Plain Jane Homemade Egg Salad

egg salad lede

People who don't cook say they "can't even boil water." People who do cook say that boiling eggs is a hard task to master. Both groups should be happy to know that instructions for successfully boiling eggs abound on the Internet, and that once they master the task they can eat like kings and queens - as long as they like egg salad, of course. In this house we do love egg salad but only the plain-jane kind that I grew up with. You may add celery or relish to yours, and you may like a spot of mustard. When I was a kid it could only be served on white sandwich bread, but nowadays I like it on whole-wheat toast - the nuttier the better.

If you're like a lot of households you've just recently boiled, colored, hidden (and maybe eaten) several dozen eggs for Easter. I love cold, hard-boiled eggs for snacks (sprinkled with a bit of sea salt), and my mama always made hard-boiled eggs for breakfast when we were having toast with gravy. Making egg salad is a great way to use up the colored eggs that you kept in the fridge. (I wouldn't recommend eating the ones that you took outside to hide over and over again!) Nothing beats a fresh egg-salad sandwich, alongside a cold dill pickle and a bag of plain potato chips. It's picnic food at its most simple, and bonus: it's easy on the pocketbook.

Tell me: How do you like your egg salad?

Plain Jane Homemade Egg Salad
By Confabulation in the Kitchen

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6 to 8 eggs
3 to 5 tablespoons mayo
1 to 2 teaspoons white vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Boil eggs and let them cool for easier peeling.
2. Put eggs in medium-sized bowl and mash. A fork always works for this step, but if you're trying to create double-duties for your kitchen gadgets try your pasty blender.
3. Add 3 tablespoons of mayo to bowl. (In our house it can only be Duke's brand). Stir carefully with a large spatula so that you maintain chunks of egg white and don't break up the yolks. If you like the consistency now you're done. If you want it creamier add more mayo, 1 tablespoon at a time.
4. Add 1 teaspoon vinegar, salt and pepper. Taste. If you like it, it's finished. If you want more vinegar (and I like mine a bit more tart) add another teaspoon at a time, tasting as you go. (At this point you can also add in your extra ingredients, such as relish, pimiento, celery, hot sauce, onion or chives, diced ham or shrimp, paprika or even curry! Get creative, or go the simple route like me.)
5. Serve on crackers or bread of your choice. (I've also been known to make lettuce rolls with it.)

Tips and tricks:

* Do not boil eggs that have tiny chips and cracks in the shell; doing so will result in green yolks.
* Don't add salt to the water; doing so will result in rubbery egg whites.
* Use eggs that are at least 3 days old; fresh eggs will be harder to peel.
* Bring your eggs to room temperature before peeling, which makes them less likely to crack in the boiling water.