Can you serve wine with your Easter eggs?

Well of course you can, but it will not taste that great.  Not if we are talking about hard boiled eggs and especially not with red wine.  Now that Easter is here I am reminded how hard it is to pair eggs with wine. Eggs have so much savory umami flavor and also contain a lot of sulfur which creates an almost metallic taste in your mouth when paired with wine.   

But there are things you can do to mitigate the problem and create a nice meal.  You can add something with fat or acidity and you will change the flavor experience entirely.  For example, Eggs Benedict are topped with sauce hollandaise which creates a flavor mix that pair well with wine.  Sauce béarnaise or mayonnaise will do the same trick.  Another approach is to add pan fried mushrooms, onions or melted cheese to your egg dish to add fat and acidity. This can be successful when doing deviled eggs where you can use a number of different toppings.  And for wine pairings, depending on how much cooked eggs you have in your meal you should stay away from the most tannic red wines and go with white wines high in acidity. Or maybe some festive bubbly with your Easter buffet?  Champagne and other sparkling wines will make a nice pairing to start off your meal.

You will probably also cook some lovely spring asparagus. Oops! Here is another food item which is hard to pair with wine. Asparagus contains a sulfur compound which makes tannic and oaky wines taste metallic. So you would not want a red wine or an oaky Chardonnay. Stay with the bubbles or a Sauvignon Blanc. You can also use the same trick and add a creamy sauce or melted cheese to the asparagus and it will cut back the metallic taste phenomenon.

On to the lamb steak and time to finally bring out the Cabernet Sauvignon.

Happy Easter!