Devilishly delicious

Deviled eggs are one of those foods that people only seem to eat in the summer, except for my neighbor Joe, but we’ll get to that.Why is that? It is the perfect picnic food. They sometimes linger into fall, even reaching to Thanksgiving for some, but rarely do they appear after January and before Easter.Saturday, as my neighbors were heading out to a barbecue, Dean waved a container over his head at me.”Deviled eggs,” he said happily. “There’s your next column.”And my husband, who I think is secretly plotting to open a diner, recently asked me how to make the delicate treats.I answered like I do for most dishes he asks me about.”Well, you take a little of this and a little of that, unless you don’t have that, then you can use the other thing, or maybe try this, I bet this would be good.” Which is to say use whatever you think will taste good.Unlike many foods, deviled eggs can’t be attributed to one person, group or even region. According to The Food Timeline, they date back to the ancient Romans, and everyone had their own recipe. The first actual printed recipe showed up in medieval European texts and they were stuffed with raisins, cheese and sweet spices.I’m not digging that. I don’t have a problem with sweet cheese, cheese danish is a weakness, but I’m not crazy about the idea of cheese danish filling in a boiled egg. It doesn’t sound very devilish does it?I once read an interview with Katy Perry’s siblings who talked about growing up in a crazy sort of family (who hasn’t) that was so religious they weren’t allowed to eat things like Devil Dogs or deviled eggs because, well, the obvious – they have the word “devil” in the name. They said it wasn’t that their mother actually thought the food came from the devil, it was simply the appearance.Crazy, particularly since “deviled” eggs have nothing to do with the Prince of Darkness (Satan or Ozzy Osbourne), except that it does refer to hot and fiery. Hmm, maybe Mrs. Perry was right.The term “deviling” came about in the 1700s and meant to prepare something with fiery hot spices, mustards, cayenne pepper and the like. Considering the date, it was probably a way of disguising meat that might have sat on the table a bit too long. Maybe the hot spices kept the flies away. Later the term was connected with a way of preparing ham, and by 1882 came one of the first recipes for what we would consider deviled eggs. Interestingly, they were made by mixing the yolk with a bit of butter. I suppose mayonnaise hadn’t been invented yet.By the early 1900s, they were mixing the yolks with pickle relish and serving them at picnics, and by the 1940s, mayonnaise arrived in the recipes. And keeping with all-American traditions, a 1954 recipe from “Martha Deane’s Cooking for Compliments,” as quoted on foodtimeline.org, calls for the prepared deviled eggs to be rolled in beaten egg and fine breadcrumbs and deep fried. Sounds like something Paula Deen might do.Today pretty much anything goes with deviled eggs. Like with anything else, recipes change with fads and fashions, but, generally, they all include a little mayo and mustard mixed with egg yolks. From there you can add things as fancy as smoked salmon or lox or as simple as pickle relish or chopped anchovies.My neighbor Joe only makes deviled eggs once a year that I know of. On Thanksgiving he breaks out his recipe for what he calls “cholesteroids” and makes possibly the best deviled eggs I’ve ever had. A little caviar, some diced up lobster meat, spicy but not too – they are a dish to be reckoned with.I would classify deviled eggs under happy foods. They’re not quite as smile-inducing as maybe cupcakes or lollipops, but they tend to bring out the kid in you, maybe because they’re total finger foods. My recently departed colleague Ben (he left, he’s not dead) once said he would eat pizza with a knife and fork if people didn’t give him such grief. He doesn’t like to eat anything with his hands, he said. I shook my head and laughed.”I would eat eve