Martha Stewart’s Trick for the Best Egg Salad (It's Genius)

You learn a lot watching an expert in their natural setting—not demonstrating to a class or audience, but just going about their business like it’s no big deal. Like the time I got to see Martha Stewart make egg salad—not on camera.

I did a short internship at Martha Stewart Living magazine in the late 1990s. I felt like a naive rube the whole time; every second of it, I was terrified. Martha could be mercurial. She had a knack for deflating people who worked with her, but she could also be pleasant and sociable. Whichever Martha you got, there was no question: She was in charge.

I worked in the magazine’s test kitchen, down the hall from her big, glass-fronted office. Martha was often away on set, but when she was in the building, you could feel it. Everyone was a little more on edge.

One day, she strode into the test kitchen, hungry. Lunch was typically made for her elsewhere, but she must have been in the mood to make it herself. “I think I’ll make egg salad,” she announced. Martha went on to make hard-boiled eggs and peel them (I’m unsure of the technique, as I was probably cowering in a corner). “Where’s your egg slicer?” she asked, as if expecting someone to answer.

Well. Amazingly, the test kitchen didn’t have one. We had a chocolate fork, a chestnut knife, and a wooden krumkake cone—but no egg slicer.

“I’ll just have to use a whisk,” Martha said. And that’s exactly what she did. Now, it’s how I do it, too.

How To Make Egg Salad With a Whisk

This method is faster than messing around with an egg slicer, and because the whisk covers more area than a fork, it’s better suited for batches using more than a few eggs.

Cook and peel the eggs as you normally would. Then—this is important—pat them dry. Otherwise they’ll slip and slide all over the place. I use a vintage linen tea towel, which is properly Martha, but a paper towel would do.

Put the eggs in a bowl that’s a little larger than you might normally use for egg salad. Grab a sturdy all-purpose whisk and use it to mash the eggs into bits. The initial mash is important; set the whisk smack dab in the center of an egg and press intently to break it apart. Do that for all of the eggs one by one. 

Then just keep mashing until the egg whites are in bits small enough for your egg salad. Proceed to make your egg salad as usual. I do mine with a dab of mayo, a squirt of yellow mustard, and a tablespoon or so of pickle relish. I don’t remember what Martha put in hers that day.

Why I Love This Method

Famously, Martha rose to prominence as a lifestyle guru through her fabulous parties and catering company. There in the test kitchen I imagined the Martha of yore, behind the scenes before some event, circumventing the needlessly meticulous egg slicer by using a whisk to make pounds of egg salad destined for topping canapés or filling tea sandwiches. 

Even though I own an egg slicer, I prefer using a whisk for egg salad. It’s direct, and I like the variety of shapes and sizes you get with the egg white bits.

More importantly, it’s incredibly satisfying to zero in on each peeled egg with my whisk and smash it apart with great intent.  

I think back on Martha making egg salad and how palpable her sense of purpose was, and still is. She doesn’t go halfsies on anything, and when confronted with a blockade, she just deals with it. A total pro.

Part of me imagines that were Martha to hear this story, she’d say “I’ve never made egg salad that way!” I can’t imagine how else I’d have come across this tip, though. Wherever it came from, it’s a good thing.