Trail Egg Salad
Egg powder cooked into curds, cooled, then bound with mayo packets and dijon. Lunch that eats like town food.
- calories
- 430
- weight
- 2.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 172
- protein
- 15 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 3 min
- cook
- 5 min
- total time
- 8 min
- water
- 100 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Lunch
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Whole egg powder | 1/3 cup | about two eggs worth |
|---|---|---|
| Mayonnaise packets | 2 packets | roughly 2 tbsp, the takeout kind |
| Dijon mustard packet | 1 packet | about 1 tsp |
| Dried celery flakes | 1 tbsp | |
| Freeze-dried chives or green onion | 1 tbsp | |
| Dried dill | 1/2 tsp | |
| Paprika | 1/4 tsp | |
| Salt and black pepper | a pinch of each |
Method
- Put the celery flakes and chives in your mug or pot with 2 tbsp of the boiled water. Let them sit five minutes while you do the eggs.
- Whisk the egg powder into 80 ml of hot water until there are no dry lumps. It will look like thin batter.
- Set the pot back on a low flame and stir constantly until it firms into curds, about two minutes. Pull it off before it browns.
- Let the curds cool. Ten minutes in a shaded pot, or set the pot in a creek if you have one.
- Break the curds up with your spoon, then fold in the mayo, dijon, drained vegetables, dill, paprika, salt, and pepper. Fold, do not beat.
- Eat with a spoon, or on crackers or a tortilla if you carried them.
Egg salad is a refrigerator recipe, so the trail version has to rebuild it from powder. Whole egg powder cooked into curds and then broken apart gives you roughly the texture of chopped hard-boiled egg, which is the only thing the dish really needs from the eggs. Cooling matters more than it looks: mayo folded into hot curds turns greasy and separates.
The rest is substitution. Fresh celery and green onion become dried flakes rehydrated in a splash of the same hot water, which gets back most of the flavor and none of the crunch. Mayonnaise and dijon travel as condiment packets, which are shelf-stable, portioned, and free at most delis. Salt lightly at first, since the packets already carry some.
Packing
Egg powder and all the dried vegetables and spices go in one small bag. Mayo and dijon packets ride in a side pocket so a burst packet does not soak the powder.
Variations
- A packet of hot sauce or a spoonful of relish covers for the missing crunch.
- Crumbled bacon bits or a foil packet of tuna pushes it past 25 g of protein.
- In cold weather, skip the cooling step and eat it warm. It is a different dish but it works.
https://domesticsuperhero.com/the-best-egg-salad-recipe