Cook's Illustrated

Exceptional Egg Salad

Published March 1, 1999.

First we figured out the perfect dicing method, then we tried mixing eggs with everything from buttermilk to cream cheese for the best egg salad.

The Problem

Egg salad is one of those simple, spur-of-the moment comfort foods that can easily go awry: Too much mayonnaise, too many onions, overly mashed eggs, overcooked eggs.

The Goal

Creamy, flavorful egg salad with perfectly cooked eggs and just the right amount of crunch.

The Solution

Dice the eggs to keep the salad from turning pasty. Combine with mayonnaise (our tasters dismissed ingredients such as cottage cheese, sour cream, or cream cheese as extraneous), lemon, mustard, red onion, celery, and parsley.

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