Easter Sunday is almost here; a time in the early spring when plants bloom and baby animals are born – a season of new life. Tradition dictates we dress up in our “Sunday best” – newly purchased for Easter Sunday – and go to the church services of our choice. After church comes the tradition of a big meal and an Easter egg hunt for the children in the family.
During this season, Easter egg hunts happen at home, on the church grounds, in a friend’s yard, in parks, in shopping malls – almost anywhere people gather to hunt for the hidden treasures. They are designed as special treats for children. We hard-boil and decorate eggs, hide confections in plastic eggs, and hide chocolate eggs. Recently, there have even been adult Easter eggs hunts with adult type gift cards, etc. inside the plastic eggs. But have you ever stopped to think why do we celebrate Easter with eggs?
Eggs are a symbol of rebirth and fertility. So, it’s easy to see why eggs are associated with Easter which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Easter egg origin started in Medieval Europe. Before the Christian Easter, the early Anglo-Saxons celebrated the goddess Eastre who brought the spring and a resurrection of life after winter. Christian missionaries hoping to convert pagans to Christianity celebrated Christian holy days at the same time as pagan festivals. And if they used some of the same symbols, they might gain more converts. Eggs were known to be eaten at the festival of Eastre – and buried in the ground to encourage fertility.
A Christian origin story about why we use eggs during our Easter events “boils” down to a matter of practicality. Fasting requirements for Lent were much stricter back then. Christians couldn’t eat meat – or any animal product. This included eggs. But they couldn’t tell their chickens to stop laying. So … they hard-boiled the eggs and saved them for distribution later. Lent ends just before Easter and the eggs were given out then – mostly to poor people who could not afford meat at their celebrations. So, the tradition of boiled eggs for Easter was born.
So, you hard-boiled a bunch of eggs for an Easter egg hunt. What will you do with all those eggs? You can’t let them all go to waste. Well, I have an idea – make deviled eggs out of them – if they haven’t been out of refrigeration for very long. I used to make deviled eggs like my mama – that is until I married Roy and got a taste of “our” daughter’s deviled eggs – they are her specialty. She agreed to share her recipe with you. If you have made deviled eggs before, hers will be similar, but with a kick.
But before I give you her secret, I’ll give you my secret on how to easily peel a hard-boiled egg. Put your eggs in a pan with cool water with about an inch of water covering the eggs. Add a pinch of salt and a couple of drops of vegetable oil to the water. Quickly bring the water to a boil and boil eggs for 6-7 minutes. Immediately take the eggs off the heat and pour the hot water into the sink. Then, fill the pan with cool water and let the eggs cool enough to touch. Then peel the eggs under running cool water. Works for me every time.
OK – Here’s Shirlene’s Deviled Eggs:
• Hard-boil the number of eggs you wish to use.
• Cut eggs in half. Put egg yolks in a bowl and place the egg white section on a plate.
• Mash the yolks in the bowl and – here comes the creative part – add mayonnaise and Dijon mustard mixing all together until smooth and to a consistency to fill the eggs.
• Add well-drained dill relish to the mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Fill the egg whites with the yolk mixture.
• Dust top of stuffed eggs with your choice of either cayenne pepper (some like it hot), or paprika, depending on your taste.
• Garnish the tops of eggs with slices of green olives.
You have a lot of room to play with this recipe and make it your own. Use only mayonnaise (not Miracle Whip). Dijon mustard absolutely makes these eggs.
Oh, and you know those chocolate Easter eggs in your Easter basket? The artistic confectionary was first made in France and Germany in the early 19th century. The technique for making mass-produced molded chocolate had not been discovered.
John Cadbury made his first eating chocolate in 1842 and finally produced the first Cadbury Easter eggs in 1875. Progress in the Chocolate Easter egg market for mass distribution was slow until a method for making the chocolate flow into the molds was found. We still eat Cadbury chocolate Easter eggs today.
