The 5-Ingredient Egg Salad Served at Royal Tea

“Wow! This is actually really good egg salad,” my husband exclaimed before going back to his sandwich for another bite. It turns out that my past attempts at egg salad without a recipe (some mayo, salt, and pepper) had been a bit bland for my egg salad-loving partner.

So when I served him the same egg salad that is said to be served at royal tea, according to Cooking & the Crown by Tom Parker Bowles, I shouldn’t have been surprised that he was instantly in love with it. I was too, and it turns out that the egg salad fit for royalty isn’t hard to make and requires just five basic ingredients. Here’s how you, too, can make egg salad fit for royalty. 

How To Make The Egg Salad Served at Royal Tea 

In Cooking & the Crown, Parker Bowles shares this egg salad with a recipe for The Queen Mother’s Mayonnaise. While it looks delicious, I opted to use my favorite store-bought mayo, Duke’s, to cut down on the prep time. I did follow Parker Bowles’s directions to boil the eggs for just eight minutes before peeling and adding the other ingredients, which include white wine vinegar, Tabasco hot sauce, chopped chives, salt, and pepper. 

The recipe calls for mashing the jammy eggs with a fork before adding the other ingredients. While I was skeptical of this technique, mashing the soft-centered eggs gave the finished egg salad the dreamiest texture—creamy without being sticky or gloopy.

After mashing, just a few tablespoons of mayo and some dashes of vinegar and Tabasco are added to the eggs. At this point, you can season to taste with salt and pepper. After my husband’s proclamation, I finally dug in for my own first bite of this royal egg salad. It is creamy and tangy with just a tiny bit of peppery flavor from the hot sauce. I didn’t even miss having a crunchy ingredient like celery. 

Serving the Royal Egg Salad

If you’re going to serve this egg salad as tea sandwiches, Parker Bowles recommends buttered white bread as the vessel—the crusts removed and cut into “finger sandwiches.” Personally, I love two pieces of toasted bread for some contrast with the soft egg salad.

Because it has a fine texture, this egg salad could also double as a dip for hearty crackers (think Triscuits) or be served in halved mini peppers as a snack. It makes a small enough batch to make just two regular sandwiches or six finger sandwiches, so plan to double it if you want to serve this egg salad for afternoon tea. 

This egg salad recipe calls for simple ingredients but uses smart cooking techniques, like soft-boiled eggs and a fork for mashing, to make the most of them, proving that simplicity is best.