This Is the Only Mayo You Should Use for Egg Salad, According to 3 Chefs
It’s a brand with a century-old Southern pedigree.
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Egg salad can get a bad rap, but I’m not sure why. When made correctly, it’s creamy, rich, and savory—a perfect creation to pile between two slices of toasted bread. While there can be a number of other ingredients added to the dish, the most important, hands down, is mayo. If an egg salad isn’t up to snuff, it’s usually the mayo brand that’s to blame.
In order to whip up the very best egg salads for the rest of my sandwich-eating days, I reached out to three culinary experts to get their take on which mayo is the cream of the crop. Amazingly, they all said the same thing.
The Egg Salad Experts I Spoke With
Anne Byrn: Nashville-based food writer and author of Baking in the American South
Jenny DeRemer: Food writer, recipe developer, and creator of the Southern food blog Not Entirely Average
Chef Christopher Hensel: Private chef based in the Hamptons
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The Mayo That Chefs Like Best for Egg Salad
All three chefs agreed that Duke’s is the perfect brand for egg salad. “Especially now that eggs are more expensive than ever, you want to choose your mayo wisely,” says Byrn. The best one? “That would be Duke’s.”
This Southern brand has over a century of mayonnaise-making expertise. DeRemer describes the regional spin that the South Carolinian mayo brings to egg salad: “In the South, the use of Duke’s is not up for debate when it comes to luncheonette classics like egg salad. It’s practically a Southern heirloom at this point. Duke’s is the way to go if you want an authentic Southern-style egg salad because it aligns well with so many traditional Southern flavors.”
Why is it such a great fit for egg salad? Duke’s, says DeRemer, is “texturally in a league of its own.” Hensel explains that its “smooth, creamy consistency coats the eggs well.” She’s a big fan of Duke’s taste, too: “The sugar-free recipe gives it a signature vinegar-rich tang that other brands just can’t match.” Duke’s flavor, she argues, “balances the richness of the eggs, making the salad taste fresh and not too heavy.”
Unlike other commercial mayos, Byrn says, Duke’s is not too salty or too sweet. “It doesn’t steal the show,” he notes. “It blends like homemade into egg salad, deviled eggs, tuna salad, etc.”
In other words, Duke’s isn’t just for egg salad. With its unparalleled creaminess, Duke’s is DeRemer’s to-go “in ham salad, chicken salad, and even a five-ingredient mayo-based dipping sauce for chicken fingers.” Byrn relies on it for “tomato sandwiches in the summertime—just soft white bread, Duke’s mayo, peeled sliced homegrown tomatoes, and a sprinkle of salt, if you must.”
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