Your Deviled Eggs Are Begging For Old Bay Seasoning

Deviled eggs are a picnic and celebration staple. When laid out on a platter, those little egg halves can be almost irresistible — a perfect combo of tangy and salty — and they are often one of the first appetizers to disappear at any party. Both easy to make and easy to eat, there's a reason these eggy snacks are a go-to hors d'oeuvre.

A classic deviled egg recipe calls for relish or pickle juice, mustard, cayenne, and mayonnaise, seasoned with salt and pepper, and finally topped with a dusting of paprika. But next time, instead of paprika, try sprinkling your deviled eggs with Old Bay seasoning for a snack with an elevated kick and delightful layers of spice. 

Old Bay has paprika in it, so you will not lose anything in this substitution; you will only elevate your dish. Instead, the Old Bay will add notes of spice, heat, and mustard to your deviled eggs — enough to make them truly devilish.

Making the perfect deviled eggs mostly relies on hard boiling your eggs flawlessly. No one wants deviled eggs that are a runny or rubbery mess.

If you follow Julia Child's method for hard-boiled eggs, you're sure to have eggs that have light, fluffy whites and a moist yellow yolk. Make sure to also peel your eggs carefully, so you don't split the egg, which would make it impossible to stuff with deviled filling.

Once your eggs are boiled to perfection, tweak the ingredients to find something perfect for your palate. Dijon mustard, as opposed to plain yellow, adds depth and pungency to your recipe. Instead of store-bought, pick some locally-made dill pickles — or make your own refrigerator dill pickles — and dice them up yourself in place of the relish. Make sure you don't add too much pickle juice, so the egg filling stays fluffy, not runny. Then, of course, right before serving, dust your deviled eggs with some of that Old Spice seasoning.

Old Bay is a combination of celery salt, mustard, pepper, cinnamon, pimento, ginger, mace, bay leaves, cloves, cardamom, and paprika, mixed together in top-secret ratios. According to Savuer, the spice mix was first created by a man named Gustav Brunn, a German Jewish spice merchant who fled Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. Brunn originally created the spice mix as a topping for steamed crab. Though at first there was little interest in the salty, spicy combo, once it started selling, the Old Bay reputation grew quickly.

Now owned by the McCormick spice company, and beloved across the U.S., the spice mix has been sprinkled on everything from Old Bay french fries to pizza to hot chocolate. It has been infused into a goldfish flavor, a hot sauce, and even a special-edition vodka. So it's understandable that it would also pair excellently with deviled eggs, adding zest and a powerful punch of flavor — especially if you have other sides like corn on the cob or new potatoes — ingredients you need for a lowcountry boil.