As Peggy Olson and her extended family await the arrival of young parish priest Father John Gill for Sunday afternoon dinner, Jerry Respola, Peggy’s brother-in-law, is lying on the living room couch nursing his (suspiciously) chronically bad back. On the coffee table in front of him is a plate of Deviled Eggs, often referred to as Stuffed Eggs in cookbooks of the period, and occasionally as Eggs Mimosa.
Two weeks later, on Easter Sunday, Peggy and Father Gill chat outside of church after Easter Services as young children hunt for colored Easter eggs. There is a hint of wistfulness in Peggy’s expression, for she has given up for adoption the baby she conceived with Pete Campbell. As their conversation continues, Father Gill presses a blue Easter egg into her hand: “For the little one,” he says. Does he mean Peggy’s infant niece? Peggy appears to wonder if he knows her secret. In fact he does because Peggy’s sister, Anita Olson Respola, ashamed of her sister’s behavior, revealed it to Father Gill at confession.
The egg has great symbolic meaning in both Christianity and Judaism as a symbol of rebirth and renewal, and as an offering of kindness. It is, of course, also a ubiquitous symbol of fertility.
The notion of stuffing eggs originated, according to some sources, in ancient Rome, where it was common practice to pour spicy sauces over eggs. The earliest recipes for stuffed boiled eggs appear in medieval European texts, which include fillings of cheese, raisins, and spices. By the late 1500s and early 1600s, such stuffed eggs were widely consumed. The term deviling, which implies hot or spicy, is from the eighteenth century, though spicy stuffed eggs existed earlier.
Deviled eggs were extraordinarily popular in the 1950s and 1960s and could be found on party platters, at picnics, in lunch boxes, and on kitchen tables across America. It seemed almost every American cookbook of the period had a deviled egg recipe, and with good reason; people find them irresistible.
This recipe for Deviled Eggs is adapted from the very popular All New Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking-School Cookbook by Wilma Lord Perkins (1959). If you have a fertile imagination, however, you may wish to improvise and give birth to a new recipe you can call your own.
ADAPTED FROM THE ALL NEW FANNIE FARMER BOSTON COOKING-SCHOOL
COOKBOOK BY WILMA LORD PERKINS (LITTLE, BROWN, 1959)
6 eggs, at room temperature
1⁄4 cup mayonnaise, or more if you prefer a creamier filling
1⁄4 teaspoon dry mustard, or more to taste
Dash of cayenne
Salt and ground black pepper
Paprika, for sprinkling
YIELD: 12 EGG HALVES