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Just stuff it: These eggs shell out the goods at the appetizer table

By CANDY SAGON The Washington Post

Posted on Sun, May. 18, 2003

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Psst. You can come out of the closet now. Yeah, you. The ones who claim they never eat deviled eggs because they're so rich and unhealthy and old-fashioned.

I saw you at that chichi party last week. All the healthy appetizers like eggplant dip and baby carrots just sat there, gathering dust. What got sucked down faster than free beer at a summer baseball game was the platter of deviled eggs.

Marie Simmons isn't surprised. At a party three years ago for her cookbook, The Good Egg (Houghton Mifflin), she made five kinds of deviled eggs for appetizers.

"I made hundreds of them and they were gone -- gone! -- in no time," Simmons says. "People kept saying, `I forgot how much I love deviled eggs.' "

Deviled eggs were standard party fare in the 1950s and, some would say, have never really disappeared as picnic food. Simmons says, though, that our obsession with fat has made us into "a nation of closet deviled-egg lovers."

"We treat them like chocolate truffles, eating them only on special occasions," she says. But that may be changing.

People are eating more eggs, according to the American Egg Board. Last year the average American ate 255 eggs, compared with 234 eggs 10 years ago.

Perhaps it's because of the weak economy: The incredible, edible egg, as the advertising slogan goes, is an incredibly cheap form of protein. The high-protein Atkins diet craze hasn't hurt, either.

"Inexpensive retro foods like stuffed eggs are more popular now," says Elisa Maloberti of the Egg Board.

Customer demand is so strong that Rubbermaid is reintroducing its Egg Keeper, a handy box with indentations to hold 20 egg halves, a spokeswoman says.

The Egg Board makes a distinction between "stuffed eggs" and "deviled eggs." Stuffed eggs are hard-cooked eggs from which the yolks have been removed, mashed with other ingredients and then spooned back into the whites. Deviled eggs are the same thing, except they're made with hot or spicy ingredients. Hence the term "deviled," a word first used in the early 1800s to describe spicy dishes like curry.

Deviled, stuffed -- whatever you call them, they're delicious.

How to hard-cook an egg

Cooking eggs for deviled or stuffed eggs isn't quite as simple as boiling water, but almost.

Place the eggs in a large saucepan and add enough cold water to generously cover. Place over medium-low heat and heat just until the water begins to simmer gently but not boil. (The rocking motion created by boiling water can crack the shells.)

Reduce the heat slightly and cook about 8 minutes (or 12 to 15 minutes from when you began to heat the eggs).

Have ready a large bowl of ice water. After cooking, use a slotted spoon to transfer the eggs to the bowl. Set aside 5 minutes.

Deviled eggs

Makes 6 servings

6 large eggs, hard-cooked 1/4 cup mayonnaise 1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Paprika (optional garnish)

Finely chopped fresh chives (optional garnish)

Peel the eggs. Cut eggs in half lengthwise. Remove yolks from the whites and transfer yolks to a bowl. Place the whites, cut sides up, on a plate. Set aside.

Mash yolks. Add mayonnaise, mustard and cayenne pepper and mash until smooth but not mushy. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Carefully stuff the whites with the yolk mixture, mounding the tops. If desired, sprinkle eggs with paprika and/or chives. Cover loosely and refrigerate 1 hour to chill.

Per serving: 145 calories, 13 grams fat (3 grams saturated fat), 215 milligrams cholesterol, 1 gram carbohydrate, 6 grams protein, 163 milligrams sodium, trace dietary fiber.

-- Adapted from Gourmet magazine

Italian stuffed eggs

Makes 4 servings

4 large eggs, hard-cooked 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided 3 tablespoons minced basil or fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, divided 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Paprika (optional garnish)

Peel the eggs. Halve the eggs lengthwise. Remove yolks from the whites and transfer yolks to a bowl. Place the whites, cut sides up, on a plate. Set aside.

Mash the yolks. Add 2 tablespoons of the oil, 2 tablespoons of the basil or parsley, garlic, salt and a generous grinding of pepper and mash until smooth but not mushy. Gradually beat in the remaining 2 tablespoons oil until smooth and fluffy. Taste and, if desired, add more salt and pepper.

Carefully stuff the whites with the yolk mixture, mounding the tops. Sprinkle eggs with the remaining 1 tablespoon basil or parsley and, if desired, paprika. Cover loosely and refrigerate 1 hour to chill.

Per serving: 198 calories, 19 grams fat (3 grams saturated fat), 212 milligrams cholesterol, 1 gram carbohydrate, 6 grams protein, 208 milligrams sodium, trace dietary fiber.

-- Adapted from The Good Egg

No, the name of this next recipe is not a typo. These eggs are doubly deviled with chili paste and Sichuan peppercorns. (Both ingredients can be found in the Asian sections of many supermarkets or at specialty groceries.)

Deviled deviled eggs

Makes 6 servings

6 large eggs, hard-cooked 1/4 cup very finely chopped scallions, plus additional for garnish 3 tablespoons mayonnaise 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 1 teaspoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon chili paste with garlic 1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns, toasted and crushed (see note)

1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar

Peel eggs. Halve the eggs lengthwise. Remove yolks from the whites and transfer yolks to a bowl. Place the whites, cut sides up, on a plate. Set aside.

Mash the yolks. Add scallions, mayonnaise, mustard, soy sauce, chili paste, peppercorns and sugar and mash until smooth but not mushy.

Carefully stuff whites with the yolk mixture, mounding the tops. If desired, sprinkle eggs with additional scallions. Cover loosely and refrigerate 1 hour to chill.

Note: To toast peppercorns, place in a small, nonstick skillet over low heat. Cook until golden and fragrant, shaking the pan occasionally, 3 to 5 minutes. Set aside to cool, then crush in a pepper grinder or using a mortar and pestle.

Per serving: 133 calories, 11 grams fat (2 grams saturated fat), 215 milligrams cholesterol, 1 gram carbohydrate, 7 grams protein, 143 milligrams sodium, trace dietary fiber.

-- Adapted from The New Basics by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins (Workman, 1989)

How to get it right

Some tips for successful stuffed eggs:

• Halve the hard-cooked eggs lengthwise with a thin-bladed knife, wiping the blade clean after each cut. Remove the yolks carefully.

• Use the eggs as soon as they have cooled rather than refrigerating them for later. The still-warm yolks will have a creamy texture and can be easily mashed with the seasonings. Chilled eggs tend to have crumbly yolks that are more difficult to combine with other ingredients. If you must refrigerate hard-cooked eggs before stuffing them, press the yolks through a strainer with the back of a spoon or a rubber spatula. The sieved yolks will blend more easily, producing a smoother texture.

• With the back of a fork, mash the yolks with the other ingredients until blended. If desired, you can then beat the mixture with a wooden spoon until fluffy.

• If desired, cut a thin slice off the bottom of each white so the egg won't tip over as it is filled and served.

• To fill eggs, scoop a mound of stuffing in a small teaspoon and push the mound into the white with a fingertip or small rubber spatula. Or fit a pastry bag with a round or fluted tip with a wide opening (about 1/2 inch), fill it with the stuffing and squeeze a mound into each white. If you don't have a bag and a tip, you can spoon the stuffing into a small, clean plastic bag. Squeeze the stuffing into one corner of the bag. Snip off the corner with scissors to make an opening about 1/2 inch long and squeeze a mound of stuffing into each white.

-- The Washington Post

Troubled shell game

Sometimes the shell can cling stubbornly to a hard-cooked egg, making peeling a pain. Marie Simmons, who includes 17 recipes for stuffed eggs in her cookbook, The Good Egg, offers this advice:

• Choose older eggs for hard-cooking. Fresh eggs are more acidic, which makes them harder to peel. Older eggs are more alkaline and easier to peel.

• Immediately after cooking, make a small crack in the egg and submerge it in ice water. The water will seep between the membranes just inside the shell, allowing the egg white to separate more easily.

• Roll the cooled eggs on the work surface to make cracks all around and release the membranes from the white.

• Peel off the small pieces of shell while holding the egg under cold running water or dipping it in a pan of cool water.