Ah, potato salad... any secrets you would like to share about yours?

Potato salad is a good indicator of whether you will like someone. If you don’t like them, you probably won’t like their potato salad.
We put a bit of mustard in ours. I love it!

I’m glad you asked! I put some cumin in mine and it makes it delicious.

Celery salt.

Celery diced, sliced hard-boiled eggs, mustard and mayonnaise NOT Miracle Whip. Maybe some dill pickle relish and garnish with radish slices.

A little pickle juice in with the mayo and some finely chopped up pickles.

I had one once that someone put bacon bits into. Another good idea.

I use small red new potatoes, remove the eyes, boil and dice with the skins on.
Then I throw in a handful of capers and dress with a raspberry vinaigrette (lighter and more elegant than mayo).

Before serving I toss lots of fresh raspberries into the mix.

Like @janbb‘s cumin, I use just a little curry powder for just a hint of flavor.

Pickels! Diced dill pickles and hard boiled egg with mayo/mustard, diced red onions and celery. The celery & pickles are prime! Paprika too!

My husband has spoiled me with his potato salad. I haven’t found a potato salad that compares to his. Two secret ingredients he uses are bacon and sweet relish.

now I really want some

@jonsblond Yes, I like sweet relish or sweet pickles too. I make this killer pasta salad that sounds weird but is delicious! It is small shell pasta with albacore tuna, diced sweet pickles, cheddar cheese and minced onion. OMG! Sooo good!

I played shuffleboard with a new friend this morning. She said she was going home to make potato salad for her July 4 party this evening. We talked about how we each make ours and she said she uses sweet potatoes. She makes it with celery, onions, sweet cubes, sweet potatoes, boiled eggs and Miracle Whip. She also said sometimes, just to change it up, she replaces her Miracle Whip with creamy Vidalia onion dressing. I’m going to have to give it a try sometime.

Oh man, ya’ll got me drooling. I doubt I could find any in this whole country.

I’d never make potato salad without making my own mayonnaise.

The family favorite is Mom’s recipe for Italian Potato Salad. The ingredients are: potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, and onions cut up into large bite-sized pieces and marinated in a white wine vinegar, then chilled. It looks similar to this.

Creamy Potato Salad
serves 8–10
2 large eggs
⅓ cup red wine vinegar
⅓ cup canola or light olive oil
1 tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
10 med boiling potatoes such as Yukon Gold(about 3 lbs)
1 medium onion or handful of chives
½ red bell pepper
½ green bell pepper
2 celery ribs (or a dash of celery seed)
½ cup mayonnaise

Hard-boil eggs. In a large bowl whisk together vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. In a 5 quart pot cover potatoes with boiling salted cold water by 2 inches ad simmer until just tender, about 25–30 minutes.

Drain potatoes in a colander. While potatoes are still warm, peel and cut into ¾ inch pieces. Gently toss with dressing until combined and cool. Potatoes will absorb most of dressing.

Finely chop onion and bell peppers and diagonally cut celery into strips. Add vegetables to cooled potatoes and toss well. Chop hard boiled eggs and add to potatoes with mayonnaise and salt and pepper to taste. Gently stir salad until well combined. Chill salad covered for at least 8 hours and up to 2 days. Serve chilled or at cool room temperature.

(my thanks to Gourmet magazine)
I love this recipe because it’s simple but has lots of flavor. You may skip adding the egg if you don’t like hard boiled egg, of course. I think the secret is adding the dressing while the potatoes are hot so they soak it up. That gives the potatoes lots of flavor, similar to a German type potatoes salad, yet I prefer this because it tastes better served cold and I do like to have a bit of mayonnaise to make it creamy. You can judge if it needs a bit more mayonnaise or not, but the beauty of this salad is that you don’t need too much so it’s lower in calories. I might also throw in a little chopped fresh basil because I think basil makes everything taste better..well, almost everything

Mustard, mayo, vinegar or lemon juice or pickle juice, pickles, onions, smoke sauce, eggs, sugar and salt. And potatoes. My dad’s wife said her secret was to put in as many eggs as you have potatoes.

I put a lot of eggs in mine, @Dutchess_III. Smoke sauce?

a touch, yes. Smoke sauce is like cream cheese…I use it in everything! Except sweets.

Is it like liquid smoke?

Sorry…yes, liquid smoke.

@Dutchess_III . . . Your Dad’s wife is right. My grandmother always said to add two less eggs than you have potatoes.

My secret ingredient is a basic bacon soffrito that I add to the mix.

Fry a half a pound of small chopped bacon until it is halfway done. Turn the heat down to medium low and add a small, finely diced onion and carrot. Cook slowly until everything is almost like a paste and then throw in 4–5 cloves of minced fresh garlic. Cook for another 5–10 minutes (don’t burn the garlic) and remove from the heat. Drain off the grease and use a food processor to blend the whole mess into a fine paste.

At this point I add my mayo, mustard, salt, pepper, and sweet relish to the mix and blend again. I pour it all over the diced potato, celery, egg, and onion mix that makes up the rest of the salad. Stick it in the fridge overnight and enjoy.

i garnish with chili powder instead of the traditional paprika. a little inside family joke . . .

@Blondesjon I have never heard of doing that but it sounds like it would be really good!

Bacon! Oh hail yes!!

After reading this today, I got the itch, and made some.
Potatoes
Celery
Onion
Hard boiled eggs
olives
pimentos
mayo
mustard
salt and pepper

I’m with @bookish1. I want potato salad now (and especially @Blondesjon‘s potato salad.)

My mom’s potato salad (now mine!) Amounts are to taste. Cut red skinned potatoes into bite size pieces with the skins on. Boil until tender, but not falling apart. Drain and add oil and vinegar dressing while they are still warm. (olive oil, salt, pepper, red wine vinegar, mustard) Chop celery in small pieces. Add to potatoes while they are marinating. Hard boil eggs. Cool, shell. and cut in similar size pieces as potatoes. When everything is cool, add hard boiled eggs, mayonnaise and, if you like, relish, and other seasoning, etc. Chill and serve.
This makes a creamier, more flavorful potato salad with no pieces of potato that are dry and unseasoned.

I like to add chopped vegies & spices to the warm potatoes and let all that set before folding in mayonnaise (not Miracle Whip/salad spread) and chopped boiled egg whites.

baconnnn

bacon.

I will third that… baconnnnn.

BACON! I read that too late to put bacon in mine, but next time, in it goes!