You didn’t think we’d do a series on summer salads and not cover the classic … Potato Salad … did you?
The trouble with potato salad is there are so many different kinds. From yummy, warm german style to mid-west mayo encased potato salad. It’s very much a personal choice.
My father, Earl Schommer was a bit fanatical about recipes for pancakes (a future post) and potato salad. So we’ll include what I think was his favorite … at least it’s from the family recipe file titled “Earl’s.”
But our “go to” potato salad is a recipe JQ has fine tuned over the years. She insists this potato salad have yellow mustard (no substitutions please). Yes, French’s Yellow Mustard is in the dressing.
That said, there are plenty of options, depending on the taste profile you prefer.
We use our home canned bread and butter pickles in the recipe, but I think you could sub in a good pickle relish or sweet pickle. If you prefer more of a dill flavor, add a good dill pickle and sprinkle in some fresh dill.
Actually, this is a hard salad to ruin. So give it a try and perhaps you have some twists on the old classic you’d like to share.
JQ's Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 2 - 3 potatoes
- 1/4 cup carrots, diced
- 1/4 cup celery, diced
- 1/2 cup pickles reserve a few tablespoons of pickle juice
- 1/8 cup onion, diced
- 1 - 2 tsp salt and pepper
Dressing
- 1/4 cup mayonaise or miracle whip
- 1 - 2 tbsp yellow mustard
- 1 - 2 tsp pickle juice optional
Instructions
- Boil whole potatoes until cooked.
- Place cooked potatoes into cool water bath.
- When potatoes are cool, peel off outer skin. Skin should peel easily.
- Dice potatoes and place in large mixing bowl.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
Dressing
- Mix together mayonnaise and mustard.
- Stir dressing into salad ingredients.
- Potatoes may absorb dressing leaving salad a little dry. To moisten add pickle juice as needed. We like adding juice to the dressing to help add flavor.
Notes
Earl’s Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 6 - 8 large red potatoes
- 6 large eggs 4 are hard cooked
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup water
- ¼ cup vinegar
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup onion chopped
- ¼ cup fresh parsely minced
- ¼ cup celery chopped
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Boil potatoes until tender - 20 minutes - @ 15minutes you can add 4 eggs to hard cook. Cool, peel and cut into ½ inch cubes.
- In small bowl beat 2 raw eggs with sugar, mustard, and salt. Whisk until sugar is disolved.
- In a 2 quart sauce pan over medium temperature, heat water and vinegar until warm. Add egg mixture and whisk in cornstarch. Increase temperature and bring mixture to a boil and stir until thickened. Cool sauce in bowl covered with plastic wrap.
- In large bowl mix together potatoes, onion, parsley and celery. Add equal portions of mayo and sauce in ¼ cup increments, mixing after each addition until the salad is desired consistancy. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Finish by slicing hard cooked eggs over the top.
Earl’s recipe seems interesting. Four eggs are hard cooked. So are the other two eggs soft cooked or raw?
Steve, sorry, it wasn’t clear in the recipe but the 2 raw eggs get used in the sauce – instruction No. 2. Thanks for asking. I’m pretty sure you’ll like this potato salad it is well worth the extra effort. js
Steve, Another follow up to your comment. (See note added to bottom of recipe) In mixing egg mixture with mayo we changed those portions as well and wound up mixing ¼ cup egg sauce and ⅛ cup mayo in batches until it got to the desired consistency. found I don’t like it quite as juicy as the recipe allows so there was a ⅓ of the egg mixture left over.
Thanks Jack. Can’t wait to try this potato salad. Will probably wait until we harvest our potatoes in September. Also, not sure if you received my email response, thanks again for the clarification on the eggs. If I would have read the instructions, I would have not asked the question.
Steve