Pimento Cheese vs Egg Salad – which is better?

It’s the one thing you need to tick off your bucket list when you come to Augusta National. Problem is, you might not like it. But needs must.

Nobody comes to the Masters and doesn’t try the traditional Pimento Cheese sandwich. Dubbed the Caviar of the South by southern foodies, this is iconic grub of patrons at Augusta National.

The other, much-less hyped sandwich on offer here is the humble Egg Salad. Its recipe is fairly self-explanatory. Not so with its more famous cousin.

Both cost $1.50 and come in green plastic, so that any careful dropping of litter will (hopefully) blend in with the surroundings.

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I’m told the pimento cheese supplier at Augusta National changed a number of years ago and so the recipe was altered slightly. Despite the full list of ingredients being listed on the packet, they’re quite tight-lipped on how the sandwich is made.

So which one is better? Well, here’s a very scientific comparison:

PIMENTO CHEESE

Ingredients: Extra sharp cheddar cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, onions, cream cheese, pimentos, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, salt, water, sugar and mayonnaise.

Taste: Questionable at best. Must be a local delicacy thing. Maybe it’s Augusta’s answer to Haggis. You either like it or loathe it, and I’m with the latter. To me it tastes a bit sickly. I’ve still yet to finish one. It’s not particularly bad, it’s just a little underwhelming.

Rating: 5/10

EGG SALAD

Ingredients: Eggs, mayonnaise, distilled vinegar, salt, spice, plus 0.05% potassium sorbate (preservative), whatever that is.

Taste: When you’re standing overlooking Amen Corner with a beer in one hand and an Egg Salad sandwich in the other, it is impossible to think life could get any better. Actually, it could, because at $1.50 you could probably stretch to two Egg Salad sandwiches and you’re in heaven. For me, a proper egg salad sarnie needs white bread and an overdose of mayo and this has it.

Rating: 10/10