I am on a quest for the perfect egg salad sandwich
I could make it, with the better half's oatmeal honey whole wheat bread, a little bit of mayo and way too much onion
or there's this bakery near Pasadena, whose name I forget, which makes a near perfect nutty whole grain bread...
or, sigh, Gayle's!
but, that is not my quest: it is to find the perfect grab'n'go egg salad sandwich
real mayo, but no so much it is runny, eggs and onion
gentle use of herbs and spices, maybe
and the bread must be good, firm and hold the salad
lettuce in moderation may be tolerated
oh, and one that is reliably fresh and doesn't give you salmonella poisoning...
I know, picky
from a grocery store, deli or university caf'
the closest contender, so far, is the egg salad on black rye at the Evanston Whole Foods
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A worthy quest. I'm afraid I can't help in your immediate circumstances, but I can offer some ideas.
For "basic" egg salad, I'd supplement the mayo and onion with just a bit of Dijon mustard and fresh ground black pepper.
Variants that I've found worth doing more than once:
- add a modest quantity of either chopped green olives or capers or good dill pickle.
- add a quite modest amount of either finely chopped sweet green pepper or finely chopped jalapeno.
- add real bacon bits.
- substitute a bit of fresh ground horseradish for the mustard.
- use a sparing amount of a good garlic vinaigrette instead of mayo.
Nothing should be added in such quantity as to hide the basic goodness of the egg.
black pepper definitely
mustard, to suit the occasion - I think something more exotic than dijon, maybe a nice artisan white wine mustard
capers are generally an abomination to be avoided
I know some people who like olives
pepper or jalapeno might be interesting, but then it's not really an egg salad any more now is it...?
bacon works, when you're in the mood
ooh, got to try the horseradish, good one!
I like mayo, preferably home made, though that is excessive work most of the time
On the mustard, I was being rather generic saying Dijon -- meaning that lesser mustards were not acceptable at all. I have a lovely Champagne dill mustard that would work well.
Please note that I specified "quite a modest amount" of green pepper or jalapeno. Just enough to add some zest -- no more than 1 teaspoon full to 4 eggs worth of salad.
And yes, homemade mayo is really the way to go if you have the time. BTW, I'm not sure if Cain's mayo is available either in PA or CA (it's a New England brand), but it's the only commercial mayo I've ever found that is made using only egg yolks, the way it's supposed to be made.
Try The Masters concession stand in Augusta, GA. Will set you back $1.50. Oh, and you can catch a little golf too.
The best egg salad sandwich I've had comes from Chick & Ruth's Delly, Annapolis MD. Yes, it's spelled Delly. I may have been unduly biased by the wonderfulness of the kosher pickles. Only a few hrs from State College.