Deviled Eggs
Your imagination is the only limit when it comes to flavors and garnishes for Deviled Eggs. My mother-in-law kept true to her mother’s recipe, and neither one of the ladies ever measured anything. This is as close as I could come after years of watching, tasting, and tweaking.
Serves: 6 (two halves per person)
Time: 15 minutes (not including cook time to boil the eggs)
8 hard-boiled eggs
¼ tsp. celery salt
½ tsp. dry mustard
½ tsp. ground white or black pepper (black pepper is my preference; I don’t mind the black flecks in the filling)
1 - 1 ½ Tbsp. apple cider vinegar (can substitute part or all with dill pickle juice)
½ - 1 tsp. granulated sugar, or to taste
Cut peeled eggs in half along the narrow side of each to create a cup, and trim off the bottoms to make the cups sit flat. Remove yolks and mash with fork or pulse until smooth in a food processor. Discard the whites from two whole eggs to allow for more yolk filling in each. Mix in seasonings, starting with smaller quantities and adding more to adjust taste and firmness of filling. Fill whites with yolk mixture, heaping it up lightly. Garnish as desired with paprika, fresh dill or parsley, finely sliced scallions, or bacon bits.
Egg Filling Hack: Put all the filling ingredients in a resealable plastic bag and massage until smooth. Leave filling in bag until you're ready to assemble (this is great if you're taking them "on the road"). Cut the tip off the bag to pipe filling into egg halves.
Deviled eggs are subjective – everybody prefers something different. More tang, sweeter, a firm filling, a wet filling, more salty, lots of additions (just take a look on Pinterest for some wild flavor combinations!). My mother-in-law made Deviled Eggs with no measurements. She’d eyeball the proportions of vinegar and sugar, taste often, and would only garnish with paprika. Being someone who changes up recipes often and experiments with flavors, I’ve tweaked the final product by only the garnishes.