Jammy Egg Salad Will Revolutionize Your Lunch Game

Yes, you read that correctly — jammy egg salad. To clarify, this does not mean the combination of fruity jam and creamy egg salad should get a spot in your sandwich rotation. What we're actually referring to is enhancing egg salad by giving it a jammier texture. There are many mistakes people make with egg salad, but one of the biggest is thinking they have to settle for a final dish that is clumpy, overly mayonnaise-heavy, and off-smelling. Egg salad sandwiches are delicious — and have an unfairly maligned reputation — but possess the potential to be a treat people crave and look forward to eating. 

The secret to achieving a jammy consistency is in the cooking time. The harder you hard-boil an egg, the more chalky and sulfuric the final product will become. By boiling the eggs for only 10 minutes, you'll reach the magical stage between hard- and soft-boiled, where the yolk will be pillowy and have a richer color. 

Keep two things in mind: Try to use fresh eggs and immediately transfer them into ice water after the boiling stage. Fresher eggs have tastier yolks, which is the goal in a jammy egg salad because they will be more pronounced. Dunking eggs in ice water after boiling arrests the cooking process and prevents them from inadvertently continuing to cook into the hard-boiled stage.

Now that your eggs have the correct yolk consistency, it's time to start thinking about how to make the perfect egg salad. There are many schools of thought, but the Japanese approach to egg salad synergizes with this style. Across the Pacific, they use a higher ratio of yolks to egg whites. This is accomplished by separating the yolks and whites to reduce how much of the latter gets added. 

While this is undoubtedly more effort and requires extra eggs, the result is a velvety smooth egg salad that lacks the chunky quality of most you've probably tried, due to it having fewer egg whites. Great egg salad also needs a bit of acid, which Kewpie mayo from Japan provides in abundance. This makes it the ideal binder to bring the egg salad together. When mixing the ingredients, it's vital to thoroughly break down the solids so that it comes out looking like a thick, creamy scrambled egg. 

Finally, don't skimp on the seasoning — especially salt. Along with salt, plenty of black pepper and a bit of red-colored seasoning — usually either chili powder or smoked paprika — should be added to the mix. Once the egg salad is perfectly jammy, what to do with it is entirely up to you: Put it in a sandwich, spread it on toast, or feed some to the nearest egg salad-denier and watch their eyes light up. The choice is yours!