This particular potato salad is full of awesome memories for me. Making it in the bright white kitchen of Laurel’s old house on Cherrywood, Emily tasting and tasting and tasting as it came together. See, Laurel didn’t like raw white onion, so Emily used green onions. Emily didn’t like big chunks of egg, so Laurel grated the eggs. Minced dill pickles and some pickle juice got added, as Emily’s Goggie used to do. Pimentos sometimes but not usually. Celery was chopped fine and the mustard/mayo ratio favored the mustard to give the whole thing a pretty sunshiny color. Celery seed is a key ingredient, although as you can see in the video, celery salt can be used in a pinch.
Then we’d be grilling sausages and Slip’n'Sliding around and drinking beer after beer under the cedar elms in the back yard until everyone was fast asleep in their wet swim suits, which is a bad idea for health reasons, but fun and carefree nonetheless.
Potato Salad video and recipe below!
- 3 pounds Russet potatoes
- 4 stalks celery, chopped fine
- 4 green onions, sliced thin (or ¼ cup minced white onion)
- 2 tablespoons minced dill pickles
- 2 tablespoons pickle juice
- ½ teaspoon celery seed
- ¼ cup yellow mustard
- 2 hard boiled eggs
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Boil the potatoes whole in their jackets for 15-20 minutes or until each can be easily pierced through with a skewer.
- Chop the rest of the vegetables while the potatoes cook and place them in the bottom of a large bowl. Set aside
- Drop the cooked potatoes into an ice water bath for 5 seconds.
- Peel off the skins and chop into 1″ chunks.
- Add the hot potatoes to the other vegetables and then stir in the pickle juice, celery seed, and mustard.
- Grate or mince the eggs and add them along with the mayonnaise.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- If it seems too dry, add more pickle juice, mustard, or mayo, depending on how you like it. Don’t be afraid to taste as you go!
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
“The Perfect Potato Salad”
That’s might big claim their Hilah. That’s kinda like calling out something as the “One True Religion” or “The Best Thing About Texas”.
I stand by my claim, Scott!
And I encourage everyone to keep tasting it as they go until they get it just right, until it’s perfect for them!
The trick of boiling the potatoes in their jackets is brilliant; same with grating the eggs and the pickle juice. I like a little red in my potato salad, so I’d probably put in the pimentoes or small dice red bell pepper (the latter adds crunch).
Using the celery salt is a great idea. (I also like to sprinkle it on corn-on-the-cob with unsalted butter. But corn’s another episode.) I actually prefer it to celery seed.
If you want to fancy up the onion in the potato salad, you can replace the green onion with minced shallots. That’s pricier, but very tasty.
Good for you on conserving the cooking water to use on plants!
Oh goodness, that corn with butter and celery salt sounds divine! I do like the flavor of celery salt. I bet it would be good on popcorn, too!
Shallots do sound nice. I was even thinking about maybe chopped pimento-stuffed green olives…
My mom prepared potato salad this exact same way (although she used sweet pickle, not dill). Anyway she too boiled the taters with the skin on so I continued doing that myself without questioning this method until one day I started wonderin…why don’t I just peel those suckers right quick and THEN boil em. That way they are ready to cut up right out of the water. I began doing that years ago and never looked back. So why WOULD one take that extra step of chillin in ice water and hand peeling when they could be all ready to go straight out of the water pre-peeled?
Hi David!
The reason I do it is to conserve nutrients. By boiling them whole with their peels, they retain much more of the vitamin content (which admittedly, is not much to begin with). Also, depending on what texture you like, they stay a little firmer, or maybe are just harder to overcook, when boiled whole.
But, either way you wanna do it is fine! Thanks for writing!
I tried it and it’s great. It’s easy to cook, very tasty and great to eat in the evening.
Thanks, Carol! I’m happy you enjoyed it!
Sounds very similar to how my mom makes it. Shame I hate pickles, but if I left them out, this could be pretty good.
Hate pickles?!?! Well, you’re not the first person I’ve met who hates pickles. I’m sure you could leave them out, and maybe just add a splash of vinegar or lemon juice for that bit of tang.
I’m rather sensitive to the taste and texture of food, so I became a very picky eater. I’ve gotten better, but there are still foods I don’t care for.
A splash of the juice doesn’t bother me, I just don’t like pickles themselves.
Oh well, great then! Pickle juice it is! (As long as you keep them around, I guess
I use Greek yogurt (mixed with a bit of tumeric) in place of the mayo, and it gives the potato salad a great yellow color!
Hi Topper! That sounds great! I am always looking for new ways to use turmeric, too, since it has so many antioxidants; you know it’s always on those lists of “healthiest spices”.
I’m definitely going to try that this summer. Thanks!