Making Deviled Eggs From 15th Century Germany

Max Miller of Tasting History, who previously celebrated his own nuptials by making a wedding cake from 1769, decided to make a batch of deviled eggs using a “Stuffed Eggs” recipe from 15th-Century Germany.

If you wish to make halved eggs that  are stuffed, take eggs and boil them hard.  Slice down the middle. Remove the yolks from the whites. Grind them in a mortar. When they are mashed, mix with raw eggs. Add sage and costmary, pepper and saffron. And fill the whites with this. Then put them in butter and bake them well. Take vinegar and other eggs. Make good sauce with this. Do add honey, pepper and saffron. Salt to taste. And serve it forth.

As the eggs were being prepared, Miller recounted the culinary history of this item, particularly focusing on the term “deviled”.

In 1877 in an Alabama newspaper there was a recipe termed deviled eggs…in 1912 alongside a recipe for deviled eggs in a cookbook called ‘The Chafing Dish’ there appeared this definition “Deviled dishes are those that are highly seasoned with condiments. They are not considered wholesome as a regular diet, but may be partaken of, on occasion, with advantage as well as pleasure”.