Potato salad Recipe for Every Occasion

Potato salad. A piece of cake, right? It’s a bit like the background music in a restaurant – something to distract and occupy you and the other diners during the awkward silence before the main course arrives. You put the obligatory spoonful on your paper plate and poke at it with a plastic fork until the burgers are cooked.

At least, that’s what most potato salads do. The problem is that it’s such a simple dish that most of the time it’s prepared without thinking. Just boil the potatoes, mix them with mayonnaise, add a few spoonfuls of whatever condiment you like and toss it all in a bowl.

When prepared properly, a potato salad can be just as tasty as the hamburger it accompanies (and believe me, I love hamburgers).

Spicy, salty and sweet, with a texture that is creamy, crunchy and chewy in every bite, a perfect potato salad should have a light taste, despite being made with potatoes and mayonnaise, two of the heaviest ingredients around.

So why are there so many mediocre potato salads? What on earth can go wrong in a recipe that only has two steps?

Let’s take a closer look at some of the hidden complexities, shall we?

The problems

In my opinion, three things can go wrong in a potato salad. If one of them is not respected, the situation deteriorates rapidly:

– The potatoes are not seasoned enough. In a good potato salad, the potato pieces must be seasoned all the way through.

– Potatoes are either undercooked or overcooked.

If there is one thing I can’t stand, it’s al dente potatoes. Potatoes should not be crunchy or firm. But you don’t want your potato salad to look like cold mashed potatoes either.

The perfect potato should be tender and moist all the way through, with the edges just starting to break down, adding a little potato flavor to the dressing.

The vinaigrette is not seasoned enough. Cold food should be seasoned more aggressively than hot food – our taste buds are less receptive at cooler temperatures. Add to this the heaviness of potatoes, and it makes sense that a potato salad would have more vinegar, sugar, spices and salt than other dishes. But balance is key. All the elements should harmonize instead of competing.

To find the ideal potato salad, I should address these issues individually.

Ingredients

– 4 pounds (1. 8 kg) Russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes

– Kosher salt

– 1/4 cup sugar (1 3/4 ounces; 50 g), divided

– 6 tablespoons (90 ml) rice wine vinegar, divided

– 3 ribs celery, finely diced (about 1 cup)

– 1 medium red onion (8 oz.; 225 g), finely diced (about 1/2 cup) – 4 medium shallots, green parts only, finely sliced (about 1/2 cup, optional) 225 g) medium red onion, finely diced (about 1/2 cup)

– 4 medium shallots, green parts only, finely sliced (about 1/2 cup, optional)

– 1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves, washed and chopped (optional)

– 1/4 cup chopped gherkins (see note)

– 2 tablespoons of whole-grain mustard (more or less to taste)

– 1 1/4 cup of mayonnaise

– Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Pour 2 liters of water into a large saucepan, add the potatoes, 2 tablespoons of kosher salt, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Bring to the boil over a high heat. Reduce to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. Drain the potatoes and transfer them to a rimmed baking sheet. Spread out in an even layer, then drizzle with 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Leave to cool at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

2. In a large bowl, mix the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, the remaining 2 tablespoons of vinegar, the celery, onion, shallot (if using), parsley (if using), gherkins, mustard and mayonnaise. Mix with a rubber spatula. Add the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and leave to stand in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour and up to 3 days before serving.

Hot or cold start

First step: get the texture right. Potatoes are made up of a series of cells containing starch granules. These cells are glued together by pectin. As the potato cooks, the pectin slowly breaks down and the starch granules begin to absorb water. When the potato is overcooked, the first thing that happens is that the pectin breaks down too much. The potato cells begin to detach and the whole thing becomes pasty.

Welcome to the city of cold mash. Cook them any further and the starch granules will swell so much that they will start to burst, transforming a mildly offensive bowl of cold potato salad into a downright disrespectful bowl of slimy, inedible mush.

On the other hand, if they are undercooked, your potatoes will remain crunchy, and crunchy potatoes are grounds for immediate expulsion from the backyard.

The problem is even more complex: since potatoes heat up from the outside towards the center, it is possible to end up with a potato that is both overcooked and undercooked. The best way to achieve this culinary feat is to cook them.

It is completely unacceptable to drop cut potatoes into a pan of already boiling water, as I did with the potato below:

When the potato is immersed in hot water, the outside starts to cook quickly before the center has even cooled. Make a salad with these potatoes and you’ll end up with crispy nuggets of uncooked potatoes swimming in a sea of gooey mash. No thanks.

The batch of potatoes that I started cooking in cold water was much better. The potatoes warmed evenly along with the water, so that by the time they were perfectly cooked in the center, the edges were just starting to break up – which is not a bad thing. I like the fact that a few broken potatoes thicken and flavor the vinaigrette.

Of course, even with a cold start, there was still a problem: The potatoes require constant vigilance: they go from undercooking to overcooking in an instant. If you allow yourself to be distracted for even a minute (for example, to run after your puppy who has just peed on your backpack and hide your laptop under the sofa), you end up with sticky potatoes on your arms.

There had to be a way to solve this problem, but for the moment, I have moved on to the next question: Seasoning.

Seasoning your salad: it’s in season

I have long thought that it is better to season potatoes when they are hot, but I have never understood why. Do they really absorb more seasoning or is it simply a psychosomatic effect?

To find out, I cooked three separate batches of potatoes, using green food coloring to replace salt and vinegar. The first batch was cooked directly in green-colored water. The second batch was cooked in plain water and then seasoned with green-colored water after being drained while still hot. I let the last batch cool completely before adding the green water.

Once all the batches had cooled, I cut a cube from each batch in half to see how far the food coloring had penetrated.

The results show that hot seasoning makes a big difference. The potatoes cooked in seasoned water and seasoned while still hot had a slight shade of green to the center, while the potato seasoned after cooling was essentially pale in the center, with a single green streak where a natural defect occurred in the potato.

There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the cooked starch on the surface of the potato hardens and gels when it cools, making penetration more difficult. Secondly, as it cools, the potato contracts and tightens slightly, making it more difficult for seasoning to penetrate to the heart of the potato, even if it manages to get through the sheath of gelatinized starch on the outside.

Look closely at the time-lapse photos below and you will see that the potato on the right, which was taken 30 minutes after the potatoes were drained, is slightly smaller than the one in the photo on the left (look at the arrow on the left and notice that it goes past the edge of the potato in the photo on the right).

The difference may seem minimal to the naked eye, but for a molecule of vinegar trying to make its way through a potato, it makes all the difference in the world.

You may have noticed, as I did, that whether the potato was cooked in seasoned water or seasoned immediately after being taken out of ordinary water made very little difference in terms of flavor penetration. Might as well add the vinegar to the potatoes once they’re cooked, right? But there is a very good reason to add a little vinegar to the water you use to cook potatoes: it prevents the potatoes from overcooking, which I learned some time ago when I was trying to achieve perfection in making chips. Pectin breaks down much more slowly in an acidic environment.

A tablespoon of vinegar per liter of water was enough to allow me to boil my potatoes without having to worry about whether or not they would overcook while I was distracted by the dog.

The problem of overcooking is solved.

Choosing your potato: This potato is for you!

At this stage, I asked myself a fundamental question: Are Russets the right potato for the job?

The texture of potatoes can vary enormously.

The texture of potatoes can vary enormously. Russets, with their grainy, fluffy texture, are at one extreme, while red potatoes, with their waxy, creamy interior, are at the other.

I knew that the waxy potatoes would give a slightly firmer texture to the final salad, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. More importantly, how would they react to seasoning?

I repeated the green potato test, but this time with red potatoes instead of russets.

A russet potato, with its grainy, open texture, absorbs seasoning much better than its dense, waxy red counterpart. The Russians win.

The art of balance

Now that the potatoes were perfectly cooked, light and shiny, the rest was simple: balancing the flavors. Nothing too complicated here. Two tablespoons in the cooking water, another to season the hot potatoes and two more in the mayonnaise mixture added a lot of brightness. Mayonnaise, whether store-bought or homemade, is essential. A cup and a quarter is less than average for four pounds of potatoes, but I like to keep the mayonnaise a little light. By stirring the salad vigorously, you risk crushing the edges of the potatoes, which partially turns them into mashed potatoes and allows the creamy dressing to better coat the remaining pieces. Tender potatoes. To spice things up, I added a few tablespoons of whole-grain mustard.

Pickles are a divisive topic in potato salad. I like to use chopped pickles in mine, mainly because that’s the kind of pickle I have most often in my fridge. Chopped dill, bread and butter, or even a few dollops of pickle relish are perfect. Chopped celery and red onion add the necessary crunch to the mix.

I once argued with a fellow cook (who ended up with a ripe avocado smashed against the wall) about whether or not to add sugar to potato salad. But to be honest, once the potatoes are properly cooked and seasoned, the dressing itself is a matter of personal taste. The question of whether or not to use black pepper is not. Add pepper.

Few dishes are as simple as potato salad, but if you want to enhance it a little, add a handful of finely chopped fresh herbs. Parsley and chives are perfect. I used shallots because I had tons left over from this week’s wokfest. If you’ve kept your celery leaves, you can use them as a garnish.

I know some people like to use pickle juice. Some like to add garlic. Some add sour cream. Really, all of these things can be great, and as far as flavor goes, there is no right way to make potato salad. The keys are:

– Use russet potatoes.

– Cut them evenly and put them in cold water seasoned with salt, sugar and vinegar (one tablespoon of each per liter of water).

– Season your potatoes again with vinegar as soon as they come out of the water.

– Use strong flavors, because cold food tastes bland without them.

FAQ SECTION

A What not to do when making potato salad?
Don’t overcook the potatoes or mix them while hot with mayo, this will make the salad mushy and ruin the texture.

B How long can potato salad sit out unrefrigerated?
Potato salad should not sit out for more than 2 hours to prevent bacterial growth and foodborne illness.

C How long should potato salad sit before serving?
Let it chill for at least 1 hour in the fridge so the flavors blend well before serving.

D Is potato salad better if it sits overnight?
Yes, it usually tastes better the next day as the flavors have more time to meld together.

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