The Fishy Ingredient Ina Garten Uses To Top Her Deviled Eggs

Deviled eggs are a tasty appetizer that can easily elevate any party. Put simply, they're a mixture of hard-boiled egg yolks and mayonnaise displayed in a halved, boiled egg white. But, there are countless other ingredients you can use to add different texture, flavor, and visual appeal to this classic snack.

Celebrity chef Ina Garten has a hack for everything, and she's known for her easy, elegant recipes. She takes her deviled eggs up a notch by adding one sophisticated ingredient: salmon roe. These fish eggs are also known as red caviar, but they're much less expensive than the upscale black caviar that comes from a sturgeon fish. Salmon roe has a salty, savory flavor that helps build on a dish, while its bright orange color visually enhances any recipe. Garten uses it as a garnish in her deviled eggs but also adds smoked salmon into the deviled egg mixture, along with creamy, rich ingredients like cream cheese and sour cream, to ensure the yolks are anything but ordinary.

Ina Garten's deviled eggs are ready in minutes, but they're far from the standard egg yolk and mayonnaise combination. In addition to smoked salmon, she chops up some chives for color. Once the egg yolk mixture is blended together then piped into the egg whites, the salmon roe gives these creations the final touch. Garten loves it for its flavor but also because of its bright, shiny appearance. "Otherwise, you have a lot of white on a plate," she says of her creamy deviled eggs.

Since salmon caviar is more readily available than black caviar, you can find it in most specialty grocery stores. Garten adds a dollop of the salmon roe to the top of each deviled egg as a garnish; it's not meant to take over the whole dish. Then, she finishes deviled eggs with a sprinkling of chives to complete the appetizer.