Susan Writes

What a spread! Tell the members of a southern Sunday school class to come to a party and bring a finger food and the dining room table will be full. Pork slider sandwiches. Ham on rolls, Meatballs. Veggies and dip. Cheese and crackers. Cupcakes. Brownies. Pimento cheese sandwiches – some on deli wheat bread, some on thin white bread cut in triangles. Four platters of deviled eggs – some garnished with pimento, some with paprika dusting, and some square shaped.

Yes, square deviled eggs. The conversations about those eggs were lively. I’ve never seen a square egg. How was that done? I never knew a hen could lay a square egg. Who brought these? Are these real eggs? Does a square egg taste like other eggs?

There were many guesses of how an oval egg (actually an ovoid shape since that’s the word to describe a three-dimensional egg shape) could become a cube. Eggs could be broken and the insides placed in a cube shape and then boiled. Rare chickens laid cube eggs. Peel a boiled egg and trim the white to make a cube.

Finally, when someone asked, “Who brought these?” in MaryDell’s hearing, she took credit, but she didn’t immediately explain how she turned an egg into a cube. Several of us guessed and she just smiled and shook her head. “There’s a little plastic cube to put boiled eggs in. I’ll bring it to Sunday school and show you,” she said.

MaryDell held her Egg Cuber, aka Square Egg Maker, in hand and explained. Boil an egg and peel it immediately. While it’s warm, place it in the cube, put the top on and gently turn the top which forces a square insert to press the egg into a cube. Then put the cuber in the refrigerator for about an hour, remove the egg from the plastic cuber, and refrigerate the square egg. “Since boiled eggs are good in the refrigerator for a week, you can make them ahead and then devil them all at the same time,” MaryDell said.

“Wait.” I said, “Did you say boil an egg? Can you only do one at a time?” MaryDell nodded. “You brought two platters of eggs. I can’t imagine how long that took,” I said.

Turns out MaryDell owns two Egg Cubers so she did two eggs at a time over several days. I admitted that I had hurriedly slapped store-bought pimento cheese between slices of sandwich bread, trimmed the crusts, and cut sandwiches in triangles. “Just hearing everyone talk about square eggs made it worthwhile. Your Grands would love them,” MaryDell said. Her deviled eggs were unique and delicious. None were left on her platter; I can’t say the same for my sandwiches.

Egg Cubers are available online and probably in kitchen stores, but I’m not buying one yet. MaryDell loaned me one of hers. I appreciate my friend’s time and effort to make two platters of square deviled eggs, but at my house we’ll make a square egg and eat it as soon as it chills. The Grands will love it.

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Filed under: Food | Tagged: deviled eggs, MaryDell, square |