The Secret to Extra Creamy Egg Salad Has Nothing to Do With Ingredients

You really never know when you might stumble upon a new cooking hack that totally changes the way you look at a simple recipe. I thought I knew how to make egg salad perfectly well — until one of my favorite actors blew my mind with his twist on the traditional technique.

Eugene Levy is known for cracking us up with his comedy talents on TV and film, like his roles in Schitt’s Creek and A Mighty Wind. But a recent visit to The Kelly Clarkson Show proved he’s got some impressive skills in the kitchen, too.

His game-changing trick has nothing to do with the ingredients, but how you prepare your hard-boiled eggs. Instead of chopping them into chunks with a knife, use a grater to get much smaller bits. Levy admitted he can’t take credit for this tip, but picked it up from his mom. He told Clarkson, “If she saw me down here now, explaining her recipe to the world, then she would be loving this moment.”

You might not think such a small change would make that much of a difference, but after trying it myself, I can honestly say I’ll never make egg salad any other way.

Here’s what it looks like once you’ve grated the eggs:

The size of the eggy bits will obviously depend on what type of grater you have in your kitchen, but was pleased with the tiny ribbons of yolk and egg whites my hand grater produced.

Of course, everyone has their own preference when it comes to the ingredients in egg salad — for example, Levy and his former American Pie co-star hilariously argued over including relish while on the talk show (for the record, he’s against it).

That said, most recipes stick with classic mayo as a foundation. I usually try to use just a small amount to keep it from feeling too heavy. In my experience, Levy’s egg grating method makes that even easier to accomplish. The less chunky eggs blend together so much smoother and creates an extra-creamy result with just dollop or two of mayo.

Here’s how mine looks once it was all mixed up with the mayo, plus some salt, pepper, and a dash of garlic powder:

I promise this isn’t a picture of scrambled eggs, despite the lack of chunky egg whites making it difficult to tell the difference on sight alone. If you try it yourself, you’ll notice how the texture feels more whipped than traditional egg salad before you even take a bite. And if you’re like me, the melt-in-your-mouth creaminess will inspire you to say goodbye to the old chopping method for good!

This article originally appeared on our sister site, First for Women.