Potato Salad, how do you make yours?

I love potato salad.

For Thanksgiving Dinner we had baked ham, potato salad and baked bean.

My potato salad is simple Kraft Miracle Whip Salad dressing, mustard, sweet relish and two secret ingredients.

I don't measure the ingredients.

One time I helped a lady made potato salad for a pot luck.  She gave me the ingredients which I cut up, peeled, stc.

That potato salad had almost everything a person can image out of the garden.

How do you make your potato salad?

Mustard or mayo or salad dressing?

What spices do you add?

Mom's Potato salad, which I hated as child because of the fresh onions and cucumbers inside, but after my taste buds were developed my favorite salad.
I get often visited by German expat friends telling me that this is the best potato salad they ever tasted.
One of them is a quite posh kitchen chef from Bangkok and is still guessing what I do different.  

1.5 kg potatoes boiled and rested well over night

The "secret" cream:
2 egg yolks
4-5 soup spoons vinegar
4-5 soup spoons oil
1 tbs Mustard (Dijon or similar)
1-1.5 soup spoon sugar
4 - 5 spoons cucumber pickling water
salt
pepper

The "trick":
300 - 400 grs Lyoner or German Fleischwurst (Bolognia or Mortadella, but best is Lyoner striped in 1/4" strips)
150-250 grs Mayonaise (depending how creamy you want your potato salad)
4-5 pickled cucumbers sweet sour finely chopped
1/2 finely chopped onion

...mix all together, taste it if more salt, pepper, sugar or cucumber water is needed. If it tastes well balanced pour it in a bowl with the potatoes and lift it with two spoons carefully around the potato slices.
Soak it in the fridge for at least 12 hrs and lift again before serving..

Last, the "culinary perfection":
3-4 hard boiled eggs finely chopped or sliced covers the entire salad in the bowl after its well mixed.

Quite sophisticated and a bit more work but for special events like Thanksgiving you want to stand off the crowd.
People will wow and ask questions when they try it!

Mine is simple and plain: Just potatoes - waxy 'new' potatoes still warm from the cooking, and mayonaise (I use Hellmans, my mum always used to make her own...). Stir together and eat. It is one of my husbands preferred salad accompaniments and he likes his food plain. If it was just for me I'd probably chop a very few chives in as well.

What kind of potatoes do most people use?

How are the potatoes cooked?

My mom taught me to just boil plain old diced peeled Irish potatoes.

My mother-in-law always used new potatoes cooked with the skin on.  The advantage to this is that you don't need a potato peeler to get the skin off as it peels right off easily with a knife.

I like mine with lots of mustard, bit of vinegar, and some dill or parsley. Usually just potatoes, sometimes potato and cucumber. I'll use whatever potatoes I have, but I like yellow fleshed, waxy ones the best (for pretty much everything, really). For me, that usually means new potatoes (Yukon golds or seiglindes), or fingerlings (bellanitas, French fingerlings, or pink fir apples).

Growing up, we always had mayonnaise dressings on potato salad. Then my dad saw a recipe and made a whole seed mustard vinaigrette one once. I don't think we ever put mayonnaise in potato salad again.

This might not count as potato salad for many people, but another thing I like is plain potatoes topped heavily with a mix of very finely diced tomato, green onion, and parlsey with red wine or elderberry vinegar.

Potatoes, mayo and mustard, hard boiled eggs, either green onions or red onions to add color and dill pickles.
My secret coleslaw addition,,,, orange zest

To it depends.

Hot German Potato Salad if it's being made fresh for a meal.
It has, bacon, chopped onions, a bit of flour, sugar, salt, celery seed, black pepper, distilled white vinegar, and hard boiled eggs.

I like a mustard potato salad if it is be put in a refrigerator.  

I used to make mustard heavy potato salad with lots of eggs and pickle relish when I was in the US.

Now I make it closer to the common Japanese style, which I used to think was weird but now think is awesome.

It's nearly creamed potatoes with mayonnaise, sliced cucumbers and sliced carrots, no eggs, maybe a dash of mustard, salt and pepper. Sometimes I add sweet corn.

Since we have egg allergies in the house I use egg-free mayonnaise. The cucumbers are sliced, then salted and put in a bowl, then after sitting for a while I squeeze out the water. It keeps them crunchy.

Yukon golds, cubed and boiled in heavily salted water. Drain and cool and toss with chopped boiled egg whites, chopped dill pickles and a dressing of mayonnaise, mustard, dill vinegar (I jam every bit of dill I can out of the stuff that grows rampant in my garden every year into a jar and top off with vinegar. Preserves the dill and makes a lovely vinegar for dressings), finely chopped preserved dill, boiled egg yolks, pepper and maybe a pinch of sugar.  

I have two more questions.

Do you like your potato salad with mashed potatoes or diced potatoes?  I make mine a little of both.

Does anyone have a recipe for a dressing for potato salad that uses milk?

I looked through my recipe box (only one though I have two) and did not find it.

My memory says it was called Golden Potato Salad dressing.

I found this on Allrecipes that sounds close:

½ cup white sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon cornstarch

salt to taste

1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk

½ cup vinegar

1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard

¼ cup butter

1 cup mayonnaise

While the potatoes are cooking, whisk together sugar, 2 beaten eggs, and cornstarch in a saucepan; season with salt. Stir in milk, vinegar, and mustard. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Refrigerate until cool, then stir in mayonnaise.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/86662/worlds-best-potato-salad/

Anne Miller wrote:I have two more questions.

Do you like your potato salad with mashed potatoes or diced potatoes?  I make mine a little of both.

Does anyone have a recipe for a dressing for potato salad that uses milk?

This recipe if from "The All - Purpose Cookbook JOY of Cooking";

Potato Dressing (about 6 cups)
Beat : 2 eggs
Add : 2 cups milk
and pour over :
4 cups soft breadcrumbs
Fold in:
1 1/2 cups freshly mashed potatoes
Sauté until golden:
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
in:
1/4 cup butter
add:
2 Tbs chopped parsley
combined with the potato mixture.

Personally, I like my "Ugly Half's" potato salad of boiled potatoes, lots of hard boiled eggs, little powdered paprika, salt, pepper, real mayonnaise (or Hallman's), all mashed really well. Oh! I forgot finely chopped onion (lots of it and not picky on type of onion).
I like mine warm

My grandmas’ recipe: the classic mayo, peeled&cubed potato, cooled before mixing - use a firm type, The Secret Ingredients* very finely minced green olive. Just one green olive. No more than 3 in a large batch.  Heavy cream in the mayo, not a lot, just enough to lighten the mayo. For “fancy” holiday add ham & firm apple, both small chopped. The green olive does Not taste good with egg btw

I’m not from the south but I suspect this recipe might be-

Mix together in a large bowl:
8 lbs baked potatoes, cubed, skins optional (I peel off the outer thin papery skin but leave the inner brownish crusty part)
1 lb bacon, fried crisp, crumbled
4 hard boiled eggs chopped
Fresh chives chopped (I use 1/2 cup)
1 cup shredded Mexican 5 cheese blend
3 parts sour cream, 1 part bbq sauce (I use SBR)
I don’t know exactly on the creamy part, probably a cup total, I just add until it looks right. I also add shredded roasted chicken sometimes.
This can be served warm or cold. Very non-traditional but first timers always seem to have a second helping.


(An aside to Robert Ray- I LOVE the idea of orange zest in coleslaw! Can’t wait to try that!)

i use my dad's old recipe, nothing measured. Chop potatoes, and if they're homegrown or at least organic and not ancient wrinkly potatoes, there's no need to peel them. Boil, and meanwhile hardboil a few eggs. Put in gobs of mayonnaise--real mayonnaise and a little mustard. Add a small amount of finely minced onion, and large amounts of whatever pickles you got--sweet, sour, hot, non-cucumber, any kind of pickles are good. Add a smidgen of salt and it's done, good hot right away or cold later.

See Hes wrote:Mom's Potato salad, which I hated as child because of the fresh onions and cucumbers inside, but after my taste buds were developed my favorite salad.
I get often visited by German expat friends telling me that this is the best potato salad they ever tasted.

Your recipe sounds good.
I guess it is hard to really mess up a potato salad but I don't like mayonnaise too much (as in: I barely ever have mayonnaise at home or make it myself).
There is a mayo/no mayo dressing divide running through Germany. I grew up with traditional Munich potato salad without mayo.

Potatos are boiled with their skin, and then not diced but sliced and cut directly into beef stock mixed with vinegar, oil, salt, pepper, onions and maybe chopped pickled cucumbers, a bit of mustard and herbs like parsley, chives or dill.
It is served luke-warm.

I also like potato salad with olive oil, garlic, parsley and boiled eggs, maybe some cherry tomatoes added, a bit on the mediterranean side. However, I don't like the iconic spanish "ensaladilla rusa" made of potatoes, peas, carrots, tuna and lots of mayo. It can taste nice in Spain but even if I had it many times growing up it is not my favourite type of potato salad.

Okay, can't help myself. Gotta add my 2 potatoes worth!

Russet potatoes, boiled whole in salted water, peeled if you want & cubed after cooled.
Boiled eggs (I use pastry cutter to slice up for salad)
*Celery seed
*Dried diced onions
*Dill seed
*Sweet pickle juice (I don't like sweet pickles AT ALL! I buy a small jar of midgets just for the juice)
Dill pickles Like Nalley's hamburger dill chips, not Kosher.
Yellow mustard (prefer Frenches)
Secret ingredients:
Plain yogurt (Greek style is best)
Black olives, sliced in half (Black olives!? Ewww!)

I mix the *items in a little bowl to partially rehydrate before I  even start the potatoes.
Put potatoes, eggs & olives in a bowl. Mix *items, yogurt & mustard. Gently mix into the bowl. Salt & pepper to taste.

I never measure the ingredients. So it's kind of a guessing game. BUT! I'm not beyond adding extra of any of the ingredients after the fact.

I like lots of olives and mustard. Don't ask me what got into me to think of the black olives. Be careful with the sweet pickle juice. You don't want your salad too saucy/runny.

The salad tastes best if it can sit in fridge at least a few hours. Over night is better, IF you can keep people out of it!

Probably because I'm originally from the same general area as Anne mine (my grandmother's recipe really) is very similar. Although I prefer the tangy taste of Miracle Whip I gave that up for mayo years ago. Been making this dish for so long I don't measure anything. Mine does include a few boiled eggs & some chopped onion. Since moving to cajun country & becoming the designated potato salad maker for group BBQ's I started adding celery & bell pepper too. They love their trinity mixture. (celery, bell pepper, onion) Mine also uses a little mustard along with the mayo. Seasoned with salt, pepper, & paprika. Sometimes I'll add a little vinegar but usually not.

I never boil my potatoes for salad, I steam them. They hold their shape better and absorb flavors better,
Try it, you'll probably be startled by the difference!

How fun!  I love gleaning ideas for my cooking from others’ recipes and traditions.

Like using baked potatoes, or creative use of orange zest, or adding ONE olive.

I steam the whole potatoes, quarter them lengthwise,  then slice them.  I prefer that they hold their shape, but since I will use any kind of potato, they don’t always.  If I am using russets, I try to catch them before they get soft. I leave the skin on.

While potatoes are still hot I add chopped onions, and olive oil, and toss gently to mix.  This mellows the bite of raw onion, infuses the flavor into the potatoes.  I use the olive oil because it decreases the amount of mayonnaise needed later, and also carries the milder onion flavor throughout.

While potatoes-onions are cooling and infusing I cut and chop the rest.  Hard boiled eggs, celery, sweet pickles, (or bread and butter pickles) sometimes cucumber.  I used to put up pickles pre cut for potato salad, using a B&B pickle recipe.  More recently I have used Kate Downham’s recipe (from her cook book A Year In An Off Grid Kitchen, which I highly recommend- a new edition is currently making its way through the publishing process) for pickles made with any surplus garden vegetables and honey and vinegar and turmeric brine, so my potato salad may have cauliflower, okra, sliced squash, sweet or hot peppers in it.  Great if you like variety and surprise bites in your food, but terrible if you want it exactly the same as every other time in your life you ate it.

When the potatoes and onions and olive oil are cool, I mix it all together, add mayonnaise and pickle juice “to the right consistency”, salt and fresh ground black pepper, add more if something seems lacking.

I used to use best foods mayo, now I use avocado or olive oil mayonnaise which I buy when available, more often I make it myself.  (Partly because I have to read the label EVERY TIME, to make sure it’s all avocado or olive oil, not mostly some high omega 6 seed oil with a splash of the healthier low O6 oil, and partly because of having to recycle the container)

We don’t have potato salad at Thanksgiving, but writing out my recipe has given me a hankering… I think I have everything.  I know what I will be cooking soon!

It depends on my mood, lol. Sometimes, I want something like what I grew up with: Red or Yukon gold potatoes, boiled, peeled, cubed: white or red onion, diced; celery; sweet pickle relish; boiled eggs, chopped; Mayo; yellow mustard(90/10); s&p. Some like it hot, some like it cold, some like it in the pot,a couple days old!

Other times, I do baby/fingerling potatoes, boiled, whole or halved (depending on size); 1:1 Dukes Mayo & sour cream; scallions &/or chives; bacon, cooked crisp & crumbled; s&p; topped w/ shredded cheddar. (If John is going to eat it, I often swap out the sour cream for Greek yogurt, because the sour cream upsets his gut).

I'm rather picky about what potato salad I eat. Too many people load theirs down with the old standard YELLOW MUSTARD and that all but makes it in-edible for me.

I don't care about the variety of potato so much but too much mustard just doesn't work for me. I taste it over and over again!

I'm really picky about potato salad and will pretty much only eat my own.
Russet potatoes - peeled, cubed and cooked in salted water until they break apart easily with a fork
drain and put in a bowl still warm, add olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper, Stir occasionally while cooling. Add chopped celery and onion that have been sweated until fairly soft. Add diced hard boiled egg, chopped bacon, and chopped dill pickles. Add Best Foods mayonnaise or homemade and spicy brown mustard. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

For regular Potato Salad, I boil my potatoes peel and dice, Add chopped boiled eggs, finely chopped sour pickles, finely chopped onions mayo and mustard 50/50 approx. Salt and Pepper to taste. I then take an old fashioned hand held masher and mash everything to a smaller  consistency but not too mushy. Taste and add whatever for taste, More mayo, more mustard, more salt and pepper, maybe a little sour pickle juice if too dry.

If I'm doing German, I do everything the same up to doing the potatoes. I fry and crumble up 3-4 strips of bacon along with the eggs, onions and sour pickles. I then put 1 part water to 2 parts apple cider vinegar in a small sauce pan, along with salt, pepper and a teaspoon of bacon grease. bring to a boiled and remove from heat. Pour hot mixture over potatoes and other ingredients. stir and serve hot, or place in frig to cool and serve. No mayo or mustard go into German,

I really enjoy a good potato salad.

I always choose a salad/boiling potato, my favourites are Pink Fir Apple, Nicola, or Pink Eye. I boil them up slowly over a gentle simmer, to help keep them intact, as fast boiling sometimes makes them disintegrate, they then get quickly drained and then dressed while still warm to help more of the dressing soak in. I usually boil them whole and then cut them up straight after draining, or they can be nice if they're tiny new potatoes left whole in the salad.

One way I make it sometimes is to fry up some bacon for it, and then make mayonnaise using the bacon fat, and add plenty of mustard, and some celery or pickles of some sort, and spring onions of chives - delicious!

Another way is just normal homemade mayonnaise, with plenty of pickled/fermented vegetables, and spring onions or chives.

Something that sounds a bit weird but is actually really really tasty I think is to serve kimchi on the side of potato salad - the potato salad is all creamy and nice, and the kimchi seems to compliment it really well - I never would of thought of this until a friend of mine brought a potato salad with homemade Thai curry paste on top along to a BBQ and I thought the contrast between the creamy dressing and the occasional bite of spice was great, and now kimchi served with potato salad is one of my favourite things to bring along if I need to make a lunchbox lunch.

Wayne Petry wrote:
If I'm doing German, I do everything the same up to doing the potatoes. I fry and crumble up 3-4 strips of bacon along with the eggs, onions and sour pickles. I then put 1 part water to 2 parts apple cider vinegar in a small sauce pan, along with salt, pepper and a teaspoon of bacon grease. bring to a boiled and remove from heat. Pour hot mixture over potatoes and other ingredients. stir and serve hot, or place in frig to cool and serve. No mayo or mustard go into German,

This is ONE type of potato salad which you will find in Germany (although eggs are not very common) but note that every region of Germany has its own recipe. For example, the Munich style potato salad is quite simplistic with broth, oil, vinegar, onions, salt and pepper.

But I remembered another type of German potato salad which I love and which is very seasonal: potato salad with winter endives (I am never sure if the English endives means our Chicoree or Endivien salad). I hope the picture makes it clearer:


I have to make this one of these days!

I use Yukon Gold or Red potatoes.  

Boil potatoes aprox 20 min in salted water
Cut potatoes in1 1/2 inch pieces
While still warm add crushed garlic as much as you like we love garlic so use a lot
2/3 c Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/3 c chopped parsley
Oregano
Green onion chopped
More salt if needed

Toss and enjoy.  Even better if you prepare ahead of time and let all the flavours blend together.  I place everything in a bowl with a good sealing lid and flip the bowl every hour or so.

No specific potato preference here. I just use whatever I have and keep it pretty simple. No recipe. Potatoes, peeled, chopped, and boiled. Miracle Whip (sometimes half and half with Mayo), a little bit of mustard, diced hardboiled eggs, a little pepper and onion powder. My dad used to put diced sweet pickles in it. I don't care for sweet pickles, but a bit of the juice in potato salad does add something. I'm also okay with mild onion diced and added. Don't care for it to be too tangy or spicy.

If I'm feeling fancy I'll mix the yolks, any seasonings, and the Miracle Whip/Mayo separately and then add it to the potatoes. It gives nice, uniform color to the dish. Once in a while I'll add a small amount of ranch dressing (I particularly like ranch with bacon).

In my humble opinion, potato salad is the one recipe where for whatever reason dill stands out in a fantastic way. The combination of dill and some salt that is on the coarser side is delicious.

I find Russet potatoes are superior to reds or other waxy potatoes for purposes of absorbing flavor in potato salad recipes.

Russet potatoes,  boiled eggs, Hellman's mayo, a spicy brown mustard, salt & pepper freshly ground, a few red pepper flakes, finely diced chives preferably garlic but plain will do...we like more of a deviled egg bend with a little zip for the finished taste. During the summer my wife makes it at least once a week.  A pile of potato salad , a heap of our own pole beans steamed with butter and lemon, our own chicken on the bbq, it's heaven in july

K Carpenter wrote:Okay, can't help myself. Gotta add my 2 potatoes worth!
...
*Sweet pickle juice (I don't like sweet pickles AT ALL! I buy a small jar of midgets just for the juice)
...

When I was growing up, my Dad always made the potato salad, and he always put in diced sweet pickles. Like you, K, I don't like sweet pickles, but as an adult I have come to appreciate that just a hint of that sweetness did add something to the potato salad. I'll rarely buy them even for the juice, but once in a while I will just for potato salad.

As I scrolled down to continue reading I realized that I've already commented in this thread. Not much has changed since then. I still make my potato salad basically the same way, but I'm thinking of trying some new things now.

I'll do some experimenting this summer. Will have to try cucumber, olives, and a few other wonderful suggestions from this thread. I'm so glad to part of an online community where people from all walks of life, all over the world, can bond over something as simple and wholesome as potato salad.

I have yet to find a potato salad that I like, I think its a cross between the texture of potatoes when they're cold, and the boiled eggs part since I also dislike boiled eggs haha.

I make mine much like what I was raised with. My mother taught me. I will use pretty much whatever potatoes I have, but prefer red potatoes, unpeeled and medium large cubes. Miracle whip, diced hard boiled eggs, a little bit of mustard, a little paprika, salt, pepper, diced dilled pickles (relish) then top with paprika and sliced hard boiled eggs. The "special" ingredient we use is diced fresh tomatoes.

Many folks I know had never had it made that way until I brought it to an event they were attending, but liked it so much they asked for the recipe and now make it that way themselves.

Riona Abhainn wrote:I have yet to find a potato salad that I like, I think its a cross between the texture of potatoes when they're cold, and the boiled eggs part since I also dislike boiled eggs haha.

I never have boiled eggs in my potato salad.

Have you tried hot potato salad the way the German liked it?

It is usually served warm instead of cold

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/83097/authentic-german-potato-salad/

Dice the potatoes before throwing in boiling water reduced enough it won't boil over and watch them because they will only take a few minutes
Throw in any vegetables that will work including diced lettuce
I love sweet peppers in mine but anything from baby lambs quarters leaves to the shoots of wild leeks, immature radish seeds pods ...
Boiled diced eggs
a little prepared mustard
Then I cut store bought potato salad with my own mix because it's easy and store bought has way too much sauce (I just spoiled it for some I know and the veg oils they put in there aren't great but hey, it's mainly healthy 😂)

I dice and boil waxy potatoes in heavily salted water until tender. Drain, and spread out on a sheet pan to cool and dry. I'll usually sprinkle some vinegar on the hot potatoes (generally dill vinegar). Once cool, I add chopped hard boiled egg whites and pickles. Hard boiled egg yolk gets mashed and mixed with mayonnaise, a touch of sour cream, yellow mustard, white pepper, celery seed and maybe a bit of pickle juice and a pinch of sugar if it feels like it needs it. That all gets mixed together and into the fridge for at least a few hours for all the flavors to get to know each other.