Give Deviled Eggs A Southern Comfort Food Upgrade With This Creamy Spread

Given that deviled eggs have been enjoyed the world over since literal ancient times, they are an excellent canvas for all manner of geographical spins. Sure, all you really need for the classic, crowd-pleasing app are the eggs themselves plus a bit of mayo, mustard, salt, pepper, and paprika. But if you're from the American South (or just wish you were), using pimento cheese in deviled eggs offers you a taste of your own hometown, favorite vacation destination, or a beloved culinary locale with little more than an extra ingredient that really speaks to the region.

Household recipes can vary, but pimento cheese is generally a combination of shredded cheese (typically cheddar), mayonnaise, and, of course, the pimentos that give the versatile spread its name. A third of those ingredients (the mayo!) is already practically compulsory for even the most basic deviled eggs. The mild sweetness of the peppers and the savory salinity of the cheese further bring it to life. As easy as it is to eyeball the proportions and throw together at home, you can also buy an excellent, Southerner-approved pimento cheese, should those new to the spread want a good baseline for how it should taste. Then, you have a clear path to pimento cheese deviled egg success.

Should you want to make everything from scratch, Chowhound's pimento cheese deviled egg recipe has step-by-step instructions for doing so. If learning a new thing just isn't on the menu today, you can also just incorporate pimento cheese into your existing favorite deviled egg preparation. The simplest way to do so is to swap the pepper-studded spread in for most of the mayo you'd normally mash the egg yolks with — "most" being the operative word.

Deviled egg fillings should be creamy and yielding, with a consistency substantial enough to hold its shape but yielding to the bite. On its own, pimento cheese is notably denser than plain mayo. So leave room to add a little more of the go-to sandwich spread on its own. If using a full dozen eggs to yield 24 devils, for example, combine about a cup of pimento cheese with the egg yolks, mixing in another few tablespoons of mayo as needed to reach just the right consistency. You can then fill the whites how you normally would, sprinkle with the quintessential paprika, and enjoy a Southern taste of what deviled eggs can be.