Potato Salad

Cafe Society
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I’ve got several small golden potatoes and a hankering for some potato salad. I love a good German potato salad, but unfortunately I’ve always had it from my aging (or beyond aging if you know what I mean) German relatives. Somehow I never followed them to see how they made it. I can always look something up on the web, but I’d prefer to have something someone can vouch for.

I can make a good American mayo/mustard based salad but I really don’t have a recipe… I just wing it. People seem to love it, but it never comes out the same way twice, so if anyone has a good recipe for this too I’d be happy to hear those as well.

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Very good User Name/Thread Title combination.

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Kinda cannibalistic, don’t you think?

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Freudian at best. Mashing up all the little Spuds so he can live once again the life of a carefree bachelor.

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At least it’s not Ida Ho.

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All I want to add to this discussion is pickles. Dill pickles.

(NOT sweet relish, ew.)

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Boil the spuds in the skins, then peel and cube. Add mayo, celery and red onion. Salt and pepper.

I know it’s not German, but it’s the best.

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My mom used to boil, cool, and peel the potatoes. After they cooled, she’d cube them and mix them with mayonnaise, season salt, a bit of dill, a little mustard powder (I hate how most potato salads are overpowered with either mustard or miracle whip/something nasty sugary) and paprika. Toss in some diced celery, green pepper, and chopped boiled eggs. I personally wasn’t fond of celery and green pepper so those wold always end up on the side of my plate.

It was always requested at holiday events by both sides of the family, it was amazing. I wish I knew the proportions of the ingredients but she always kept it in her head/winged it every time.

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for German style, start with about half a package of bacon. Cook it very slowly, on low. Just leave it in the frying pan for 20 minutes or so, then flip it over and do the same again. You want to render the bacon, so you can use the fatty bits for crunch but they won’t have that fat content that makes it get flabby in the fridge.

About half way through put your potatoes on to boil. I strongly prefer redskins so I can leave the skin on.

Remove the super extra dry and crispy bacon from the pan and drain it well on paper towels. You do not want little white drips of fat congealing on the bacon bits when you chill it!

Pour off most of the grease and reserve for making scrambled eggs tomorrow morning. There should be a small amount left in the pan along with lots of crispy bits to flavor the dressing. Add 1 cup of white wine vinegar, or a 1/4 up white vinegar and a cup of Rhine wine.

I sort of eyeball this next bit, but I add about a tablespoon of celery seed, and one or two caraway seeds. Go really light on the caraway or your salad will just taste like wet rye bread. But a grain or two will give it that distinctly German “tang.” Also cracked black pepper and about 1/2tsp of marjoram.

Heat that just until it starts to reduce, then take it off the heat. You’ll want to add in to the potatoes warm but not hot.

Chop some fresh celery and add it to the cooling dressing. It should be al dente (not crispy or soft, in between) in the salad.

Mix it all together and chill. Add salt and acid as needed. If you have good pepper, then you may want to add a bit more so the bright flavors are represented.

Please resist all recommendations to add raw red onions. If you must have onions then chop them finely and heat them with the dressing. If thy are raw they will mask the earthiness of the potatoes and wreck the whole flavor profile. (Not that I have any strong opinions on the subject. :stuck_out_tongue: )

Right before serving, crunch up the bacon and sprinkle on top.

It’s fairly easy to turn this into a full lunch by just mixing in some frozen peas.

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For American style, I usually mince up celery and green onions and a bit of garlic, some cut up pickles, put it all in a bowl, sprinkle it with dill weed, then add about a tablespoon each (or less) of cider vinegar and olive oil, some salt and pepper and a shot of mustard, and a couple large spoons full of mayo and let it all meld in there. While it’s soaking, I hard boil a half dozen eggs, cut up an appropriate amount of russets or reds into bite-sized pieces and steam until done. Cool and peel the eggs, cut up into nice pieces, cool the spuds, and add to the veggie mix. Mix gently. Adjust the mayo for consistency, taking care not to turn the taters into mush. Refrigerate.

The quantities above are vague, because it varies from time to time and you need to adjust for your personal tastes. I like the tartness of the vinegar, and it makes the salad taste a bit more like deviled eggs to me.

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After you peel and cube the potatoes, pour some melted butter over them and lit sit for about an hour. My MIL called this “lionized.” Found out not too long ago this part of the recipe comes from Lyons, France.

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For anyone wondering WTF? Note that it has nothing to do with butter, and everything to do with onions.

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A couple summers back I decided to try a different potato salad recipe each week. I just searched and made whatever sounded different. There was a curried potato salad and a mashed potato salad that were really good. One with minced Granny Smith apple incorporated wasn’t bad.

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…

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TruCelt has it right, but please, use red onions instead of celery :wink:

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Well, not in my part of town but, okay. I’m not a chef.

picks up antebellum gown and flounces off to the drawing room

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Don’t forget the cayenne pepper at the end!

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I wish I had gotten my mom’s recipe. She made the best potato salad. I did ask her once, but she didn’t use a recipe. She just made it. This sounds a bit like the made she made it. A couple of things, though: She would not have used cider vinegar or olive oil. I doubt she used garlic, and I’m pretty sure she used regular onions. She did use hard-boiled eggs though, which I find are missing in other potato salads. I suspect she used Miracle Whip instead of mayonnaise. I don’t remember mayo in the house until I started using it in my late teens. Mom said her ‘secret, ha ha’ (she said the sarcastic ‘ha ha’) was that she soaked the mustard seeds in white vinegar. She didn’t say how much vinegar or how many mustard seeds, nor for how long. And about those seeds: Were they where the mustard flavour came from? Or did she use French’s and the seeds were there for extra emphasis? I don’t remember her ever chopping pickles. She must have used relish; probably sweet pickle relish. No dill, AFAICR.

I guess I’ll just have to try to make it sometime. Mom’s ‘recipe’ is now long gone, like my grandmother’s recipes for sour cream raisin pudding and persimmon cookies.

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I like it with either sweet or dill pickles, particularly of the homemade variety. The vinegar and oil just allows you to use less mayo, as it makes the mayo you do use spread further, if you see what I’m getting at, and easier to toss the potatoes in without mushing them. Plus, you get that nice tartness from the cider vinegar. I can see where mustard seed (and celery seed, for that matter) would give the salad an extra punch. You wouldn’t even have to use actual mustard, I’m thinking.

I often use regular onions or red onions, or a combination of one of those and any green onions I may have laying around. I’ve even used shallots, minced up, in the place of garlic, but not too much. Garlic can become overpowering.

I’m pretty sure my mother used Miracle Whip also, as I don’t recall a mayo jar in the house. She also cut her pickles and celery fairly large, which I don’t care for. I really don’t like bland potato salad, or one that has been murdered by Miracle Whip or too much mustard. Also, NO GODDAMNED PIMENTOS, YO! Although I admit I’ve added capers in the past.

I can also see where a different herb like thyme or tarragon might give a tasty dimension to these ingredients. But that’s just cuckoo talk and best left for a tuna salad thread.

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Well, TrueCelt’s is pretty much what I was looking for… but I may have to hold off and try it next time. I’m concerned my potatoes may not be the right texture since the gold ones aren’t as “waxy” as the reds and I’m not sure how they would hold up to the thin slicing normally found in German versions. Also, I don’t have any white wine vinegar (I was shocked). I do have white, cider, rice, red wine, two balsamics, and pepper rice vinegars. I have Chardonnay so could almost do the substitution, but Rhine is much sweeter, and I hate making too many substitutions the first time I try a recipe.

I’ll probably just make an American version, but I’ll read back over all the suggestions and see if I can find something new to try. I do use hard boiled eggs, and I like both celery and onion… I have a sweet (Vidalia or similar) so I’ll use that instead of red. Maybe I can experiment in soaking some celery seeds in vinegar to see how that works out.