My Favorite Deviled Eggs

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The Priority of God’s Word
Joshua 1:8
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

We’ve been up and running since early this morning!  Actually, my darling husband did the “running” I just did the getting up part!  Today Lee ran in the Southern Tennessee Plunge Half-Marathon.  He had an awesome run and improved his half-marathon time and won 3rd place in is age group.   For me, I did pretty good too – I carbo-loaded on Spaghetti and pizza last night in support of the big run.  Then this morning mom and I munched on biscuits at Hardees in order to be in just the right place to cheer him on as he ran by at the 5 mile mark!  Of course, once he was done, HE was starving, so again we added our support with yet another bit of marathon eating!  Whew, this marathon eating can be tough on the supporters!  Hmm, after my nap I wonder what’s for dinner…  maybe some eggs?

Cooking eggs sounds simple — should be Cooking 101. But actually years into cooking I was always asking, how long do I cook a hard boiled egg? Why is it still runny? Is it done yet?  When my daughter-in-law wanted to take Deviled Eggs to a family dinner she asked me for a recipe.  I quickly started researching the best way to cook eggs, after all I didn’t want to give her bad advice!  I had been making deviled eggs for years and all of the sudden was nervous about telling her how to do it!  Understanding a bit about cooking eggs and following a couple simple steps assures that we always have a good egg!

In the summer deviled eggs are a delicious addition to picnic food, fried chicken dinners and more.   Hopefully you will find a tip or two here that will help you  make a perfect egg.

A HARD COOKED EGG
Chicken and Quail Eggs

1. Place eggs in single layer in saucepan. Add enough tap water to come at least 1 inch above eggs.

2. Cover. Quickly bring just to boiling. Turn off heat.

3. Remove pan from burner to prevent further boiling.
Add 1 tablespoon vinegar.  (This will help make your eggs easier to peel.)

Let eggs stand, covered, in the hot water about 15 minutes for Large eggs; 12 minutes for Medium; 18 minutes for Extra Large.

4. Immediately run cold water over eggs or place them in ice water until completely cooled.  This will stop the chemical reaction that causes a green ring to form around the yoke.  That green ring doesn’t hurt anything but it looks yucky!

5. To remove shell, crackle it by tapping gently all over.

6. Roll the egg between hands to loosen shell.

7.  Peel, starting at the large end.  Hold egg under running cold water or dip in a bowl of water to help ease off the shell.

Hard-cooked eggs in the shell can be refrigerated up to one week. Hard-cooked eggs out of the shell should be used immediately.

My Favorite Deviled Egg Recipe

6 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and cut lengthwise
¼ cup Light Mayonnaise or Salad Dressing
½ teaspoon dry ground mustard
½ teaspoon white vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Paprika for garnish

Pop out (remove) the egg yolks to a small bowl and mash with a fork. Add mayonnaise, mustard powder, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. Fill the empty egg white shells with the mixture and sprinkle lightly with paprika.  I like to pipe it into the shells.  So pretty!

Cover lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to one day before serving.

 

 And if you haven’t read enough about eggs, here are a few more tidbits of info!

 *  Coddled eggs made by very briefly immersing an egg in the shell in boiling water are not sufficiently cooked to satisfy today’s food safety concerns. Eggs cooked in coddlers (porcelain, heat-proof glass, pottery or ceramic cups with screw-on lids) submerged in simmering or boiling water should be cooked until the whites are completely set and the yolks have begun to thicken but are not hard.

*  Whether hard or soft-cooked, this method is incorrectly called boiled eggs. Although the cooking water must come to a boil, more tender, less rubbery eggs without a green ring around the yolk are produced, and less breakage occurs, when the heat is turned off or the pan is removed from the burner, allowing the eggs to cook gently in hot water. This method is also more energy efficient and is food safe.

*  Shell cracking is most likely when eggs are cooked for too long and/or at too high a temperature because steam builds up more rapidly than the eggs can exhale it. Too rapid cooking is why eggs cannot be cooked in the shell in the microwave they’ll very likely explode. Overcooking produces enough steam to rupture the shells; proper cooking alleviates the problem. Cracking is particularly likely to occur if more than one layer of eggs is cooked at a time in rapidly moving boiling water which causes the eggs to bump against one another.

*  Piercing, puncturing the large end of the eggshell with a sharp tool before cooking, may allow some air to escape to help avoid cracking and water to enter which may make peeling easier. But, piercing also creates hairline cracks in the shell through which bacteria can enter after cooking, making piercing a food safety concern. Unless sterilized, the piercer, thumbtack, pin or needle itself can introduce bacteria.

*  To avoid a harmless, but unsightly, greenish ring around hard-cooked yolks, avoid overcooking and cool the eggs quickly after cooking by running cold water over them or placing them in ice water (not standing water) until they’ve completely cooled. The ring is caused by sulfur and iron compounds naturally reacting at the surface of the yolk. It’s usually brought on by overcooking or a high amount of iron in the cooking water. Once the eggs have cooled, refrigerate them in their shells until use.

*  Very fresh eggs may be difficult to peel. The fresher the eggs, the more the shell membranes cling tenaciously to the shells. Though many techniques to make peeling easier have been tried, the simplest method is to buy and refrigerate eggs a week to ten days in advance of hard cooking. This brief breather allows the eggs to take in air which helps separate the membranes from the shell. Before peeling, it’s important to crackle the shells until they have a fine network of lines all over. Eggshells usually come off much more readily, without tearing the whites, when they’re in small pieces rather than large chunks.

* Hard-cooked eggs in the shell can be refrigerated up to one week. Hard-cooked eggs out of the shell should be used immediately.

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