Egg salad

I never ate egg salad when I was growing up. Not even once. No one ever offered me any, and I’m sure if they had, I would have declined with disgust.

Even after I emerged from my egg-hating phase, I had no interest, although by then plenty of opportunity. Aside from its starring role in grade-school lunches, egg salad is a perennially popular sandwich filling at the ubiquitous English sandwich shop (under the name egg mayonnaise) where, adoring mayonnaise as they do, a sandwich filling has never yet been found that they didn’t believe couldn’t be enhanced by the addition of copious amounts of butter or mayonnaise. Possibly both. (How about on hummus with roasted vegetables? I kid you not.)



One day, apropos of nothing, I came across a recipe for warm egg salad in a vegetarian cookbook. It reminded me that, at my advanced age, I still hadn’t tried it. I filed it away in a back corner of my brain and moved on.

Another day, some time after that, I found myself in need of sandwiches to take someplace, and none of the usual suspects to put in them. But I did have eggs in the house, as always, just in case I suddenly needed to bake something. (I have a feeling that this is how egg salad became a sandwich filling in the first place.)

So I took a chance, and tried the vegetarian recipe.

Then I added bacon to it. And a new staple sandwich filling alla casa RL was born.

Chunky egg salad
Adapted (with apologies) from Entertaining for a Veggie Planet by Didi Emmons
This is good warm, as originally intended, but it is also good even when cold out of the fridge.

3 eggs
1 strip bacon
1 scallion
a generous sprinkling of salt
a pinch of cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp mayonnaise (even better if it’s homemade)
2 tsp Dijon mustard

Place the eggs in a pan of cold water; cover and bring to a boil. When water is just boiling, remove pan from heat and let sit, covered, for 12 minutes. Rinse eggs under cool water until cool enough to handle, and then peel. Place in a medium-sized bowl and mash roughly.

While eggs are cooking, fry up strip of bacon until crispy, about 3-5 minutes. Chop into small pieces and add to bowl.

Chop scallion and add to bowl. Season mixture with salt and cayenne; add mayonnaise and mustard and mix thoroughly, to desired consistency.

Makes 2-3 sandwiches. Can be multiplied.