Not your ordinary, everyday egg salad (2024)

In the world of sandwiches, there are two types of people:

Those who love egg salad, and those who loathe it.

The haters have every reason not to like it: Too many egg salad sandwiches swim in mayo, smell sulfurous and taste downright bland. Worse still are the soggy plastic-wrapped versions you find in vending machines or refrigerated deli cases.

But to the haters I say: Think about the possibilities.

Recipes included with this story:

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Done well, egg salad is creamy and chunky, studded with piquant bits of pickle or sweet onion and chopped herbs. It's equal parts comfort food and hunger tamer. Served between slices of grainy, nutty bread, with crisp greens and sliced tomatoes nestled inside, it's retro food that stands the test of time, and one of my all-time favorite lunches.

And listen up, brown baggers: It's not hard to make. If you know how to properly hard-cook eggs and get the mayonnaise ratio right (less is better), you're on your way -- provided you zip it up with a few twists of freshly ground black pepper. The rest of the recipe is up to you, and there are plenty of ways to make it your own.

Hard-cooked, not overcooked

Great egg salad starts with properly cooked eggs. By which I mean not overcooked. You want the yolk to be firm and yellow but moist, with no greenish tint and sulfury smell -- a sign that the egg has spent too long in hot water.

My foolproof method goes like this: Place eggs in a medium saucepan, cover them with cool tap water and bring to a simmer. When the water reaches a low boil, pull the pan off the heat, cover it and set the timer for 8 minutes (10 minutes if you want the yolk to be a little more crumbly). Drain off the hot water and shake the pan a bit to give the eggs small cracks; this helps them peel more easily, which can be especially difficult with very fresh eggs. Fill the the pan with ice water; when eggs are completely cool, remove them from the pan and use immediately or store in the refrigerator.

I like my egg salad chunky, so after peeling the eggs I roughly chop them using a fork. If you want to go lighter on fat and calories, leave out a few of the yolks.

Mayo, but not so much

Mayonnaise is what binds egg salad together, but you don't need much. For six large eggs, start by mixing in 3 tablespoons of mayo, gently mashing it into the cooked eggs with a fork. Add more as needed if you want a moister texture. Or skip the mayo altogether and substitute plain yogurt, Greek-style if you can find it.

Now for the important part: mustard. A few teaspoons of the spicy brown or Dijon variety is all you need, just enough to brighten up the flavor. Instead of mustard, you could add a few drops of cider vinegar or a squeeze of lemon juice. Add a pinch of salt, taste and toss in more if needed.

Add spice, crunch, color

You could stop right there and have perfectly decent egg salad -- even one that haters might acknowledge as edible.

But what makes egg salad interesting are the other things you put in it, starting with seasonings. A pinch of curry powder, cumin or smoked paprika adds personality. And now that I've tasted plenty of versions, I'll never make another egg salad without adding chopped tarragon, cilantro or basil. Diced celery and/or onion -- red, yellow or green -- add both flavor and crunch. Capers and chopped pickles give it piquancy. And if you want to really go crazy, toss in some chopped apples or currants.

Ditto for what you put on an egg salad sandwich. The simpler the salad, the fancier the toppings should be. Lettuce is essential, and along with it I recommend some thinly sliced red bell peppers and a red-ripe tomato slice. A few pieces of smoky bacon stops just short of decadent. And to tilt your sammy toward the exotic, try a smear of mango chutney on the bread.

As for the sog factor that the anti-egg-salad camp points to, I can offer a few fixes, the first being to assemble the sandwich right before you eat it, or serve it on toasted bread. The egg salad itself can get watery after it sits for a while, though. To counter this tendency, make sure the eggs aren't overcooked, chill them well before chopping, and add a tablespoon of very fine bread crumbs to the salad.

With bread, lean toward seeds and grains

Your choice of bread can make or break an egg salad sandwich.

My personal favorite is something whole-grain and seedy but not sweet. Ciabatta bread (plain or olive) is a close second. Sourdough or a sturdy white sandwich bread are good choices as well. Plenty of egg salad lovers prefer their bread toasted. Sog factor aside, I'm not one of them.

Don't know which camp you fall into?

I suppose you'll just have to make some egg salad (be sure to offer a taste to a hater) and see.

Leslie Cole:

503-294-4069;

Perfect hard-cooked eggs

Place the eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water by about an inch. Bring to a gentle boil. Remove from heat, cover and let sit for 9 minutes. Drain but leave eggs in pan and shake gently to crack the shells a bit (this will make them easier to peel). Transfer eggs to a bowl of ice water for 3 to 5 minutes to stop the cooking. Use immediately, or refrigerate for later.

Take proper precautions when cooking eggs

With massive egg recalls across the country, one could reasonably wonder how smart it is to be gorging on egg salad sandwiches. The short answer: Fear not, but be smart.

The American Egg Board estimates that one egg in 20,000 may contain salmonella, a 0.005 percent contamination rate. While salmonella is destroyed when hard-cooked eggs are properly prepared, these eggs can spoil more quickly than raw eggs. After cooking, cool hard-cooked eggs quickly under running cold water or in ice water and refrigerate immediately. A hard-cooked egg, if kept in its shell, can be safely refrigerated for up to one week.

And when you pack a lunch to go, be sure to use an insulated lunch box with an ice pack if it will be left out more than two hours.

-- Leslie Cole

A good egg (salad)

What makes a great egg salad sandwich? We asked a few sandwich-savvy Portland chefs:

John Stewart, Meat Cheese Bread:

"It's the bread. We do ours on a (house-made) croissant. The egg salad itself is pretty simple; I think there's three ingredients. Ours has onions, and some Nueske's smoky bacon on top. I love it. It's like my favorite sandwich on the menu."

Ken Gordon, Kenny & Zuke's and Sandwichworks:

"Lots of mayo -- but I can eat mayo on kitty litter and it'd be fine. Good fresh eggs, and lots of moisture without it being wet. Ours is like a deviled egg salad -- we put mustard, horseradish, Worcestershire, hot sauce, mayo and green onion and salt and pepper. We actually serve an egg salad pastrami sandwich. It's killer."

Tommy Habetz, Bunk Sandwiches, Bunk Bar:

"The eggs should be cooked properly, not overcooked and sulfurous. Make sure it's well-seasoned, creamy and has a little bit of acidity; I like lemon juice. Mustard in egg salad is a really important thing. And it can't be too loose -- not too much mayo -- or else it squishes out. Freshen up the bread in some way, toast it, griddle it, throw it in the oven. Something like griddled country white bread would be a good way to go. Keep it classic."

-- Leslie Cole