Egg Bookmarks
When it’s time to update Easter and other heritage egg news, you won’t find expiration dates.
Some parts of this springtime story first appeared in my post on March 24, 2024.
In 2024, this impatient (Boomer-generation) writer published The Deviled Eggs Are In The Details on Substack. After it was brought to my attention, I began fine-tuning my Substack content with a new title and paying much closer attention to consistent online attributions. These shifts contributed to what now feels like a deeper calling to put missing history on record for future generations.
With a grateful nod to ancestors, the Great Migration Library covers cultural history, memories, firsthand migration experiences and a treasured (and growing) collection of artifacts and books.
Thank you for joining me in the Great Migration Library. The doors are always open.
Delicious Egg Memories
My maternal grandmother (Granny) encouraged the deviled label for eggs, deviled crabs, deviled oysters and any other recipe seasoned with the spicy mustard flavoring passed down from her mother’s Gulf Coast Creole kitchen.
However, during a childhood visit to Mobile, AL, my paternal grandmother (Gran) described the deviled egg label as “a coarse phrase,” and asked me to stop referring to my favorite treat this way.
“I know that deviled refers to added mustard, but we don’t have to follow every common trend,” Gran said. “It’s more polite for a young lady to call them stuffed or dressed eggs,“ she added.
Because Dad (now an ancestor) shared my stuffed egg appreciation by joining my return to calling them deviled, I kept him supplied with different versions, including this one by Jessica B. Harris in Beyond Gumbo (see Bookmarks), where she reminds us how deviled eggs also came north with Great Migration travelers.
“They often brought a shoebox of food with them: their last tastes of the South….The shoebox inevitably held a deviled egg or two, along with fried chicken, a slab of pound cake, and a cool drink. In this way, deviled eggs have ridden the roads and the rails into pride of place in the foodways of African Americans in the United States. I’ve added the pimentón for a nontraditional but delicious smokey taste,” she wrote in the recipe headnotes.
More books and photos from the Great Migration Library (located in my former living room) add to this story.
Children Celebrate
Ancestors
Celebrated Authors
Smart Tips
This Week’s Great Migration Library Question:
According to The African-American Child’s Heritage Cookbook: Which bread serves as the base for ashcake?
Answer posted next week.
Thank you for reading the Great Migration Library notebook.
“I am very grateful when you help spread the word about the Great Migration Library by clicking the Like (heart) button and sharing this message with friends, neighbors and family. I welcome comments.” -Donna Battle Pierce
Reader Reminder:
More interesting facts will be revealed when you click on mustard-colored links.
Great Migration Library website
The Great Migration Library’s highlighted links often connect you to more information, books at AbeBooks, or other independent booksellers, available at the time of our posting. Note: Before selecting from a link, sort through available offerings for desired condition; new or used.
Bookmarks
African-American Child’s Heritage Cookbook by Vanessa R. Parham (Sandcastle, 1994). Link to Parham’s Deviled Egg recipe.
Beyond Gumbo: Creole Fusion Food from the Atlantic Rim by Jessica B. Harris (Simon & Schuster, 2003). Link to Harris’ Deviled Eggs recipe.
Field Peas to Foie Gras: Southern Recipes with a French Accent by Jennifer Hill Booker (Pelican, 2014).
Family of the Spirit Cookbook: Recipes and Rememberances from African-American Kitchens by John Pinderhughes (Simon & Shuster, 1990). Link to Brenda Marie Goodwin’s Spicy Deviled Eggs.
How to Break an Egg: 1,453 Kitchen Tips, Food Fixes… by the Editors of Fine Cooking (Taunton Press, 2005).
LaBelle Cuisine: Recipes to Sing About by Patti LaBelle (Clarkson Potter, 1999). Link to LaBelle’s “tips” for hard-cooked eggs.
Mahalia Jackson Cooks Soul by Mahalia Jackson (Aurora, 1970). Link to Jackson’s Deviled Eggs recipe.
The Red Rooster Cookbook: The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem by Marcus Samuelsson (Harvest, 2016). Link to Samuellson’s Red Rooster Deviled Eggs recipe.
Williams-Sonoma The Kid’s Cookbook: A great book for kids who love to cook by Abigail J. Dodge (Oxmoor House, 2002).
Contact me for permission to reprint Great Migration Library photos, or photos from the Battle Family Archives.
Please note: I often reference Wikipedia.com as a second source for dates, locations and other information.
Join the Book Search
Please join in my continued search for information regarding From the Plantation to the Doctor’s Office by Dr. H. Roger Williams, published in the mid-1920s. Contact this great-granddaughter with any tips (from libraries, old media, elders and more — including psychic readers).
© 2026 Donna Battle Pierce and Great-Migrations.com. All photo rights reserved by Battle Family Archives.