Piles of Bones

Another year, another spooky season here in the United States. Full of candy, horror movies, and colorful costumes, we sure do love to indulge in all kinds of ghostly debauchery come October. This tradition also includes fun recipes and food, a few of which we’ve shared here on the Test Kitchen!

This recipe uses activated charcoal to turn run-of-the-mill egg salad into a spooky mixture of bones and dirt. Yummy! Let’s put it onto a cracker with some poison mushroom garnishes and serve it to our children and friends and hope they don’t question your cooking abilities.

The base recipe for egg salad is great because it gently cooks the eggs without really ever boiling them, lending a tender white and a set yolk. By removing them from the hot water and setting them in ice water, you stop the cooking princess in its tracks, while also making the shell easier to peel away.

Once you’ve shed the shells, a Nakiri knife makes quick work of the naked eggs. Separate the whites and the yolks into a bowl, followed by some classic egg salad accouterments. The secret ingredient is activated charcoal, the amount added depends on how dark you want it.

Activated charcoal is made from peat, coal, wood, coconut shell, or petroleum and is made by heating charcoal in the presence of a gas. This process causes the charcoal to turn pitch black and develop lots of internal pores which give it the ability to trap chemicals.

These pores in activated charcoal are commonly used to treat poisoning, funny enough. Some holistic healers also use it to treat high cholesterol, hangovers, and upset stomach, but there is no strong evidence to support these uses. It’s a great ingredient to help cleanse the body of all the candy you might be consuming!

That being said, activated charcoal is a fun ingredient because it can turn things a dark color, which we have done in another Test Kitchen recipe. If you have your hands on some, try playing around with it to see what else we can dye black!

Use your Nakiri to chop the egg whites into uneven bite-sized pieces to resemble bone fragments for a spooky appearance. The last thing to do is make some red radish mushroom garnishes.

To make the red radish ‘mushroom’ garnish, carefully shave the top root and bottom portion from the radish. On the top half of the radish, gently graze small circles in the skin to give it a dotted appearance.

Gently press the knife into the bottom half of the radish and rotate around, being sure not to cut all the way through. Gently cut through the bottom half of the radish to the round cut, revealing a square-shaped stem. This might take a couple of tries but it’s pretty easy once you have the hang of it!

All that’s left to do is assemble the piles of bones by spreading the black mixture onto some crackers, we used crunchy rosemary crackers. Top the ‘bones’ with a mushroom garnish and a few pea tendrils, micro greens, or parsley leaves. This is meant to represent that the bones are circling to a new phase as they return to the earth.

This is a unique recipe for the season but fear not, it’s all for fun! There are many Halloween recipes out there and this was one that we thought could make some people smile. Enjoy, IF YOU DARE.

Piles of Bones

These spooky bites may appear toxic, but they are completely edible! Egg salad naturally tinted with activated charcoal gives the appearance of bones popping out of the dirt. A fun Halloween appetizer to scare others into thinking you can’t actually cook.

Recipe and Photography by Sam Burgess

Forge To Table Knives

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Servings: 12

Ingredients:

• 12 large eggs

• ¼ cup mayo

• 1 tablespoon softened butter

• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

• 1 tablespoon sriracha

• Kosher salt, to taste

• Black pepper, to taste

• 2-3 teaspoons of activated charcoal powder

• 12 red radishes

• Crackers, as necessary

• Pea tendrils, microgreens, or parsley leaves

Directions:

1. COOK EGGS. Place eggs in a large saucepan and cover with cool water. Transfer to stove and heat on high until water begins to boil. Once boiling, remove from heat, and cover with a lid. Allow eggs to sit for 17 minutes, drain eggs, and transfer to an ice bath to cool quickly.

2. SEPARATE YOLKS. Once room temperature, remove the shells from the eggs. On a cutting board, slice each egg in half, placing the cooked yolk in a medium bowl and the cooked egg white back onto the cutting board.

3. MIX YOLKS. Add mayo, softened butter, dijon mustard, and sriracha to the egg yolks and mix vigorously until homogeneous. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Carefully add 2 teaspoons of activated charcoal, and mix thoroughly. If the color isn’t dark enough, add 1 more teaspoon to dye it darker.

4. FINISH MIX. Use your Forge To Table Nakiri to chop the egg whites into small bite-sized pieces. Fold the egg white into the yolk mixture.

5. GARNISH. To make the red radish ‘mushroom’ garnish, carefully shave the top root and bottom portion from the radish. On the top half of the radish, gently graze small circles in the skin to give it a dotted appearance. Gently press the knife into the bottom half of the radish and rotate around, being sure not to cut all the way through. Gently cut through the bottom half of the radish, revealing a square-shaped stem. This might take a few tries but it’s pretty easy once you have the hang of it!

6. ASSEMBLE. Assemble Piles of Bones by spreading some of the egg mixture onto a cracker, followed by a radish ‘mushroom’, and some pea tendrils or another green herb. Enjoy, IF YOU DARE.

Chef’s Notes:

• The mix makes about 1 quart of egg salad.

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