Macheesmo

This is an updated post from the Macheesmo Archives!

I used to be a kitchen minimalist. Ok. Actually, I still am in theory, but one can only be a food blogger for so long before strange contraptions and specific dishes start appearing in your cupboard.

What I’m trying to say is that I’m not entirely sure why I own a 70’s style deviled egg plate, but I do! I think Betsy maybe stole it from her Mom, but the point is that I can’t see something like that and not want to put it to use!

So deviled eggs is the subject and a mighty good one given the upcoming holiday this weekend. You just might need a handy appetizer to take to a party or something and this one will not disappoint. It’s really just a standard deviled egg recipe with bacon coming out its deviled ears, but trust me. They’ll be gone before you can say, “Happy New Year!”

Smoky Deviled Eggs

by Nick

Serves:

1 dozen

Prep Time:

30 mins

Total Time:

40 mins

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A traditional deviled egg with smoky bacon added to it. The bacon adds some great texture and flavor to the egg appetizer.

Ingredients

6 large eggs (a few weeks old makes them easier to peel)

2-3 slices bacon, cooked crispy

1 Tablespoon bacon grease (yea that's right)

1/3 Cup Mayonnaise

1 Teaspoon dried mustard

1 Teaspoon white vinegar

Pinch of salt and pepper

Smoked paprika for dusting

Instructions

1) To boil eggs, add eggs to a pot with cold water.  The water should cover the eggs by about an inch.

2) Set on high heat and cover until the water boils.  Once it’s boiling, turn off the heat, keep the lid on, and let sit for 13 minutes (more if you’re using really big eggs.  I used large eggs.)

3) Remove eggs and run under cold water.  Crack eggs all around and carefully remove shells.

4) Slice eggs in half and scoop yolk into a bowl.  Be careful to keep white halves intact.

5) Cook bacon on a wire rack over a baking sheet in the oven at 350 degrees until very crispy, about 15 minutes.

6) Let cool slightly then pour bacon grease into measuring dish.

7) Add bacon grease, mayo, dried mustard, vinegar, and salt and pepper to yolks and mash well to combine.  Mix until smooth.  To get rid of all lumps, mix with a hand mixer.

8) Scoop filling into a plastic storage bag.  Cut off a corner and carefully fill egg white halves.

9) Dust with paprika and dot each egg with a few pieces of crumbled bacon.

Boiling the Eggs

There’s always a lot of talk about making the perfect hard boiled egg. At the end of the day, I’m pretty sure that it’s impossible to guarantee a perfectly boiled egg 100% of the time because there’s a lot of variables that go into the perfect hard boiled egg like the size of the egg, the age of the egg, etc.

That said, here’s how I do it which gives me pretty consistent results.

Start with older eggs. If the eggs are a week old then they’ll peel easier.

Make sure your eggs are roughly the same size. If you’re totally OCD you could weigh them, but I usually just eyeball it.

These were my six beauties I picked out for this batch of deviled eggs.

I start by adding my eggs to a pot with cold water that covers the eggs by about an inch or two. Then cover this and put it over high heat until it starts to boil. Once the water is boiling, turn off the heat but keep the pot covered, and let it sit for 13 minutes!

Now. Thirteen minutes may seem a bit specific to you, but that has always given me good results. If you’re using extra large eggs, go with 15 minutes.

I hope this method works for you, but again, I can’t guarantee a perfectly cooked hard boiled egg 100% of the time.

Prepping the Eggs

Once your eggs have sat in their hot water bath for some amount of time, take them out and run them under cold water. Carefully crack the shell of one egg and peel off the outer shell.

I find it easiest to start with the larger end of the egg and crack it. Then peel that end and the rest of the shell should slip off.

And hopefully. HOPEFULLY. When you slice into the egg, the yolks are just cooked and there’s no weird gray ring between the yolks and the whites.

This batch turned out great for me.

Once you get all your eggs peeled, carefully scoop out all the yolks and add them to a bowl. Try not to break up the white cups. Set the whites aside for later.

The Bacon

The thing that kicks this recipe up a notch involves bacon. Not only did I sprinkle crunchy bacon on top of each egg, but I also mixed in some bacon grease into the yolk filling.

Evil. I know.

For extra crispy bacon, I like to cook my bacon in the oven. The grease drips down as the bacon cooks and the bacon gets really crispy.

Baking it at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes should give you some really crispy sticks.

Once it cools a bit, you can pour off the bacon grease as well.

This has tons of flavor and you can save it to cook potatoes in or something. I added a tablespoon of it to my yolk filling to give some nice bacon-y flavor to the eggs.

Making the Filling

Once you have all your yolks separated, just mash them up with a fork a bit and then add in all your filling ingredients.

This was my finished filling!

Then I spooned my filling into a plastic bag. These eggs are best if you fill them right before serving, so you can store the filling like this for a day or two without a problem and then just fill the egg whites when you’re ready.

The plastic bag makes it really easy to fill because you can just snip off the end corner with some scissors and use it like a pastry bag.

I like to add a few bacon crumbles to each egg before filling them!

Once you fill all the eggs, give them a good dusting of smoked paprika and then dot each egg with some big crumbles of crunchy bacon.

It’s funny how just one simple change can really spice up a deviled egg. Just adding some bacon goodness to these guys really make them a completely different deviled egg. I’d also recommend using some really good smoked paprika if you can find some.

I had absolutely no problem eating 4 or 5 of these right away. They were very delicious.