I’m sad that these Retro Devilled Eggs haven’t quite stood the test of time like other 70s classics like trifle or prawn cocktail! But falling out of fashion doesn’t make them any less delicious – so lets buck a trend and bring them back to the buffet table!
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Some of my favourite (and most popular) recipes are retro buffet classics. Sausage rolls, quiche, traditional trifles and fairy cakes to name just a few. So I thought it would be remiss of me not to share my recipe for a few more retro foods that may be a little more forgotten – starting with devilled eggs.
Deviled eggs aren’t just a British classic however – they’re especially popular in the southern US too. Although you might find them presented with a different name including devilled with just the one “l”, stuffed eggs, mimosa eggs or my personal favourite – angel eggs.
What’s so devilish you might wonder? Spice! But in this case not necessarily chilli heat, we’re taking about a very British spiciness – mustard! If you’re not British you might be raising an eyebrow right now. But English mustard has heat – it is not at all like American yellow mustard and much more potent than French Dijon. Saying this, cayenne pepper is also commonly used for a little extra pep, especially in the garnish.
How to Serve
Devilled eggs want to be served cold to room temperature rather than hot. Taking them out of the fridge 20 or so minutes before serving will allow them to not be too cold and therefore dull in flavour. The texture of very cold egg whites are also not as pleasant to eat. Although that is probably personal preference to some extent.
It is fairly traditional to just serve devilled eggs on a platter with little garnish. I opted to serve mine on a bed of lettuce. Partly because I quite like to grab a leaf and eat that with my egg and also just because it looks a little more considered.
Devilled Eggs Ingredients
Eggs
Even though I mostly use large eggs in everyday life and most of my recipes, I opted to use medium sized eggs here.
I feel as though the slightly smaller size makes for an easier mouthful without being so small they’re fiddly to deal with. Saying this, if you do have the patience, small size eggs are quite fun to use – just make sure to reduce the amount of additions to the filling slightly.
Mustards
Although I’ve spoken about the spiciness of English mustard being part of the devil in the recipe, I actually prefer to use a mixture of mustards, relying a little more heavily on dijon overall.
To ensure more even mixing, I’ve used jarred English mustard rather than English mustard powder. If you need to use the powder instead, simply mix it with a little water to form a paste before adding to the other ingredients.
And if you have a preference of one mustard over the other then feel free to adjust the ratio. If you want some texture in the filling, you can add some wholegrain mustard too.
Tabasco Sauce
This is optional but I do like the little extra kick that a few dashes of hot sauce provides. I like using Tabasco because it packs a fair punch without adding a lot of liquid or volume to proceedings. You can add as much or as little as you wish. Or indeed, none at all.
Salt
As always I’ve specified using sea salt flakes in the recipe, I use Maldon branded salt which has large flakes and a mild flavour. If you don’t have Maldon or a similar flaky salt, halve the recipe quantity and use table salt. Taste the filling mixture and add more if needed.
Be Flexible
I’ve created this recipe as a very simple, old school basic recipe. But you can easily make additions to the filling to make something more creative.
Curried Devilled Eggs – Add a tsp of curry powder to the filling mixture. You want to look for the kind of yellow curry powder that is synonymous with British 70’s cuisine for maximum retro effect.
Bacon Devilled Eggs – Cook a couple of rashers of streaky bacon until crisp. Allow it to cool then cut into small pieces. Stir half into the filling mixture and garnish with the remainder.
Cheesy Devilled Eggs – Use a fine grater or microplane to grate a strong hard cheese like cheddar or red Leicester. Mix some into the filling and garnish with the rest. Combine with the bacon idea for extra taste!
Sour Cream & Chive Devilled Eggs – Replace half the mayonnaise with sour cream and stir chopped chives through as well as using them for garnish.
Vegetarian or Vegan Devilled Eggs
These devilled eggs are naturally vegetarian but aren’t suitable to be adapted to be vegan – egg free devilled eggs is a bridge too far!
Make Allergy Friendly Retro Eggs
This recipe is free from dairy, gluten and nuts. However you should double check the ingredients label of any prepared mustards as they can sometimes include some wheat/gluten.
Please note that this recipe may contain other allergens not referred to above and any variations suggested have not been tested unless otherwise stated. For more information regarding any dietary information provided on this website, please refer to my Nutritional Disclaimer.
Equipment Notes for Classic Devilled Eggs
You don’t need anything special to make devilled eggs unless you want to pipe the filling into the egg whites.
In which case you can use a small disposable piping bag and your favorite piping nozzle – I like to use a star. If you don’t want to pipe you can simply use 2 teaspoons to do the filling.
I have simply mashed the egg yolks by hand which I think is generally sufficient. But if you prefer you can use a small food processor for an ultra smooth filling.
A comprehensive list of the equipment used to make this recipe is included in the main recipe card below. Click on any item to see an example. There are no hard and fast rules so many items can be sensibly substituted to achieve the same results.
Get Ahead
You can get a couple of days ahead with boiling the eggs. Don’t peel them and they will happily sit in the fridge for 3-4 days. Put them into an airtight container once they are fully cooled. Otherwise they can absorb other smells and flavours from the fridge in a way that raw eggs don’t. Alternatively you can peel the eggs and keep them in the fridge for up to a day.
To get to the next stage, you can slice the eggs and make the filling. You can even fill the piping bag if you’re using one. Don’t snip the end of the bag and secure the top well. The egg halves and filling can then be stored in the fridge for up to a day before you assemble the eggs.
I wouldn’t tend to assemble the eggs more than a few hours before they’re being served. The egg filling can start to go a little crusty although the night before an event will probably be ok in a pinch.
Leftover Devilled Eggs
If you don’t plan on eating any remaining deviled eggs just as they are over the next few hours or day, you can use a fork to mash them into an egg mayonnaise. This will keep much better in the fridge for a couple of days. You can use some extra mayonnaise and add a little extra salt if you wish.
Traditional Devilled Eggs Tips
Please heed my instructions for how to boil the eggs. I’m aware there are a million different methods to do it. But none are as accurate as starting with boiling water and then just boiling them for a specified time. Overcooking the eggs will make the edges of the yolk grey which doesn’t look great.
Tasting the filling and adjusting to taste is important. If you are a cautious person, add half the mustard to start then add more as you wish. Same with the tabasco sauce etc. You can always add more but it’s impossible to take it away.
Don’t forget to let me know in the comments if you try making this recipe – I want to know what you think and if you made any substitutions, how did it turn out?
Still Have Questions?
Simple! Just contact me and I will do my best to help as quickly as I am able. Head over to my Contact Me page, any of my social media channels or post a comment at the bottom of this page and I’ll see what I can do.
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More Egg Recipes
The Recipe
Retro Devilled Eggs Recipe
Equipment
- Disposable Piping Bag- Small optional
- Piping Nozzles optional
Ingredients
- 6 medium Eggs - room temperature
- 4 tbsp Mayonnaise
- 2 tsp Dijon Mustard
- 1 tsp English Mustard - or powder
- ½ tsp Sea Salt Flakes
- ⅛ tsp Tabasco Sauce - or other hot sauce
- Sprinkle Paprika
- ¼ tsp Fresh Chives
Instructions
Boil & Peel the Eggs
- Put a kettle of water on to boil whilst starting to heat a saucepan on the stove. The saucepan needs to be large enough that all the eggs will sit in one layer with a little room to move.
- Pour the boiling water into the pan and bring it to the boil over a high heat.
- Carefully lower 6 Eggs into the pan – I do this with a slotted spoon so I don't scald my hands with water splashback.
- Once all the eggs are in, allow the water to boil again (the eggs will lower the water temperature a little when you put them in) and then turn the heat so it is just gently boiling. Boil for 10 minutes.
- Either drain the water from the pan leaving the eggs or move the eggs into a bowl of cold water using a spoon.
- Leave the pan or bowl of eggs to sit under running cold water for 30-60 seconds. Turn the tap off and allow them to sit in the water for 5 minutes. Alternatively you can just add to a bowl of water and ice but I don't like to waste ice.
- Once cool, drain the water from the bowl ready to peel the eggs.
- Roll the eggs one at a time on a board whilst pressing gently. This will crack the shell all over.
- Use your thumb to start removing the shell from the egg.
- It is important to get underneath the very thin membrane layer as the shell sticks to this and then the egg becomes very easy to peel
- Return the peeled eggs to the pan or bowl and cover with water – this will rinse off any little bits of shell still clinging to the eggs.
- Give the water a little swirl then remove the eggs and dry with a clean towel.
Prepare the Eggs & Filling
- Use a sharp knife to cut each egg in half lengthways. Try to make sure each half is fairly even and you have a large enough knife to make one clean cur through the egg.
- Tip the yolk from each egg half into a small mixing bowl. If the yolk doesn't just fall out, use a teaspoon to gently scoop it out. It doesn't matter if the yolk falls apart but you don't want to gouge the egg white.
- You should now have 12 empty egg white halves and a bowl with 6 egg yolks. Set the whites aside for the time being.
- Mash the egg yolks until there are no large lumps. I just use a spatula to press them against the bottom and sides of the bowl. You can alternatively make the filling in a small food processor, in which case just skip this step!
- Add 4 tbsp Mayonnaise, 2 tsp Dijon Mustard, 1 tsp English Mustard, ½ tsp Sea Salt Flakes and roughly ⅛ tsp Tabasco Sauce to the mashed yolks.
- Mix everything together very thoroughly. Continue to mash the mixture against the sides of the bowl to make it as smooth as possible. It won't be totally smooth, you just don't want any large lumps.
- Have a tiny taste of the mixture and add more of the mayo, mustard and/or salt if you feel that it it's needed. Don't go crazy with the tasters or you won't have enough filling left!
Assemble & Garnish the Eggs
- To pipe the filling, you will need a small piping bag and a star nozzle. Alternatively you can just spoon the filling into the egg whites. Use two teaspoons – one to pick up the mixture and the other to push it off the spoon and into the hole.
- Place the nozzle into the bag then spoon in the filling. It is cleanest to do this by putting the bag into a small glass and folding the top over the sides.
- Remove the bag from the glass, press the filling down towards the nozzle and secure the top with a bag clip or twist it tightly. Use scissors to snip the end off the bag so it is ready to use.
- Retrieve the egg whites and start piping the filling into each of the holes. I start by being quite frugal rather than generous until all 12 are filled.
- Take a moment to adjust the piping bag by scraping the remaining filling down the bag and reclipping or re-twisting.
- Continue to pipe the remaining filling between the eggs – try to end up so each has a vaguely even amount of filling.
- Sprinkle a little paprika over the eggs including both the filling and whites.
- Finely slice a small amount of fresh chives and sprinkle over the fillings.
- Carefully place the eggs on your platter of choice and serve – be careful not to squeeze too hard when picking them up else you'll lose the filling!
Dave says
Great job on recreating this classic. I haven’t made them for many years but you inspired me to try them again and they are just as good now as they always were.
Dylan says
These were so fun to make and very tasty.
Lesley says
I saw your recipe and thought I’d give these a try, delicious. Retro they may be but I forgot how much I loved a devilled egg.