The deviled egg began in 13th-century Andalusia, long before mayonnaise arrived
The oldest known stuffed-egg recipe comes from an unnamed 13th-century cookbook from Andalusia, where yolks were beaten with coriander, onion juice and a fermented sauce called murri. Mayonnaise didn't show up in a recipe until 1896, and some Southern church gatherings still avoid saying devil at all.
That Andalusian cook mixed boiled yolks with pepper, oil and salt as well, packed the paste back into the whites, then pinned the two halves together with a small stick. Medieval European cookbooks offered versions filled with herbs, cheese and raisins, and in 1585 Thomas Dawson's The Good Huswifes Jewell advised stuffing eggs much as you would stuff meat. Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cook Book of 1896 is the first known recipe to suggest mayonnaise.
The fiery name has its own history. Devilled appeared in print by the mid-1500s, and by the 18th century devil was being used for heavily seasoned food, with a first printed example in 1786. Over the 19th century the word attached itself to anything spicy, from deviled ham to Italy's fra diavolo sauce. In parts of the American South and Midwest, church events serve the same dish as stuffed, salad or dressed eggs, and occasionally angel eggs.
The British brought the dish to the United States, where the earliest known American recipe ran in the Montgomery Advertiser in Alabama in 1877. By 1923 a newspaper columnist was recommending saving egg cartons to carry them, and by the 1940s they were a fixture at picnics and parties. A 2019 survey commissioned by McCormick found that close to 61 percent of Americans intended to prepare or eat them that Easter Sunday.
Other countries have their own twists. France calls them mimosa eggs after the tree's fluffy yellow flowers, and Germans serve so-called Russian eggs on a bed of diced vegetables, a name that has nothing to do with Russia. Swedes mix the yolks with caviar and cream for the Easter smörgåsbord, Italians add tuna, capers and anchovies, and Hungarians blend in milk-soaked bread.
Source: Deviled egg
