Home › Salads and Salad Dressings › Egg Salad with Sardine Mayonnaise
Egg Salad with Sardine Mayonnaise
Boil 8 eggs hard, throw them into cold water, peel, and lay on ice. Skin and mash to a paste 4 sardines, then rub them into 1 cupful of mayonnaise. Cut the eggs through the middle and arrange the halves on crisp lettuce leaves. Put 1 spoonful of the sardine mayonnaise on each half, and serve.
A cold assembly that depends entirely on the eggs being properly hard-cooked and thoroughly chilled before they are halved.
- Hard-cooking the eggsBring to a boil, cover and hold off the heat 10-12 minutes, then into cold water as the recipe directs. The cold plunge firms the white and helps the shells release; the rest on ice, which here comes after peeling, is for chilling only.
- SardinesUse oil-packed sardines, drained; skinless and boneless tins save the skinning step. Four fillets is roughly 2 oz of fish, which is enough to flavour a cup of mayonnaise without turning it grey and grainy.
- Mash to a pasteWork the fish through a sieve or crush it with a fork against the side of the bowl until no fibres remain, then beat it into the mayonnaise a little at a time as the recipe directs.
- "1 spoonful"A rounded teaspoon per half is about right; a cupful of dressing is generous for 16 halves and the surplus is worth thinning with lemon juice for the lettuce.
- MayonnaisePeriod recipes of this kind generally assumed a freshly made raw-yolk mayonnaise. Commercial jarred mayonnaise is made with pasteurised egg and is the practical choice here, since nothing in the dish is cooked after assembly.
- SeasoningThe original adds none. Sardines carry their own salt, but a little lemon juice and cayenne or a few drops of vinegar keeps the dressing from tasting flat and oily.
- Holding and yieldServes four to eight depending on whether it is a first course or part of a cold table. Keep refrigerated and dress the halves no more than an hour before serving, or the mayonnaise slackens and slides.