Retro Fun with Hard-Cooked Eggs!

It's that time of year when all those extra hard cooked eggs might be making you see red!

So let's see what cooks did with a bounty of hard cooked eggs in the past. 

If you cooked in 1936, you might consult My Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book to make something exotic, like

Eggs a la Des Moines! It's just ham, tomato, and hard-cooked egg on lettuce with Thousand Island. I picked the recipe because I had never heard of anything labeled "a la Des Moines," as if that should be some sort of selling point. Iowan recipes are not exactly well-known for their innovation and superior flavor. (What makes something "a la Des Moines," anyway? Since they have so many pigs in the state, I'm going to assume it means "served on a slice of ham.") I notice that this particular cookbook lists its publisher as being Des Moines-based, so I will assume that has something to do with the recipe title.

Cooks in 1958 might go with the Egg and Cheese Spaghetti and Rice Dishes  cook-booklet in the Good Housekeeping's Cook Books collection.

If they wanted their eggs to look as if they were erupting, they might go with this:

The hen seems completely unmoved as she gazes over the eggs spurting yolky filling into an orangey lake. "Hell, as long as they're outta me, I don't care what they do," she's thinking.

So what ARE they doing?

They're squirting a deviled ham mixture into a lake of cheese sauce as they nestle among some broccoli.

(I had to cut off the end of the recipe, but here it is if you want it: Pour sauce over all. Bake 40 min., or until bubbly. Makes 4 or 5 servings.)

It's kind of a complicated dish, but I don't think it quite requires a welding mask.

Finally, let's look at what cooks from 1967 might try. House & Garden's New Cook Book has some recommendations. For something that is genuinely a little more exotic than Eggs a la Des Moines:

Try Curried Eggs! This seems like it will actually have some flavor, calling for onions, garlic, ginger, and a whole tablespoon of curry powder (with permission to "use more if you wish"!).

Of course, with my aversions to cooked fruit AND fruit thrown into savory dishes, the raisins and apples in this make it sound like a nightmare to me... but at least it's not all processed cheese and canned meat.

Cooks who might prefer something the Swedish Chef would make could try this: 

Of course, it will only work with eggs that aren't too much like ping pong balls. And if the thought of eggs full of diced herring and mustard sauce is appealing.

Happy Extra Eggs Weekend, everyone!