Grandpa Cooley's Angry Deviled Eggs

At the book signing of Lost Recipes, Christopher Kimball talked about this recipe and it's strange name. Back in November when there was a National Deviled Egg day, I remembered Kimballs talk and decided to try the recipe from his book.

In one of the cooking class's I took we were taught to read the recipe twice before you even start taking out ingredients or utensils. Silly me sort of forgot that little rule when I started these eggs. Knowing that dry mustard was to be used, as I started tossing ingredients into the bowl, when I came to "2 teaspoons yellow mustard" I picked up the yellow can of dry mustard and proceeded to add 2 teaspoons...which should have been the yellow wet French's mustard. Dry mustard was supposed to only be 1/4 a teaspoon. Oops. Sigh. I tried to take as much of the yellow mustard out as I could without taking out the other ingredients but I'm not sure how successful that was.

One of the tips the book gives was to turn the egg carton on it's side to help "center" the egg yolks. This absolutely did not work for me as not only were the yolks not "centered" but quite a few of the yolks ended up so close to the edge that barely a hairs width of white separated the yolks from the outside. Didn't help when you cut them in half and made adding the deviled egg mixture back almost impossible.

Another tip was to shake the pan after pouring out the hot water to crack the egg shells. I think I was a little rough as the whites seemed to have "dents" in them from the cracked shells. Some of the shells came off really easy and others were a bit tough to get all the little pieces of shell off.

One tip that was given is something I will now use on any deviled egg recipes I make and that is to put the yolks through a sieve. It made a much smoother mixture and also helped keep out those rubber lumps of yolk that seem to pop up now and then.

I ate one of these immediately after putting them together. The egg mixture was still a bit warm. The egg tasted okay, but nothing special. Eating one the next day gave the ingredients a time to gel and the deviled egg tasted really good. A bit tangier than regular deviled eggs and really good. Quite addicting actually.

GRANDPA COOLEY'S ANGRY DEVILED EGGS

12 large eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2-3 tablespoons prepared horseradish
2 teaspoons yellow mustard
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Paprika for garnish

Place the eggs in a large saucepan, cover with an inch of water, and bring to a boil over high heat.
Remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let stand 10 minutes. Meanwhile, fill a medium bowl with 1 quart water and a dozen ice cubes. Pour off the water from the saucepan and gently shake the pan back and forth to crack the shells. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the eggs to the ice water and let cool 5 minutes.

Peel the eggs and slice them in half length-wise. Transfer the yolks to a fine-mesh sieve and use a spatula to press them through the sieve and into a bowl. Add the remaining ingredients (except for the paprika) and mash the mixture against the sides of the bowl until smooth.

Arrange the whites on a serving platter and fill with the yolk mixture. Sprinkle with paprika and serve. makes 2 dozen filled egg halves.

Note: Test kitchen notes say to start with two tablespoons of horseradish and add more as desired. I added the three and then I ended up adding about another half tablespoon of the horseradish and another 2 tablespoons of mayo. The original mixture was to "thick" for my taste. I would also probably see if it needed more salt (I'm afraid some of the salt I originally added was taken out when I tried to delete some of the extra dry mustard).

Note: I'd let these set in the fridge for a while before serving them.

Comments

[peabody]

The turning them on their side thing sounds odd. I run my cooked egg yolk through a food mill to get it so smooth...does make a difference.

[Mom]

Oh yeah, I remember these. I love deviled eggs and could eat a dozen probably in one meal but with these I immediately knew that it had horseradish. I am no fan of horseradish! I did give it a try but this is not my favorite deviled egg recipe.

[Mom]

I was looking at the title of the recipe and remembered my Grandpa Wing's middle name was Cooley. How strange!

[DBdiner]

I love deviled eggs, but my family does not. My friend Jeanne makes the cutest "spider eggs" every Halloween for me. :-) She found the recipe in Sunset magazine, and is basically just a basic recipe with cut olives on top resembling spiders. Yum!

[elbie]

Hi there,

I'm the person responsible for this recipe. Grandpa Cooley was my grandpa, and these are *close* to his deviled eggs. The Cook's Illustrated people tampered with the recipe a bit before they published it. I haven't actually tried it yet as it appears in the book, so I can't say how far off the flavor is from what I'm used to. I know I put more sugar in them, and my hunch is also more vinegar, but, hey, at least the recipe made it into the book.

I went to the book signing last year in Chicago, but CK didn't mention this recipe in his talk. I did, however, get a chance to talk with him about the name afterward.

Thanks for posting the eggs,
Laura