Japanese Egg Salad Sandwich (Tamago Sando)
Japanese egg salad sandwiches are THE BEST. For one, they’re sweeter and richer than the American version and have a creamier texture. They’re also neatly compact and easy on the eyes, typically cut into triangles, and sold in convenience stores across Japan. Stuffed between two slices of fluffy Shokupan, aka milk bread, you can find these homey but irresistible sandwiches in every 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, and Lawson. Known as Tamago Sando in Japanese, their version of egg salad is made with mashed hard-boiled eggs, Kewpie mayonnaise, milk, sugar, salt, and white pepper between two slices of soft white bread.
When I spent a month solo-traveling Japan back in 2017, I practically lived off convenience store food for breakfast and after-dinner snacks. My refrigerators were always stocked with a Tamago Sando, tuna and mayonnaise onigiri, Daifuku Mochi, and whatever green tea snacks I could find. Needless to say, I was ballin’ on a budget.
All your base ingredients
Japanese mayonnaise, Kewpie, is sweeter, tangier, and more yellow than the American mayo version. Additionally, Kewpie tastes a bit like the kind of mayonnaise that you dip french fries into, and it’s packed with more umami than Hellmann’s for sure. Additionally, Kewpie uses only egg yolks, which is how it gets its distinct flavor and coloring, along with a bit of vinegar, whereas American mayo encompasses the entire egg in its recipe.
Shokupan is the bread of choice for this sandwich because it’s sweet and pillowy. Since the egg salad will be creamier and smoother because of the milk, your bread should also have this texture to achieve the full soft-as-a-cloud-like effect of a Tamago Sando. Moreover, it would be best to butter the inside of the bread so it won’t get soggy from the filling. The butter acts as a barrier that protects the bread, so remember not to skip this step when putting together your sandwiches.
Unless you enjoy taking steaming hot shells off your hard boiled eggs, use an ice bath to make things easier
Cut the eggs in half first and then smash with a fork, a mortar and pestle, or food masher until the eggs are crumbled
If you would like to have an egg in the middle of the sandwich for aesthetic reasons, I suggest you smooth the egg salad onto both sides of the buttered bread, with the whole egg side having more and the opposite side having less of the filling. Then, all that’s left to do is close the sandwich, slice off the crust, and cut the bread down the middle. It also helps to place a plate flat on top of the sando to get the sandwich nice and close-packed before removing the crusts.
Furthermore, I would cook my eggs for 8 minutes before removing them off the stove. If you want to put a display egg in the middle, maybe go a bit under 7 1/2 minutes but no shorter than that; otherwise, it will be a soft boil rather than a hard one, which I usually prefer, but in this case, wouldn’t use because the yolk would drip all over the sandwich.
When did Americans get so obsessed with putting eggs on everything? Case and point, eggs on eggs
I prefer the triangle cut but really it tastes the same no matter how you slice it
Ingredients
8-10 eggs
8 slices of shokupan (Japanese milk bread) or soft white bread
6 tablespoons of kewpie mayonnaise
~4 tablespoons of salted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons of milk
3/4- 1 teaspoon of salt (depending on your preference)
1 1/4 teaspoons of sugar
1/8 teaspoon of white pepper
(optional): 1 scallion, sliced thin for garnish
(optional): 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard
(optional): 1/8 teaspoon of onion powder
Instructions
Boil eggs for around 8 minutes. Remove and immediately place them into an ice bath to cool.
Measure the rest of your ingredients and set them aside
Peel the eggs and cut them in half inside a large bowl. Using a fork, mortar and pestle, or food masher, smash the eggs until crumbled
Add in the mayo, sugar, white pepper, salt, and milk. Mix until evenly combined
Butter the bread and smooth the egg salad on top. Gently press down onto the bread and remove the crust with a knife
Garnish with scallion and serve
