How to Make Classic Deviled Eggs

Some places offer very specific and fancy deviled eggs recipes. This isn’t that. There’s a good chance that nobody in the whole world eats enough deviled eggs to need a variety of recipes for them.

This is a classic deviled eggs recipe. This is what people think of when someone says deviled eggs.

Classic deviled eggs

You don’t need one of those fancy deviled egg plates, but it would be nice.

Deviled Egg Ingredients

This recipe makes twelve deviled eggs out of six eggs. If you need more, double it up and make it a whole dozen.

  • Six peeled hardboiled eggs
  • Between a quarter of a cup and a half cup of (preferably) light mayonnaise
  • A half teaspoon of dry mustard
  • A half teaspoon of white vinegar
  • A quarter teaspoon of each salt and pepper
  • And paprika, to make your finished product look all deviled-eggsy

How to Make Deviled Eggs

Deviled eggs are actually extremely easy to prepare. Once you have hard boiled your eggs (check out this guide on hardboiling eggs perfectly if you’re not completely confident) there is only a few steps to make your deviled eggs.

Cut your hard boiled eggs lengthwise and remove the cooked egg yolks. They should pop out very easily, if you did a good job hard-boiling the eggs.

Throw the egg yolks in a bowl and add your dry mustard, white vinegar, and your salt and pepper.

Start mixing in your mayonnaise – you should start with a quarter of a cup. A quarter of a cup of mayonnaise will give you a fairly firm consistency, so feel free to gently add more to the mixture to get a consistency you are happy with. There is no hard rule, but if you go over half a cup, you have more than likely gone too far.

Once you’ve mixed everything together you can re-add it to the egg white shells. Put it where you removed the yolks from.

Place your almost-finished deviled eggs onto a plate, sprinkle them with paprika, cover them up, and put them in the fridge. Let them cool for a few hours and you’re done.

Tips for Making Deviled Eggs

  • You can add horseradish or some chopped green onion or basically anything you want. But then that wouldn’t be classic, would it?
  • Deviled eggs get a bit better when they’ve been given a good amount of time to cool. It’s best practice to make them the night before you plan on eating them.

How to Make Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs Every Time

Hard boiling an egg is a very simple process, but perfectly hard boiling an egg every single time is a little bit less simple. This guide will help you make perfect hard boiled eggs every time.

Hard-boiled eggs after peeling

How to Hard Boil an Egg

Bring your eggs out of the fridge before you get started. You will want them as close to room temperature as possible. While this isn’t terribly important, it does help ensure the eggs don’t crack when you boil them. A cracked shell during cooking will result in a rubbery egg.

This is how they should look in the pot.

Too much room is almost as bad, as it causes the boiling process to take too long and overcooks your eggs.

Start out with a large pot filled with water. You will need a large enough pot that your eggs can be rested at the surface of the water without being stacked one upon another. See the picture to the right for an example.

With your eggs already placed in the water, bring your pot to a boil. As soon as the water reaches a proper rapid boil, remove the pot from the heat source and cover it with a lid.

How Long to Cook Hard Boiled Eggs?

Once you have removed your eggs from the heat source you will leave them covered for between fifteen and twenty minutes, depending on the size of the egg. Longer for larger.

You should set a timer, because as soon as it hits the mark you choose based on the size of your egg, you must drain the hot water and cover the eggs in cool water. Leave the eggs sitting in cool water for a few more minutes.

The cool water serves two purposes: it prevents your eggs from overcooking, and it helps build up steam between the egg-white and the shell, which will make peeling the eggs easier.

Tips for Making Hard Boiled Eggs

  • Be careful about overcooking the eggs or leaving them unattended for too long. You can end up with a less than palatable film around the yolk.
  • When peeling the shells from your hard boiled eggs you should always start from the larger end. Because of the way the eggs would have cooked, there will be a small air bubble to assist with de-shelling your eggs.
  • Also consider de-shelling the eggs under cool running water. It helps get rid of any little excess pieces.
Coddled eggs on homemade bread

How to Coddle an Egg

Egg coddling is a method to use barely cooked eggs in some recipes, such as homemade caesar salad dressing. This is a quick and simple guide on coddling eggs.

Coddled eggs on homemade bread

A coddled egg is basically a lightly poached egg. This method is used to lightly cook an egg for recipes where you won’t be cooking the end product when containing eggs.

To coddle an egg, boil just enough water to cover the egg or eggs. Crack the egg into the water, and leave it for just about a minute.

Remove from heat, and remove the egg from the water with a slotted spoon. Or a regular spoon and some fancy moves.

And that’s it. That’s a coddled egg.

(Alternatively, you can use something like a coddled egg cup, but that requires buying something.)

Caesar Salad

Easy Homemade Caesar Salad Dressing Recipe

To make a caesar salad properly, you should be using fresh cooked bacon, homemade croutons, and a homemade Caesar salad dressing. You can get restaurant quality food and it won’t cost you any more than the “salad in a bag” approach.

Check out the bottom of this page for complete instructions on how to prepare the perfect Caesar salad.

This homemade caesar salad dressing recipe uses anchovies. If that makes you squeamish, feel free to leave them out.

Simple Caesar Salad

Caesar Salad Dressing Ingredients

You will need:

  • A bunch of fresh garlic
  • Olive oil
  • Lemon juice
  • An egg
  • Fresh Parmesan cheese
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • Fresh ground pepper. Like in one of those big pepper thingies.
  • And optionally, some anchovy fillets

How to Prepare Caesar Salad Dressing

There is surprisingly little preparation in this dressing. You won’t even really be cooking it.

First things first, you need to measure out your ingredients.

Take four to six garlic cloves and chop them up finely. Chop six anchovy fillets, and coddle an egg. (Egg coddling is basically a light poaching.)

Combine your garlic, anchovies, and egg in a food processor or a blender. Add the juice of half a lemon, two tablespoons of freshly shredded Parmesan, and two teaspoons of worcestershire sauce.

Finally, add a quarter cup of olive oil and grind in as much pepper as you think you would enjoy.

Blend, process, whatever.

Chill in the refrigerator for at least fifteen minutes before serving.

Tips for Making Caesar Salad Dressing

Combine with homemade croutons and perfectly cooked bacon when making your caesar salad.

Don’t make more than you need. Even after coddling, the egg is practically raw. Use all of the dressing when you make it. Don’t try to store it for extended periods of time.