[Sca-cooks] Devilish Derivations

[kingstaste at mindspring.com]

Revisiting the discussion from a few weeks ago:

Also sprach Huette von Ahrens:
>spices or condiments.  Theodora FitzGibbon (1976)remarks, however, that
'Boswell, Dr. Johnson's
>biographer, frequently refers to partaking of a dish of "devilled bones"
for supper', which
>suggests an earlier use.  The term was presumably adopted because of the
connection between the
>devil and the excessive heat in Hell.

>One of the British savouries which was popular for a time bore the name
Devils on Horseback and
>consisted of prunes stuffed with chutney, rolled up in rashers of bacon,
placed on buttered bread and sprinkled with grated cheese, and cooked under
the grill.  The absence of cayenne pepper or other hot condiments suggests
that in this instance the word 'devil' was introduced as a counterpart to
'angel' in Angels on Horseback rather than the sense described above.
>****

Some of those cayenne-free "deviled" dishes, such as the aforementioned
deviled bones, are made, as with deviled eggs, with mustard as the source of
"heat". Deviled bones are basically leftover
beef rib roast bones with a little meat left on them, brushed with hot
mustard, dusted with crumbs, brushed with a little melted butter, and
browned under a broiler
Adamantius


I just saw an Iron Chef with oysters as the theme ingredient.  Sakai made a
devilled oyster sauce with mustard as the deviling agent.  It does seem that
the use of heat in whatever form, cayenne, mustard, other peppers, high heat
cooking methods, all earn a dish the 'devil' in the name.
Christianna