Can an egg and cress sandwich £6?* ever be worth

* That’s how much M&S was charging this week – until it knocked a pound off after the Mail came calling...

THE humble egg sandwich has been a lunchtime staple for more than a century and, according to a survey this week by Hovis, almost a fifth of Brits say it’s their favourite sandwich.

It’s amassing a younger fanbase, too: statistics show that social media mentions of ‘egg sandwich’ have increased by 49 per cent in the past year, and on TikTok — the platform of choice for trendy foodies — recipe videos for egg sandwiches total 169 million.

Now M&S is jumping on the bandwagon, with a ‘posh Egg Mayo and Watercress’ which they launched for an eye-watering £6.

Deep-filled with creamy egg mayonnaise, enriched with salad cream and fresh chives, with an extra layer of sliced free-range egg, baby watercress and rocket leaves, it’s sandwiched together with thick slices of wholegrain bread (nine grains, to be precise).

The price alone caused such a furore this week — with shoppers wondering how M&S can justify charging so much and what makes it different to its bog- standard ‘Egg and Watercress’ sandwich, which costs just £2.50.

Thanks to the Mail voicing customer concerns, the store announced yesterday that the price has been cut to £5 with immediate effect.

A spokesperson highlighted the ‘luxurious’ mayo with its ‘richer flavour’ and dubbed the sandwich an ‘indulgent lunchtime option’.

They claim it’s a ‘customer favourite’ — and, sure enough, at my local branch of M&S, no fewer than five customers in front of me in the queue buy one for their lunch.

WHY do people love the retro combination so much? Helen Graves, sandwich expert (@ food stories on Instagram) and author of 101 Sandwiches, says there’s something ‘comforting’ about egg mayo, which explains why it’s never gone out of fashion.

‘ Normally sandwiches are all about contrast, but with an egg sandwich it’s pretty much all one colour and texture — it’s soft and delicious in your mouth,’ she explains.

‘ It’s an accessible sandwich. There’s nothing fancy or frilly about it.

‘Most people have eggs in the house, so it’s store cupboard-friendly and, unless you’re vegan, most people eat eggs, so it’s a crowdpleaser, too.’

Max Halley, founder of cult London restaurant Max’s Sandwich Shop, whose creations have appeared on the cover of Esquire, says the nation’s obsession comes down to ‘nostalgia’.

‘It’s embedded in our perception of British sandwiches,’ he adds. ‘ You know what you’re getting with an egg sandwich. It provides the same cosy feeling as sitting down for a boiled egg and soldiers on a Sunday night.’

Maybe I’ve had a series of bad egg sandwiches in my time, but I’ve never been a fan. My £6 lunch, even with its posh packaging and that OTT M&S description, looks squishy, eggy and not very nice.

The contents of the box, however, are a revelation. The sandwich halves are huge, a real handful, and the bread is thick, soft and smells freshly baked. Those nine grains, I learn, are sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds, malted wheat, millet, golden linseed, jumbo oats, malted wheat flakes and brown linseed.

As well as butter and green leaves, there’s a generous splodge of egg mayo and I can see chunky slices of hard-boiled egg, with sunshine-yellow yolks, that make up 39 per cent of the sandwich (compared with 36 per cent in the regular mayo one).

The moment of truth: my first bite. It’s like a mouthful of summer — tangy salad cream, rich salty eggs, pillowy bread and a citrussy freshness that comes from the crunchy rocket. M&S says that it contains 150g of mayo, egg and salad, but my scales reckon it’s more like 166g, which is a step up from 115g in the cheaper sandwich.

And the texture is a winner — the combination of velvety yolks and melt-in-the-mouth whites with the slightly chewy bread is satisfying. It’s filling, too: the pack weighs 280g, almost twice the average supermarket offering.

The sandwich comes in at 528 calories, with 5.1 g of fibre, 25.4 g of protein and 5.3 g — just over a teaspoon — of sugar.

My only problem is the price tag. I may have been won over on taste, but it’s hard to justify £5 let alone the original £6. So could I make a cheaper version, following the recipe as closely as possible, at home?

‘The bread needs to be soft,’ says Max Halley. ‘With super-soft bread — whether brown or white — everything stays in place when you pick it up to take a bite.’

I plump for M&S’s super-seeded loaf (£1.60), which contains at least six of the requisite grains.

Next: I buy six of their free-range eggs (£1.75) and, as per egg doyenne Delia Smith’s instructions, boil them for seven minutes. Once cooked, I cool them and peel off the shells. I chop four of the eggs, slice the other two. This should fill two hefty sandwiches.

To make the base for the egg mayo, I scour the M&S ingredients list and find salad cream, vinegar ( malt), lemon juice, mustard (Dijon) and chives.

Life’s too short to make your own mayonnaise, so I grab a bottle of Hellmann’s and add eight tablespoons to the chopped egg, along with a squirt of salad cream, a dash of each of the other ingredients, plus salt and pepper.

I spread half the egg mayo as delicately as I can on the bread and lay a whole sliced egg on top.

Finally, I grab a handful of M&S’s organic baby leaf rocket salad (£2.30 per bag) — and press the two halves firmly together.

Looks-wise, it’s sloppier than the original, but the taste is pretty identical. It’s not quite perfection, but it’s about as close as I’ll get with an egg sandwich.

And the cost? Even buying every single ingredient from M&S didn’t get me close to £6 per sandwich: mine came to £1.45, which feels fitting for the humble snack.

That’s the thing about egg sandwiches. They’re cheap, cheerful and unashamedly not posh — no matter what it says on the packet.

BEST OF THE REST

M&S Egg and Watercress Sandwich, £2.50

THE cheap alternative to the posh newcomer. It’s served on malted brown bloomer. The ratio of filling to bread is 1:2, so it’s not bountiful but a decent lunch.

3/5

Aldi Egg and Cress Sandwich with Mayo, £1.19 CHEAp-AS-CHIpS and no frills: just chopped egg, mayonnaise and a few token bits of salad cress. More than half the sandwich (55 per cent) is filling, but this makes the bread a bit damp.

2/5 Waitrose Egg Mayo and Cress Sandwich, £2.50

THIS offering is made from freerange egg, mayonnaise and salad cress, served on malted bread. It’s flavoursome and moreish.

4/5

Co-op Egg and Cress Sandwich, £1.75 GENErOuSLY filled, it looks more expensive than it is. The bread is soft and thick, and it comes in an attractive packet.

5/5

Tesco Egg and Cress Sandwich, £1.50

AS IT states on the packet, this contains ‘just egg and cress’. The cress tastes fresh and sweet. But there’s a liberal amount of mayo inside which overshadows the delicate flavour of the egg.

3/5 Morrisons Egg and Cress Sandwich, £1.50

WELL-SEASONED and handmade fresh, this sandwich is a cut above. There’s a punch of mustard in the mayo and the yolks are nicely yellow. 4/5