The Sweet Addition Your Egg Salad Has Been Craving

Egg salad is the epitome of flavorful simplicity, a creamy, savory dish that's satisfying without being overly complex. Despite the near perfection of this iconic sandwich staple, there is room to make it even better. There are dozens of ways to upgrade egg salad and one of these involves a taste you might not associate with this savory eggy dish: maple syrup.

Before you picture a dessert-like, saccharine-sweet take on egg salad, let's get one thing clear: We're talking just a touch of sweetness here, a smidgen that rounds out the savory notes of the eggs and mayonnaise. In fact, if you've eaten a lot of egg salad in your time, you've likely already had it with a teaspoon or so of granulated sugar mixed in to accomplish that very feat. That harmony is what maple syrup contributes while adding a little something extra. Unlike sugar, maple syrup's distinctive flavor adds warm, caramel-like notes that bring a delightful depth and complexity to a dish that doesn't have to be straightforward to be enjoyable.

Experimenting with quantities and taste-testing as you go is a great way to ensure your egg salad has the perfect amount of maple syrup. For a starting point, remember that maple syrup isn't as sweet as sugar, so you might start with 1 tablespoon per six eggs and see how that works for you. Sharing her Chinese mother's recipe for egg salad, Kat Lieu of Simply Recipes suggests 1 tablespoon of syrup per 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise and describes this ratio as producing a subtle sweetness.

The type of maple syrup you choose can also impact how it will taste in your egg salad. There are four classes of maple syrups, each named for its color and flavor. Butternut Mountain Farm offers an Amber Color With Rich Taste option, as well as an option with a Dark Color With Robust Taste, the latter of which is a best seller on Amazon. Either of these would be a great option for enhancing egg salad.

When incorporating the maple syrup, you can mix it in with the rest of your ingredients as you typically would, or you can mash it into the yolks with the other liquid ingredients and spices in a deviled egg salad recipe. And at last, for the biggest impact on flavor, try swapping in Kewpie mayo instead of regular and serving the resulting deliciousness on unbelievably fluffy Japanese milk bread.