Tested: this is the tastiest (and grossest!) egg salad from the supermarket

They can try to fool us with trendy salads like chicken samba or Twents herb garden, but we still prefer spreading egg salad on our crackers and soft white rolls. We haven’t changed much, have we? We’re finding out which supermarket sells the tastiest egg salad and which one you’re best off steering clear of. And we’re doing it thoroughly: ‘You can throw this one at the ceiling, and it’ll stay stuck.’

It can go on a sandwich, on a cracker and, if you get hungry at night, straight into your mouth on a little spoon: egg salad. A classic, probably a best-seller in the range, so lately all kinds of exotic egg salad varieties have been developed. Surinamese egg salad, deviled egg salad, egg salad with sweet pepper—the clever people at a major salad brand think of it, and the smart folks behind the supermarket own-brand products follow. You can’t fool us, though; we’re sticking with plain old egg salad. Own-brand, supermarket, affordable—but which one tastes best?

Thick and creamy

The egg salads look the same at first glance, but the differences in taste are significant. Sour or slightly sweet, very thick and creamy or very mayonnaise-like and more liquid, large chunks of egg or tiny pieces, chives or no chives: there’s plenty of choice. We taste ten supermarket own-brand salads, bought at major supermarkets.

The price differences are also substantial: the most expensive salad is Plus’s free-range chive egg salad, which works out at more than 13 euros per kilo, while the cheapest comes from Lidl and costs just 4.30 euros per kilo. Not that you’d want to eat a kilo of egg salad, but the tubs aren’t all the same size: the smallest contains just 140 grams, while the largest contains 300 grams of egg salad.

The odd one out

The names on the packaging also vary enormously. There are egg-and-chive salads and egg salads, which, incidentally, also contain chives. We included a deviled egg salad—our mistake, but we might as well taste that one too. And there’s an egg salad that looks an awful lot like the Russian-style salads we tasted earlier. That becomes immediately obvious when we try it: this isn’t a salad for a cracker; it’s simply a little salad dish. And not a tasty one, either. Sorry, Plus, your Westland egg salad is no cause for celebration.

The same goes for Plus’s free-range egg salad with chives. ‘You can see the green bits, but I can’t taste them,’ taster Louise says. Bo isn’t happy with the texture either. ‘What a thick, tough salad. If you slam this against the ceiling, it’ll stay there.’ Dekamarkt’s barn-egg salad is also a disappointment: ‘Bland,’ says Rick. ‘Flat,’ says Bo. ‘And a little sour,’ says Sabina.

Cake?

Jumbo’s egg-and-chive salad is particularly odd. The salad isn’t fresh; it’s actually a little sweet. And combined with a thick, airy texture… ‘It’s like having a bite of cake batter in your mouth,’ says Rick. ‘Maybe there’s whipped cream in it,’ says Louise. ‘It’s sweet and creamy—really far too much.’

Large chunks

Fortunately, there’s tasty egg salad too. Vomar’s, for example. Their free-range egg-and-chive salad receives nothing but compliments. ‘It tastes like you could have made it yourself,’ says Rick. ‘Not too much mayo, and a lovely egg flavor.’ The large chunks of egg in the salad also go down well, and it’s salty enough.

The same goes for Lidl’s egg salad. Smaller pieces of egg than Vomar’s, but a lovely fresh taste. ‘This is exactly what I like,’ says Louise, spreading another cracker. And as the odd one out, the deviled egg salad also scores well. ‘More of a curry salad than an egg salad,’ says Sharon, quite rightly. Not many pieces of egg, but a deliciously spicy-sweet flavor, like the filling of deviled eggs.

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