A Devil of an Egg

A Devil of an Egg . . .

                        or the boiled egg failure

I should let you write this post, after all, I don’t know how to do the first step in this with any degree of success. You can do better than me. So go ahead. Write it! I’ve wasted a dozen eggs, already.

What am I talking about?

How to hard boil an egg– perfectly. I can boil an egg. Most of us can boil an egg. But, can we boil one with success?

What is success in the world of boiled eggs? No divots in the whites. No green halos around the soft yellow yolk. No dry, pithy yolks. Of the many fool proof directions, none have been fool proof. Not for me.

There are three suggestions that I’ve found do help:

• Old eggs  (At least a week after purchase, two are better)
  
• Plenty of cold water (Use a pot large enough that all of your eggs will lie flat on the bottom and be covered with at least an inch of cold water)
  
• Baking soda (Add about 1 teaspoon or more to the pot of cold water with the eggs)
  

I will not tell you all the ways that don’t work. I won’t tell you that these three things do. But, they do help . . .

• Place older eggs in a single layer in the bottom of a heavy pot
• Add enough cold water to cover eggs entirely with an extra inch of water on top, no lid
• Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of baking soda in water
• Place on cold stove burner, then turn on burner to just under high (yes, that would be a very, very high medium, on my stove with numbers: high is a 9, I use 8)
• Let come to boil (uncovered) and stay boiling for another five minutes
• Remove from hot burner to a cold one and cover with a lid, let sit 10 minutes
• Place hot eggs in bowl under cold running water to cool
• Peel full of hope that this works

Now that you have beautiful, perfectly shaped boiled eggs with lovely yellow yolks, what’s the best use for them?

Deviled eggs. Of course. And, that I can tell you about with a fair amount of confidence. This is a great recipe.

Barefoot’s Deviled Eggs

6 large eggs (boiled, peeled, & cut in half)
3 TB Duke’s mayonnaise  (use Duke’s, it’s important)
1/2 tsp mustard    (Dijon is best)
1/4 tsp hot paprika
1/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp pepper (or to taste)
1 TB fresh chives minced
2 TB red onion minced
2-3 Gherkin pickles minced (Betty’s 9-Day homemade recipe is the best, but we ate them all.)
5-6 fresh basil leaves minced (the medium large ones, save the small for garnish)
1/2 tsp pickle juice

Place everything except the egg white halves into a food processor and blend until smooth. Scrape the sides often to incorporate all the ingredients. Scoop paste into a plastic baggie and pipe into egg white halves. Garnish with extra basil leaves, pickle slices, and a sprinkle of paprika.

It will look kind of greenish if you use fresh basil and chives. That’s okay. Scoop all of your yolk mixture into a baggie, press out the extra air, seal, and trim off one corner to make a piping bag to get mixture into egg halves easily.

This is a really close up shot:

Use smaller basil leaves, slices of pickles, and a sprinkle of paprika for garnish. They have a nice herby taste with the basil, chives, and paprika– not so just pickles-and-mayonnaise. Classy eggs.

Enjoy!

Until next time. Be sweet.