Why Do They Call It That?

As part of my lunch today at work, I brought two hard boiled eggs and proceeded to slice them in half, scoop out the yellows and mix them with some mayo and mustard and make me some deviled eggs. Let me tell you it was quite the center of conversation in the lunchroom today. We started talking about deviled eggs, and a coworker and faithful reader asked if I knew why they called them deviled eggs. I told him that I didn't know, but reassured him I would find the answer.

Here's the history behind the the name. An Englishman by the name of William Underwood set up a small condiment business on Boston's Russia Wharf in 1822. It did pretty well both developing and selling new condiment products. In 1868, Underwood's sons began experimenting with a new product created from ground ham blended with a mix of special seasonings. They introduced a product line of seasoned meat products including ham, turkey, chicken, lobster, and tongue. They called the seasoning process "deviling," and the Underwood "red devil" was born. Today many other foods, including eggs and crab, are serve"deviled." For the record, to be considered deviled, a food has to have a kick from something like mustard, hot sauce, cayenne pepper or chopped hot peppers. Now you know.