Nigella Lawson's Tip For Perfectly Symmetrical Deviled Eggs Is Genius

Nigella Lawson is a domestic goddess among us, popularizing British cuisine for the masses with her television programs and cookbooks. And she's an unabashed lover of deviled eggs, saying in a recipe on her website, "Yes, they are retro, but they are no culinary exercise in irony," adding, "And while they are a bit fiddly to make, they're not hard, and they are immensely rewarding." Now, we love a deviled egg, but it is extremely easy for an ordinary mortal to end up with uneven, lopsided egg whites, which can make doling out the filling difficult, be a little hard on the eyes, and even cause the skinnier parts of the white to rip. This usually happens because the egg yolk didn't settle in the center of the egg during boiling. But of course, Nigella has a hack for that. 

To get perfectly symmetrical deviled eggs, Nigella recommends laying eggs on their sides the night before boiling them, rather than upright in their box. This allows the yolk to sit more evenly between the two sides length-wise, rather than at the bottom half of the shell. Nigella says that this trick does help, but might not work 100% of the time, writing, "It's not a fail-safe guarantee, but it does seem to make a difference."

Since, by Nigella's own admission, this hack doesn't work every time, her recipe accounts for those few egg whites that don't come out perfectly, because it calls for more egg yolks than whites. You boil 12 eggs but only turn 9 of the whites into deviled eggs. So you'll end up with 24 egg white halves and only enough filling for 18, meaning you have a few whoopsie egg halves left. So just present the most even halves and turn the rest into egg salad. 

Even with Nigella's tip to lay eggs on their sides the night before cooking, it can still be a difficult process to boil, peel, halve, and fill decent-looking eggs. To help, there are a few extra tips for making perfect hard-boiled eggs and transforming them into their deviled counterparts. First, once the eggs are done cooking, plunge them into an ice bath (you can even peel them under the water) — this prevents over-cooking and makes peeling much easier, which means you're less likely to dent or tear the egg whites. And when it comes to cutting them, be sure to use a super sharp knife and clean the blade between each egg — a clean knife makes for cleaner cuts. Finally, be sure the egg yolk mixture is perfectly smooth (Nigella uses a stick blender), and don't be afraid to break out your piping bag.