I’m not takling about Solid Potato Salad, although the Ross Sisters’ description of potato salad is quite wonderful.
I bought some barely edible “American Potato Salad” from my local grocery store today. Too sweet, potatoes too firm.
So, here’s my ideal potato salad, slightly adapted from the potato salad of my youth. It must contain onion, celery, hard boiled egg, chopped dill pickle, bacon, and celery seed. Sprinkle all with vinegar and dress with mayo. My mom used sweet pickle and dressed with the dreaded Miracle Whip. Gaaaack.
The consistency shouldn’t be chunks of potato swimming in flavored dressing, but kind of a moist, amporphous mass containing all the ingredients.
So, how about you? What’s your solid potato salad?
I like mine relatively simple. Mayonnaise, vinegar, chopped eggs, fine chopped onions, finely chopped bits of celery, salt, paprila, and a sometimes a touch of dill depending on mood.
Small, waxy potatoes, garlic, shallots cut fine, salt, pepper, plain yoghurt, and a bit of sour cream. Combine while potatoes are hot, chill and eat the next day. Yum.
That’s half the secret to great potato salad. All those great flavors have to have time to meld.
Mine is potatoes, lots of finely chopped hard boiled eggs, lots of bacon(2 lbs), PEAS, mayo, mustard, salt and pepper. The last four are to taste. And add the peas on the final stirring so they don’t turn into world peace.
After a night in the frigidaire…tater wonderfulness!
Boiled red potatoes, diced after cooking. Chopped celery, onion, green pepper. One small jar of diced pimentoes, drained. Two chopped boiled eggs. Celery seed, salt and pepper. A small dollop of yellow mustard, a big spoonful of Miracle Whip. Add sugar or vinegar to taste, to get the tanginess just right.
Same here. Four cups or so of potatos; 1/2 a cup or so each of coarsely chopped onion and celery, a bit of dry mustard, a splash of vinegar, and enough MW to make it very slightly soupy while the potatos are still warm. (They’ll absorb the liquid.) Extremely simple.
Mine was from the deli counter at the Red Owl grocery store on Commercial St. in Neenah, Wisconsin (don’t bother, the store closed more than a decade ago). I’m always hopeful but always disappointed to find its equal…
My recipe is buried somewhere, but it essentially consists of potatoes, some onion, vinaigrette with a little sugar, some salt & pepper, and a whole mess of parsley.
I made one today based on the “How to Cook Everything” recipe for “Double-mustard potato salad”. It uses a mix of whole-grain & Dijon mustard with a little balsamic vinegar for the vinaigrette, plus chopped basil. I added bacon and chopped shallots; it was pretty close to ideal.
Every few years I make a stinky potato salad. I love it, but it has two ingredients my wife hates, so I only make it when I have a crowd of friends who’ll help me eat it.
Note that all measurements here are approximations; definitely do it by eye, rather than by measuring cup.
5 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes. (Don’t substitute some bland white taters, either—it won’t be nearly as tasty)
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
2/3 cup olive oil
Pinches or spoonfuls of herbs, including parsley, basil, and a little bit of thyme.
3 or more cloves garlic, crushed
¼ cup mayonnaise
2 stalks celery, chopped
½ cup pitted good olives, chopped
½ a medium-sized yellow onion, chopped
4 oz bleu cheese (rocquefort or stilton or whatever), crumbled
salt and pepper to taste
Cut the potatoes into bite-sized pieces, and boil until tender but not dissolving. Drain.
Meanwhile, mix the vinegar, oil, herbs, garlic, mayonnaise, and salt and pepper together into a dressing.
Add the celery, olives, onions, and crumbled cheese to the dressing, until you have a nasty-looking slurry.
Pour this slurry over the potatoes and mix it in well. Eat your first bowl of it while it’s hot, and then eat a bowl later after it’s refrigerated, and decide which you like better.
Lettuce, green onion, leftover mashed potatoes (or you can cut up some cooked potatoes into bite size pieces… doesn’t matter, works great both ways). The dressing is a mix of miracle whip, vinegar, little salt and pepper and just a pinch of sugar.
Mmmm yum.
I had the most boring potato salad at a party this weekend. It was eggs, potatoes and mayo. No salt, pepper, onion, celery, NUTHIN’. I mean, why bother?
Red Potatoes
Eggs
Celery
Onion
Bacon
Mayo
Mustard
Salt & Pepper
Celery Salt if desired
Mmmm…
I like my Mom and Dad’s Potato Salad. It’s very basic and very midwestern but it has a very special flavor when prepared correctly*. I’ve only ever seen them make enough to feed large groups of people.
8-10 Idaho Russet Potatoes
4-6 stalks of celery
3-5 medium yellow onions
5 or 6 boiled eggs
Jar of miracle whip
*As far as I can tell, the secret to the flavor of this basic potato salad are two steps that seem to make a subtle difference. First, you must boil the potatoes skin-on in a large pot. Then peel them still hot from the pot after shocking them in cold water. Dice the potatoes immediately after peeling into a large bowl.
The second step is to very vigourously fine chop the celery and onions in one of those manual pump hand choppers. Then dump all of the chopped celery and onions (and their juices) over top of the still hottish potatoes. Cover with saran and let sit in the fridge overnight. This, I believe is the key step… The celery, onion, and potatoes get to steam and marinate and it really ups the flavor.
Then you just add enough miracle whip to make a proper potato salad mixture…probably close to a whole jar for this quantity. Garnish the top with sliced hard boiled eggs.
I know, I know, probably sounds gross to alot of people but it’s comfort food to me.
I like your recipe, Devilsknew. The key steps are very interesting, and make sense. I’ll be trying it sometime. (Sorry, but I gotta sub Vidalias. My Southern hands just cannot reach past a Vidalia to select any other onion.)
The key steps are very interesting, and make sense. I’ll be trying it sometime. (Sorry, but I gotta sub Vidalias. My Southern hands just cannot reach past a Vidalia to select any other onion.)