The Unexpected Additions To Amp Up The Flavor Of Your Deviled Eggs

When the weather warms up, and you fire up the grill to cook outside, remember that no cookout or picnic is complete without a plate of homemade deviled eggs. They're also at home at a family gathering or church supper any time of year. That's because while you probably wouldn't sit down and eat three or four boiled eggs by themselves if you cut them in half, mash up the yolks with a bit of mayonnaise and mustard and scoop the mixture back into the egg white for some reason, it's easy to eat a handful.

Deviled eggs are easily made just with a few simple ingredients. But that doesn't mean you can't dress them up with different flavors to create a signature style. If you want to wow your next potluck with an on-trend plate of eggs, take a cue from brunch and add some maple syrup and bacon to the mix.

The great thing about deviled eggs is that they're a bit of a blank canvas. Eggs and mayonnaise taste mild and neutral and take well to more robust flavor combinations like sweet and sour, sweet and spicy, or sweet and salty.

You already know that eggs, bacon, and maple get along on the breakfast table, so it's not entirely out of the question to match them up in a deviled egg, even if it's a little unexpected. This is because salty and sweet flavors scientifically work well together, according to How Stuff Works. While too much salt or sugar can overwhelm your palate, the combination succeeds because our bodies crave each flavor for specific purposes. Put something salty and sweet together, and it's irresistible. Think of salted caramels, chicken and waffles, and chocolate-covered peanuts.

To make a batch of maple and bacon deviled eggs, you only need to add a tablespoon of good-quality maple syrup to the egg yolks when you're mashing them up with the mayonnaise and mustard. Maple and mayonnaise taste great together on their own, especially when you dip sweet potato fries in it; plus, maple and mustard are a tried-and-true match.

Once your maple yolk mixture is seasoned to taste, scoop it back into the egg whites and top each with a piece of bacon to get the right salty balance.

If you like the bacon and maple combination, you can layer your flavors more within each component. For example, when you're mixing up the yolks, sub out a tablespoon of the mayonnaise for some of your rendered bacon fat. The bacon flavor mixed with the maple in the egg will enhance that sweet and salty experience. You can also cook your bacon with a little bit of maple syrup to punch up the flavor of the meat.

Try cooking your bacon in the oven with a maple glaze as Ina Garten does. By interspersing the two flavors in various ways, the deviled eggs will have a more nuanced, complex sweet, and salty taste. You might want to make extra because sweet-and-salty deviled eggs are even more irresistible than the classics, and your plate will be empty in a flash.