TOP PHOTO: The National Pork Board recommends these sliders with your lager. BOTTOM PHOTO: Samuel Adams Winter Lager, in bottles, cans and on tap.

December 10th is National Lager Day; the entire second week in December is Lager Beer Week. Here’s a special slider recipe from the National Pork Boardto go with your lager.

The recipe combines the retro appeal of deviled eggs with the modern fondness for sliders, although the recipe makes an egg salad instead of a filling for hard-boiled egg white halves.

You can make the sliders for brunch, lunch or game day snacking.

Don’t like sausage patties? Substitute bacon, Canadian bacon or thick-sliced ham for the sausage. Don’t like cilantro? Use baby arugula or watercress.

Prep time is 20 minutes, cook time is 20 minutes.

RECIPE: SAUSAGE & DEVILED EGG SALAD SLIDERS

Ingredients For 8 Servings

 
*If you can’t find ready-made patties, shape 12 ounces of loose breakfast sausage into eight 3-inch patties. Or substitute bacon, Canadian bacon or thick-sliced ham.

1. PLACE the eggs in a medium saucepan and add enough cold water to cover by 1 inch. Set over high heat and bring to a boil. Cover, remove from the heat, and let stand 15 minutes. Meanwhile…

2. COOK the sausage patties in a large skillet over medium heat, until browned and cooked through (2 to 3 minutes per side). Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and cover loosely to keep warm.

3. DRAIN the eggs and transfer to a bowl of ice water. When cool enough to handle, peel and coarsely chop the eggs. In a large bowl, combine the chopped eggs, mayonnaise, chives, mustard and sriracha. Season with salt, taste and adjust seasonings as desired. Set aside.

4. ARRANGE the cilantro sprigs on the bottom halves of the rolls. Top with the sausage patties, egg salad and top halves of rolls. Add the optional olive or gherkin and serve.

NOW FOR THE LAGER

We’ll publish an article on winter beers on the first day of winter, but here’s an advance preview of winter lager. Numerous craft breweries make them.

The easiest one to find is Samuel Adams Winter Lager; but also look for Mustang, Wolverine, Stark and possibilities from y your local breweries.

You’ll also find “Christmas ale” or seasonal beers and ales from other brewers that are similar: brewed with winter spices (cinnamon, orange peel, maple syrup, nutmeg or whatever the brewer favors). A quick search turned up beers from Blue Moon, Brooklyn Brewery and Great Lakes Brewing Co.

Other beer types are also “wintrified,” including the fancifully named Abominable Ale from Hopworks, Old Man Winter White Ale from Southern Tier Brewing, Brrrr Red Ale from Widmer Brothers and Siberian Night Imperial Stout from Thirsty Dog.

But it’s National Lager Day. We raise a glass to the German and Bohemian immigrants who brought lagering to the U.S.A., which previously had only ale†. The first lager brewmaster appears to have been one John Wagner from Bavaria, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1840, carrying with him a supply of lager yeast. The rest is history.

†Yeast that enables lagering was not discovered until the 1700s, believed to have been unwittingly transported on a ship from South America. The written record on ale dates to ancient Mesopotamia.