Ingredients
Method
- 1.Cooking the eggs
- Pot, eggs, water about an inch over the top, high heat, no lid. Wait for it to hit a full rolling boil, then turn the heat completely off, put the lid on, and just leave it. Don't adjust the heat, don't peek, don't worry about it. Thirteen minutes if your eggs are on the smaller side, fifteen if they're large. Then straight into a bowl of ice water until they're cold all the way to the center, which takes a few minutes. If your ice melts fast just throw in a few more cubes.
2.Now the peeling.
- The normal method one egg at a time, rolling it on the counter, peeling under a little running water works fine. It's also a little tedious when you're doing twelve at once. What I do now is put all the cooled eggs into a container with a lid, something that fits them without a huge amount of extra space, put the lid on, and shake it. Maybe fifteen seconds of actual shaking. When you open it up the shells have cracked all over and they basically slide off in big pieces. The membrane separates cleanly. First time I tried it I stood there for a second because it genuinely felt too easy.
- They won't look perfect coming out of there but it doesn't matter at all because you're about to mash most of them anyway.
3.Putting it together
- Four of the twelve eggs get chopped with a knife, real chunks, not fine. The other eight get mashed in a bowl, fork or hands, until they're almost like a paste. Smooth and uniform.
- This part is what actually separates deli egg salad from the version most people make at home. That mashed base is what holds the whole salad together so it doesn't fall out of the sandwich when you bite it. It's also what gives it that creamy, almost spreadable consistency that you recognize from behind the counter. If you just chop all twelve eggs you end up with something that tastes pretty similar but has a much different texture chunkier, looser, falls apart more. Some people like that. It's just not the deli version.
- Once the eggs are ready, add the mayo, mustard, vinegar, celery, green onion, and white pepper and mix everything together. Then taste it before you add salt. The mustard and vinegar are doing more work in this recipe than you'd think, and depending on your eggs you might want a little more of one or the other. Adjust now while you can still tell what's what. Then salt, stir, taste again. Salt does something specific to eggs when it hits them
- it pulls the whole flavor together in a way that doesn't happen earlier in the process. Don't skip it at the end.
- Cover it and put it in the fridge for at least a couple of hours if you have time. Three hours is enough to notice a real difference. Overnight is better. The flavors settle into each other in a way that just doesn't happen when it's fresh.