Oeuf Oeuvre

Saucyman – Hardboiled eggs, 18 of them, many with decorative shells. How long before they go bad and what can I do with them before they go bad.

The general rule of thumb is cooked food will make it 7 days with proper refrigeration. That is 7 days from when the eggs were boiled, so you might be down to as few as 5 days to use up your eggs and you really don’t want to push the envelope on this: Because the eggs were hardboiled, they were cooked at a temperature that placed them on the good side of the food safety zone. The problem is that they probably weren’t cooled down fast enough and they definitely weren’t stored at proper temperatures with all the decorating and the hiding on the lawn and other Easter traditions. I’m not calling them germ grenades, but you want to use your eggs quickly.

Because they are hardboiled you can’t do things with the eggs, like repurposing them in cake batter or even more practically - egg people’s houses with them, here they are little grenades and if tossed hard enough they could actually break a window but mostly hardboiled eggs aren’t that effective in minor acts of property damage – no mess, no sulfury stink, no viscous residue. The Saucydogs get lots and lots of eggs, so if your dogs don’t have food allergies or a restricted diet, it is possible Fido can take some eggs off your hands.

Dog chow and vandalism aside you could devil them, but that might not give you the relief you desire. So, hardboiled eggs are pretty much relegated to the salad genre. New cookbooks like to suggest using hardboiled yolks to make egg-based dressings like Caesar. Sure, the recipe produces a grainy texture and the eggs have lost most of their emulsifying power but the publisher has reduced their liability in case of food borne illness and isn’t that better than explaining the risks to people like adults?

Besides salad dressing, there are salads. Use the eggs as an ingredient in a mixed garden salad or as part of a composed salad – where all the different components are arranged on a plate, like a Cobb Salad. That could take care of a few eggs but you can clear the fridge of all Easter Eggs with one batch of Egg Salad.

As a mayonnaisephobe, I am not a huge fan of the Egg Salad. Back in the day, I’d make Egg Salad at the café and to my surprise it was a good seller. But this was a fine line – people liked Egg Salad, but not too often and it had to be slightly different than what they would make at home - Egg Salad made of mayonnaise, piquant cornichon pickles, tarragon, salt and pepper mixed with hardboiled eggs was popular. If the Egg Salad was too fancy or I'd make a recipe that I would eat – egg salad flavored curry and yogurt, my sandwiches would languish, an expensive mistake. People like the classics. And people have better appetites when they can choose the foods they want as opposed to having to eat them. On that last point, there is little I can do to help you, but you are four sandwiches away from not having to worry about this again for another year.