Deviled Eggs

I am not sure how many times on Sunday I heard, "Why do they call them deviled eggs?  Shouldn't they be saintly or angelic eggs?"  I am not sure that I ever heard these comments more than I did this year.  It wasn't just from family either.  Weird.  I guess it comes up because we tend to have them on Resurrection Day.  Does the same question apply if we roll them out for thee 4th of July or some other summer event?


Of course, I had to look up the how or why to this term and this is what I found:

Here's the history behind the the name. An Englishman by the name of William Underwood set up a small condiment business on Boston's Russia Wharf in 1822. It did pretty well both developing and selling new condiment products. Around 1868, Underwood's sons began experimenting with a new product created from ground ham blended with a mix of special seasonings. They introduced a product line of seasoned meat products including ham, turkey, chicken, lobster, and tongue. They called the seasoning process "deviling," and the Underwood "red devil" was born. 

Today many other foods, including eggs and crab, are served "deviled." To be considered deviled, a food has to have a kick from something like Dijon mustard, hot sauce, cayenne pepper or chopped hot peppers. 

Underwood's Deviling process holds U.S. Patent Office trademark NO. 82, granted in 1870, the oldest existing food trademark still in use in the United States. The exact"deviling" recipe remains a company secret to this day. (Answers.com)

Interesting.

I looked up several recipes and decided to go with whatever I had on hand in combination with what I read.  I think that I would change some things again next time but it's all a learning process in the end.  Everyone seemed to like them, especially Miss L.  I didn't think she would but we finally had to cut her off!

Here's what I had on hand and what I did.

18 hard boiled eggs
1 T Greek yogurt
3-4 T mayo (olive oil based)
2-3 t spicy brown mustard
2-3 t yellow mustard
2-3 sprigs fresh dill, chopped
1 t garlic powder (more or less as you like)
1 scallion, finely chopped or minced
paprika

Peel eggs, cut lengthwise, and remove egg yolk to medium sized bowl.  "Mush" egg yolks with a large fork until you have fairly uniformed crumbles

Add ingredients through scallion and mix throughly.  Add more of a wet ingredient to taste or if the mix is is still too dry.  Be careful of too much mustard as it can be a little watery.  Just go easy.

Pipe in filling using a pastry bag and tip of your choice.  Or you can fill in a corner of a zip-loc bag, snip the end and you have a make shift pastry bag

Dust with paprika.  Chill until ready to serve.

*** I used a disposable pastry bag and a #17 cake decorating tip.  Next time I will use a #18 (because it is slightly larger) or a #199 tip to allow for chunk of egg or onion to pass through a bit easier.  I had a few times where I had to work the clump out.  Still came out pretty and I found it far easier to pipe the filling in rather than scooping it back into the egg with a spoon.

I may try it next time with more yogurt, that is really all I had on hand!  HA!  I think the yogurt would be better over all than the mayo.  I may try some more fresh herbs next time.  I have read of some people adding cheese and bacon bits to the eggs, too.  But I like the fresher things for deviled eggs.

What do you like in your deviled eggs?  Or do you not like them at all?