from a jar of sweet gherkin pickles to taste (sorry that may not be that helpful, but I never use measurements!). The tartness from the pickling liquid is my "secret ingredient" and really makes the recipe, but you can get that from other things too. A touch of vinegar, for example.
posted by janerica at 10:31 AM on August 12, 2013


Try a bit of pesto in the filling. Normally I hate pesto, but it adds a nice flavor to deviled eggs.
posted by expialidocious at 10:34 AM on August 12, 2013


Ask yourself, what's in a bourbon deviled egg? I think it's bourbon and maybe a drop of liquid smoke and hot sauce. You may need to add something like mayo or mustard to get it to set up right.
posted by advicepig at 10:35 AM on August 12, 2013


Pesto deviled eggs are fantastic. All the recipes are pretty similar - here's one that is close to what I use - so experiment.
posted by googly at 10:36 AM on August 12, 2013


The sweet pickle juice makes a huge difference*. Your egg can be beautiful and have a nest of micro-julienned carrot strips with caviar in them, but if your vinegar balance is off the egg is a bust. I do also like worcestershire sauce, but just a drop or that's all you can taste.

*Or if you're using another vinegar, sugar. I can't say how much, but it needs a little sweet.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:39 AM on August 12, 2013


Tiny bit of lemon juice, fresh chives, yolks blended creamy, and Miracle Whip. (Apologies to mayo purists, but I feel it has a place)
posted by kmennie at 10:39 AM on August 12, 2013


Dessert deviled egg. Make a custard and pipe it in. This is actually the better bet for the bourbon deviled egg.
posted by advicepig at 10:43 AM on August 12, 2013


Echoing the advice pig, on the presentation angle piping your filling back into the egg whites with one of these will up the schmancy factor considerably. (Caveat, I have never attempted this myself but am pretty sure I've seen deviled eggs with this kind of texture...)
posted by heyforfour at 10:45 AM on August 12, 2013


Whip the cooked yolks into home-made mayo and plenty of wasabi. Pipe a small dollop into the halved, cooked egg white. Piece of roasted seaweed on top of that; sushi rice on that. Top with salmon roe and garnish with ginger. Devilish!
posted by fikri at 11:06 AM on August 12, 2013


These are awesome at Tyler Florence's Wayfare Tavern in San Francisco... Bacon, fried capers, and anchovies? Yes, please.
posted by cecic at 11:32 AM on August 12, 2013


Parsi deviled eggs (google for recipe) are THE most amazing ever. Gah, now i want some.
posted by TestamentToGrace at 11:33 AM on August 12, 2013


After you peel the boiled eggs, soak them in beet juice for a couple of hours to make them nice and purple. Then cut them and proceed to make deviled eggs as normal. Imparts a nice earthy dimension to the flavor.
posted by Jacob G at 11:35 AM on August 12, 2013


+1 on the smoked paprika. The best ones I ever had also had a small spoonful of black caviar on top, if you're willing to go all fancy-like.
posted by JoanArkham at 12:07 PM on August 12, 2013


What I like putting in the mix is finely minced cornichons and garnish with a small pimento-stuffed green olive. The cornichons give a nice tart cunch and the olive adds the salt.

Last time we made them for easter, we used pieces of black olive for eyes and carrot or red pepper for beaks and cut the eggs open across the narrow axis not the long axis and filled them so they looked like chicks hatching.
posted by plinth at 12:44 PM on August 12, 2013


I have a friend who shows up to parties with what he calls Russian Roulette deviled eggs -- every sixth one has wasabi oil injected under the filling, and you don't know which ones have it unless you take the gamble.
posted by PSB at 12:47 PM on August 12, 2013


Egg yolks, mayo, dijon mustard, celery seed (easier to mash than actual celery), eensy diced green onion, sweet relish, worcestershire sauce, Louisiana hot sauce, salt pepper. Chives, fresh parsley and paprika for decoration (and taste).

Mash the egg yolks with mayo, mustard, celery seeds, onion, relish etc. You don't want it soupy, you want it firm, but not crumbly.

Pipe into the egg whites. It looks pretty. Chop very finely the garnish and sprinkle it on top of the eggs, finish with a dash of paprika. A slice of pimento stuffed olive is nice too.

If there are any left over (doubtful) mash them up, egg salad!

I do these instead of regular hard boiled eggs at Passover and they are nummy!
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 12:54 PM on August 12, 2013


You must make smoked devilled eggs!

Boil for the minimum time to hard boiled. Peel and place on oiled grate or oiled pan. Smoke for 20-30 min. in your smoker. Slice and devil.

Seriously bomber!

Also: one would be wise to position oneself upwind from this contest.
posted by amanda at 1:41 PM on August 12, 2013


Another contest-specific thing: if the judges are gonna be eating a lot of heavy, strong-flavored stuff at one sitting, something light or refreshing or palate-cleansing can go over real well just because everyone's so grateful for a break. If everyone else is gonna be aiming for dense and rich and spicy and BACON and etcetera, the winning strategy might be to go super light and fresh.

Mind you, I'm not sure I know how to do that in this particular case. Some sort of light whipped airy thing instead of mashed-up yolk? Fresh cucumber or radish or something instead of pickles? Pickled ginger?

(Actually, combining this with the dessert strategy might be fun. If you replace the yolk with lemon sorbet, is it still a deviled egg? If you replace the white with meringue, is it still a deviled egg? Will the judges find these questions amusing, or will they start throwing things at you?)
posted by Now there are two. There are two _______. at 3:22 PM on August 12, 2013


Oh! Dude! Mango! Don't season the yolk mush too heavily, use less of it than normal, and make up the missing volume with dice/chunks of ripe mango. Lime juice, salt and chili powder on top. Maybe a sprig of cilantro.
posted by Now there are two. There are two _______. at 3:40 PM on August 12, 2013


Creole mustard (that is all I am going to write.)
posted by govtdrone at 5:00 PM on August 12, 2013


My deviled eggs are amazing. No, really.

I pipe my filling in. My filling is processed in a Ninja blender, but I'm sure a Cuisinart would work as well.

Boil eggs on the verge of the sell by date properly. Place the yolks in the blender with:
Duke's Mayo
French's yellow mustard
Texas Pete Hot sauce
Quality horseradish
Mt. Olive sweet pickle relish

Pipe in eggs.

Dust with smoked hot Hungarian paprika.
Top with split green olives stuffed with pimentos.
Seriously, amazing.
posted by sara is disenchanted at 6:19 PM on August 12, 2013


People rave over my deviled eggs. I don't bother to pipe my filling, but I do sprinkle paprika on the stuffed egg and place a sliced green olive with a small piece of pimento in the center of the olive.

Boil eggs about 8 minutes (over boiling the eggs will cause a green/gray hue to the outside of the egg yoke)

Combine:
Egg yoke
Mayonnaise
Dijon mustard
Chopped garlic (from the jar is fine)
Chopped green olives (I use the cheap salad olives in the jar, (separate the pimento strips for later use as garnish)

I can't tell you the amounts of each, I just wing it. Mayo to mustard ratio is about 3:1. You want the stuffing stiff, too much mayo will cause the stuffing to be too soft and will collapse on itself. Place a sliced green olive with a small piece of pimento in the center of the olive.

If you want to get really fancy...Instead of slicing the egg lengthwise, cut the egg in half (circumference). Slice enough off of the bottom of the egg cup to allow it to sit upright and not tip over. Then place your filling in the egg cup. Garnish as above.
posted by JujuB at 6:45 PM on August 12, 2013


Just had homemade guacamole deviled eggs yesterday and they were pretty delicious!
posted by estherbester at 9:01 PM on August 12, 2013


I haven't had a chance to make these yet, but they are totally on my radar: wasabi deviled eggs .
posted by cestmoi15 at 9:21 PM on August 12, 2013


Not a recipe, but a suggestion. Get a small melon baller, and gently scoop out a little bit of the white at the other end of the egg. I love the delicious creamy beginning of a deviled egg, but dislike the flabby tasteless overabundance of egg white at the end. You might want to hard boil another few eggs, so you have enough yolk to fill a dozen eggs (or however how many you need to make for the contest).
posted by marsha56 at 9:18 AM on August 13, 2013


Now that the weekend's over: did you win?
posted by troika at 11:27 AM on August 19, 2013


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