Devil deviled eggs

Last Saturday I took deviled eggs to a party. I love deviled eggs, but don’t make them often, or ever, actually. I wanted them to be beautiful and delicious for this special occasion. On Friday, I bought 3 dozen local, pasture raised eggs, boiled them, and threw them in the refrigerator overnight. I found a recipe in an America’s Test Kitchen book and borrowed a piping kit from Cheenius, cake decorator extraordinaire. Saturday morning I got the eggs out of the fridge and peeled all 36. Zero came out unblemished. Ninety-five percent of them were horribly disfigured, with lumps and gashes and flaps.

ugly eggs after peeling

Only after surveying the messy results did I remember hearing that older eggs are easier to peel. As eggs age, air passes through the shell, increasing the air pocket between the egg white and the thin membrane between the white and the shell. When an egg is fresh, the shell, membrane, and white cling to each other, leading to chunks of white being pulled off with the shell.

I thought I could disguise my ugly egg whites with lovely piped and sprinkled fillings, but way overestimated my skills with a piping bag and paprika shaker.

ugly deviled eggs

So they were hideous, but tasty. Just about all 72 were eaten, and I hoped that people would know how fresh the eggs were, based on their mangled whites.

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