Deviled Eggs

Method

1. boil11 min
   water at a full boil, then held at a bare simmer
   eggs lowered into water that is already boiling — a hot start sets the outermost layer of white against the shell membrane immediately, which is why hot-started eggs peel clean and cold-started ones tear. Eleven minutes gives a yolk fully firm but still yellow; past about thirteen, iron from the yolk and sulfur from the white meet at the boundary and leave the gray-green ring
2. rest10 min
   ice water
   eggs straight from the pot into ice water — this halts carryover cooking, which would otherwise push a perfect yolk into chalky, and the contraction pulls the white away from the membrane
3. peel5 min
   under a trickle of cold water
   crack the fat end first, where the air cell sits, then roll and slip the shell off with the membrane attached; the water gets under the membrane and does most of the work
4. slice2 min
   wiping the blade between eggs
   halve lengthwise and press the yolks out into a bowl — a yolk-smeared blade leaves yellow streaks on the next white, which is the difference between a platter that looks made and one that looks handled
5. mash3 min
   through a fine sieve
   yolks pushed through a sieve rather than forked; cooked yolk is granular and a fork leaves nubs that survive every later mixing and read as gritty on the tongue
6. mix2 min
   folded, not beaten
   sieved yolks + mayonnaise + mustard + vinegar + salt + pepper, stirred just to a smooth paste — the vinegar and mustard are doing the work of cutting a filling that is otherwise fat on fat, and mustard's emulsifiers keep the mayonnaise from breaking and weeping into the white. Beating it hard only thins it
7. top5 min
   chilled whites
   pipe or spoon the filling into the whites, mounded above the rim so each half is a portion rather than a garnish, then dust with paprika = deviled eggs. Hold cold; the filling is a raw-egg emulsion and softens and slumps at room temperature within the hour