stories : Feature
Perfect Potato Salad
Creative takes on this classic side dish just in time for picnic season
While researching old cookbooks for a story, we came across a recipe for Perfection Salad. It sounded tempting enough, but called for gelatin, olives, and cabbage—anything but perfection. That name seems better suited to the summer picnic backbone: potato salad. When made well, potato salad is flavorful and filling, and succeeds equally as an afternoon snack or an accompaniment to fried chicken. Here are our favorite varieties.
Potato Salad with
Peas and Mint
A loose riff on pasta carbonara—a Roman pasta dish with egg and bacon—this recipe folds potatoes into a cream sauce with sweet peas, crisp bacon, and refreshing mint for a savory-sweet flavor. Great for picnics because it’s best served at room temperature.
Mock Potato Salad
Like every all-American potato salad, this one is made with onion, celery, mayonnaise, and mustard. But here we swap the potatoes for kohlrabi, a vegetable with hints of cabbage and broccoli. Your guests won’t notice the difference.
Marinated Purple Potatoes
In this stunning variation from the American Southwest, purple potatoes are bathed in a sherry vinaigrette, then topped with a hint of chile and crumbles of fresh cheese.
Warm German Potato Salad
This dish is everything potato salad should be—sweet, tart, and easy to make—and it’s just as suited to a fine meal of brisket as to a paper plate with a burger.
Marinated Potatoes
and Fennel
Chef Traci Des Jardins gave us this Euro-influenced recipe, and it has quickly become a favorite. She likes it served with her Cured Salmon, but its fresh, herbal flavor would pair well with nearly any summery dish.
You have some very nice potato salads here; but please! Don't knock Perfection Salad, a crisp, refreshing jellied salad. It's almost like coleslaw in a tart, lemon gelatin. the olives definitely don't belong, but sweet red pepper or pimento does.
<Return to your potato salad programming.>
Just use the recipe on the Hellman's jar...perfect.
Will definitely try the kohlrabi suggestion. Another substitute that we enjoy is celariac; either for all or half of the potatoes. Crunchy green grapes are also a refreshing addition to the mayonnaise, hard egg variety of potato salad.
best potato salad....dill, bacon (and some rendered bacon fat), scallions, red wine vinegar, dijon, lemon juice, evoo, salt, pepper, 1 or 2 cloves garlic, red potatoes, maybe a little shallot
Hear hear CoconutMilk--that is so classic, so summer. I love making tri-potato salad. Similar dressing, but I add yukon golds, and sweet potatoes in addition to the skin-on reds. The colors are beautiful, and it tastes wonderful.
I guess I have some cooking to do this weekend.
I have been boycotting Hellmans/Best Foods for years ever since they decided to trick the public with their new jar that if you read the label only holds 30 oz! All other Mayo still has 32 oz. What a rip off and in blind tast tastes nobody can tell the difference. Real Mayo is Real Mayo. Should be illegal!
For a perfect traditional potato salad, I use my grandmother's old recipe: 1/2 Hellman's sandwich spread and 1/2 Mayo, plenty of eggs and finely chopped white onion. Toss those ingredients in with the potatoes and add mustard, salt and pepper to taste. It's simple but tastes fantastic!
I don't think the recipe used is as important as the mayonaise that is used. The best mayo for the job is Hellmans! I'm a caterer and have made tons and tons of potato salad. At times I've changed the mayo and wasn't as pleased with the results!
Great ideas on an old but trusted recipe. My suggestion: don't bother with store-bought mayo, make your own in less than 5 minutes: 2 egg yolks or if you are lazy or in a rush, one whole egg (obviously fresh eggs are best), salt and pepper to taste, a tbs of lemon juice, and a cup of olive oil (extra virgin if you have some). Using a whisk, combine egg, lemon juice and seasonings and mix until well blended. Add olive oil a little at a time or in a constant small stream. If you use a stick blender, you just put all ingredients together in a tall mixing bown, and "plunge" the mixer up and down in the mix until everything emulsifies and thickens...Voilà!