In search of Chicago's good egg salad sandwiches

I was in New York last weekend and had lunch at Eli Zabar's E.A.T., where the egg salad sandwich on pumpernickel has been thought by many to be the finest example of the genre in the world. I don't disagree, although at $16 it had better be at or near the top. There's nothing overly fancy about it, just the egg salad and the bread, which is the way I prefer it--no lettuce, tomato or anything else (though for $16, they might have thought to give you a parsley sprig on the side of the plate). I would describe the egg salad itself as tending toward the dry, less mayo-ey side, with a slightly pasty (in a good way) consistency, though still with some visible/mouth-feel-able chunkiness. There's was no real identifiable taste like onions/scallions, celery, or mustard or others of the typical ingredients--though I thought there probably had to be more in there than just the eggs and mayo.

But my question to the group is where you go here for egg salad that's a cut above. I've had pretty good versions at Brett's (Superior and Franklin location) and NY Bagel (North and Sheffield), but haven't ventured beyond these. Would appreciate any ideas.

I have one every now and then at Pittsfield Cafe on Washington in the loop or Ada's, and Lou Mitchell's. About $6. I also had egg salad on a bagel at NYC bagels on North and Clybourn, but you have you rchoice of bread.

I love the egg salad sandwich at Goddess and Grocer. It's a good mix of mayo and dijon, and typically served on multi-grain bread, though you have the choice of other breads. I typically stay away from any salad mixed with mayo, but this I trust.
Goddess and Grocer
1646 N. Damen
773-342-3200

Sorry, my mind cannot fathom paying $16 dollars for a sandwich that I can make at home for less than a buck. There's plenty oftimes when I am wiling to pay for food but egg salad (and grilled cheese) are not one of them.

Tangent- I like my grilled cheese white trash style, for some reason, the cheapest American singles and the fluffiest bread make the best for me. Sure I can get artisinal sourdough with some bit of fromage from The Cheese Stands Alone that cost more than the last steak I bought but it's not grilled cheese to me.


Back to the OP, I think I'm gonna make egg salad for lunch tomorrow. No celery, no onions.

Octarine wrote:Sorry, my mind cannot fathom paying $16 dollars for a sandwich that I can make at home for less than a buck. There's plenty oftimes when I am wiling to pay for food but egg salad (and grilled cheese) are not one of them.

I like an egg salad sandwich as much as the next person ... but $16.

I was beginning to think I was the only person to put a limit on what one would reasonably spend on a meal.

Personally, I can get egg salad for $3.49/lb at Joseph's Marketplace and spend $0.50 on a roll and be very satisfied.

The $16 price is unjustifiable on every level, though I break it down something like this:

E.A.T. is a pretty cool place and it really is a great sandwich, so I think a base price of $8 would be totally warranted. It is on the Upper East Side, on Madison near the Whitney, so I would concede another $3 for being in one of the highest rent districts in the world. The remaining $5 is good old-fashioned gouging.

Disagree with the salience of the point about being able to make it at home for less than a buck. You can say that about almost any restaurant vs. home food, but so what?

If you think $16 is bad, there's always the $35 egg salad plate (though it comes with capers and toast points!) at Harry's Bar in Venice.

At the other end of the spectrum is the almost-refrigerated $3 packaged version at 7-11, which represents my nightmare-from-hell doomsday food scenario.

Olde School wrote:Disagree with the salience of the point about being able to make it at home for less than a buck. You can say that about almost any restaurant vs. home food, but so what?

There's some validity to what you say, but the thing about egg salad is that is so easy to make. I honestly think it is one of those dishes I could actually prepare blindfolded, and there are not many recipes I could say that about.

I second the Ada's suggestion, and also note that I love Kaufmann's egg salad. Tho neither approaches the egg salad my wife makes at home (even if I have to add my own celery seperately).

What I love best about LTHForum is the passion of the community for all things food, and the sometimes comically microscopic examination of a particular item or place. As such, I don't think it's quite right to think of any food as too lowly or any dish so easy to make that it doesn't merit discussion or is somehow deemed fungible. By this standard, we could all be pretty dismissive of hamburgers and hot dogs--and we're certainly not.

Seems there is a trend these days of having to pay exorbitant prices for food to NOT be stuffed with garbage.
That egg salad sammich - C'mon - How much did it cost to make? Were these the organic rose petal fed chickens who were massaged by swedish nurses and read novels to or something? I DARE someone to charge me $16.00 for an egg salad sammich - reminds me of the Miller High Life commercial where the guy REMOVES the beer from the restaurant. I HAVE to wonder if the folks at E.A.T. go in the back at closing and let out a hearty guffaw when they read the tape and look at how many of these
things they sold in the day.

My guess: They use decent bread, s&p, real mayo, and eggs that aren't rotten.
Same ingredients (more or less - ie onion, celery) everyone would use if they took the 10 min to make egg salad themselves. Most people are USED to bad bread, and cheap sugary mayo substitute, and fake meats.
So, when indulged with real food, the price is irrelevant. 16.00 for an egg salad sammich might not sound that bad - if you had no idea how to boil an egg, and you were brought up on subway and mcd's. I may be totally wrong, it wouldn't be the first time, trust me. I think I have offically turned into an "old coot!"

seebee wrote:My guess: They use decent bread, s&p, real mayo, and eggs that aren't rotten.

If Daniel Boulud made the sandwich, it would probably be quail eggs, shaved truffle, etc. It's not impossible to make an egg salad sandwich that could justifiably carry a $16 or even $60 price tag.

If you're at E.A.T and you really love egg salad sandwiches and know you'll have a good one, then by all means, just go for it. Olde School is right that plenty of dishes are easy to make but that doesn't mean we always make them at home.

Sure, you can question the restaurant's pricing integrity, but you could probably question its pricing integrity on every single dish. I wonder how much they charged for a BLT? That's much simpler to make than egg salad.

I'm an egg salad fan. I like it with not too much mayo (in other words, not drippy) and absolutely no onions/pickles/relish. Celery is fine...I can take it or leave it.

That said, about a year ago, I had a great egg salad sandwich at Brett's in Roscoe Village. It may have had some curry in it--the details are lost to time--but I remember raving about it to my dining companions, who were all chowing down on omelette, pancakes and the like. Ummm...thanks for mentioning egg salad sandwichs. I have a great loaf of bread and may have to make one.

The best ESS I ever came across in Chicago was at the Lake View Restaurant on Ashland just south of School. Alas, it is torn down and made into a condo building now.

chgoeditor wrote:That said, about a year ago, I had a great egg salad sandwich at Brett's in Roscoe Village.

Curry sounds like an excellent seasoning. When I make egg salad, I usually squirt in some wasabi -- same idea: an intense, high-personality flavor on an otherwise blandish platform.

Amazing. I've only been to Zabar's deli once, and thought the prices were New York high, but an $18 egg salad sandwich is definitely an eye-opener. However, it's not surprising given their breakfast menu -- $4 for a donut, $4.50 for a bagel and cream cheese, $7 for bread, butter and jam, $12 for scrambled eggs (a la carte), $14 for french toast, $8 for a side of ham and $14 for a side of whitefish salad. Of course, I always buy a bagel and schmear from the nearest street vendor, so what do I know?

>>Brent

David Hammond wrote:

chgoeditor wrote:That said, about a year ago, I had a great egg salad sandwich at Brett's in Roscoe Village.

Curry sounds like an excellent seasoning. When I make egg salad, I usually squirt in some wasabi -- same idea: an intense, high-personality flavor on an otherwise blandish platform.

Wasabi eggy is even better, somewhat predictably I suppose, with one of the Japanese brands of mayo that uses rice vinegar. Somewhat embarrassingly, a portion of my eating calendar when visiting Japan is spent on egg salad sandwiches for this very reason. Japan is also, not coincidentally, the only place in the world where I would ever consider eating a convenience store egg salad sandwich.

I've made egg salad a dozen different ways, but I find that a bit of lemon juice and the right amount of salt are the most important elements. Combine those two things with homemade mayonnaise and finely minced chive and you have the stuffing of a perfect sandwich.


What's interesting to me about this topic is how truly difficult it is to find decent egg salad. It almost uniformly blows wherever you go, perhaps because it's not usually made daily but in big batches that sit around forever. I'm not really sure why.

$16 for an egg salad sandwich in Manhattan? Does that come with chips and a dill pickle?

I have a friend who just paid $28 for a 4 oz. Martini in Paris, which seems outrageous to me, but then maybe I am just being provincial. Perhaps $16 for egg salad in Mahattan is not so uncommon?

Jules is correct--there's much that can take this seemingly simple, humble sandwich in the wrong direction, which is why it's hard to find one worth talking about.

If a provider who makes egg salad in bulk does not have the requisite customer volume, they end up sitting with a less-than-fresh offering that sometimes has a slightly greenish cast and crust. The sunshine yellow vibrancy is gone. I've seen this at NYC Bagel a few times--whose product I think is great--and had to take a pass. On the other hand, bulk preparation (say in the early morning hours before lunch) allows the mixture to mellow and properly absorb the flavors. This is one of the issues with home preparation--typically people make it to be eaten immediately (I'm getting in the mood right now), which doesn't give you the three or four hours of flavor and ingredient unification in the refrigerator.

I've given in and am preparing egg salad this moment to "marinate" a bit in the fridge. Ingrd. incld.: expiration date eggs(old eggs are easier to peel), yellow mustard, Hellman's best, capers, salt, pepper. Eggs and capers are chopped to a consistency somewhere between fine and chunk-lite, light hand on the wet condiments so it spreads and isn't soupy, multi-grain bread. One of life's simple pleasures is mastering the perfectly-cooked hardboiled egg. And, from past threads I've seen elsewhere there are more variations than one would think possible. Mine(read: Julia's): eggs in pot with cold water to cover, bring just to the boil(over high heat), cover and remove pot from heat, countdown from 12 min., plunge cooked eggs into cold water, gently tap all along eggs with heavy spoon, roll gently between palms, peel. It's one of those ridiculously-easy preps that people like to make hard(so to speak).

sometimes a squirt of dijon instead of yellow
sometimes a splash of chipotle tabasco
if out of lemons, I'll do a shake of lemon pepper

Let us know how you do.

(I'm not certain that using mustard--especially salad style--is exactly right, since for some weird reason, my experience with it is that it takes it in a sweet direction).

Olde School wrote:Let us know how you do.

(I'm not certain that using mustard--especially salad style--is exactly right, since for some weird reason, my experience with it is that it takes it in a sweet direction).

It's not mustard that makes it sweet, it's the mayo. It goes as it always does...perfectly. I've been making egg salad(when the odd mood strikes) for years. Mine is a simple prep...the only way things ever go wrong is if I'm adjusting quantities for a larger number of eggs and I include too much mayo/mustard ending in gloop-city.

I love my egg salad on an onion bagel that has been split, spread with butter and fried in a frying pan. It's one of my supreme comfort foods.

Christopher Gordon wrote:

Olde School wrote:Let us know how you do.

(I'm not certain that using mustard--especially salad style--is exactly right, since for some weird reason, my experience with it is that it takes it in a sweet direction).

It's not mustard that makes it sweet, it's the mayo. It goes as it always does...perfectly. I've been making egg salad(when the odd mood strikes) for years. Mine is the best simple prep...the only way things ever go wrong is if I'm adjusting quantities for a larger number of eggs and I include too much mayo/mustard ending in gloop-city.

thought I'd mention the question of mustard(s): yellow(ballpark) mustard works well when expecting the innocuous ideal of mom's egg salad on white bread

dijon adds that (how you say in French?) but, can become the star attraction; egg salad is always about the mayo, imo

because I often add capers(to leaven unctuous mayo) I don't see the need to add a more acid component than the ubiquitous yellow

I know I am a little late on this one,and can't even answer the original query, but I gave up on hard boiling eggs. I bought a Salton egg cooker. Perfect eggs every single time without fail.

Louise wrote:I know I am a little late on this one,and can't even answer the original query, but I gave up on hard boiling eggs. I bought a Salton egg cooker. Perfect eggs every single time without fail.

I've always used the Julia method that CG mentions above. Fool-proof (and no special equipment needed).

As far as sandwiches go, I'd give France's Deli a try. I've enjoyed their egg salad (and I love their potato salad and latkes). The sanwich is $7.95 but you'll get fries, potato salad, or a latke with it.

Best,
Michael

France's Deli
2552 N Clark
773 248 4580
http://www.francesdeli.com/

Funny - I've always thought of that as the Craig Claiborne method of cooking eggs

I know chain restaurants are kind of taboo here, but my favorite egg salad sandwich is at Johnny Rocket's in Old Orchard Mall. It's become something of a tradition, after Sparky sees his dentist there; we visit the various kid-friendly spots, and then dive into an American classic: plain egg salad fist-high (I don't think there's any vegitation in it, but possibly it has a hint of mustard) on plain toasted white bread with a big slab of iceburg lettuce. Chips on the side.

I consider it the only place and manner where I voluntarily consume iceburg lettuce. (all those years of horrible Argentine salads, you know)

-As far as cooking the eggs-I use Escoffier-eggs in cold water, bring to boil and let boil for a 10 minutes-plunge into ice water. Peel quickly and they will peel quickly. Works fine as does Julia's method. Some say salt the water for easier peeling.
-A word of warning though-you will wind up with horrible heartbreak if you use either method for a huge amount-like for a big picnic. The large amount of water takes awhile to boil, and yet before the boiling point it is plenty hot to do enough cooking- resulting in sulpher-gray-yolk syndrome. (Perhaps this is what has happened to Louise?)
-For the salad: I say use good mustard, mayo,chopped garlicky dill pickle, and fresh tarragon along with sweet onions, celery, tabasco, and lots o' fresh ground black pepper. Let's live a little... they'll be feedin' us plain crushed eggs mixed with mayo & yeller mustard on white bread in the nursing home.

I vote for that last line to be the next banner quote.

So I'm curious how many people made egg salad after reading this thread. I did, but had one problem...I usually follow Joy of Cooking's recipe for hard-boiling eggs (allow them to simmer for about 12 minutes). I tried the Julia method, and didn't like how my eggs turned out. I used Rose Acres eggs, and when peeling them, the membrane just wouldn't separate from the white. So peeling them was a pain in the neck, because I was really just removing tiny little shards of shell and a lot of the white stuck to the membrane as I peeled. It's a good thing I wasn't making deviled eggs because these eggs were not presentable!