Potato salad: eggsalent with or without eggs?

[Toliver]

So we don't go too off topic (eggs vs. no eggs), here are some previous discussions on different kinds of potato salads:

"Potato Salad, What makes it good?"

"World's Best Potato Salad, Seeking potato salad recipe variances"

"Potato salad, macaroni salad and coleslaw, A trio of summer salads"

[rooftop1000]

The first kitchen other than BK...that I worked in had a secret potato salad "juice" made by the owner.

I worked there for 2 years and only had a vague idea of what was in it...boiled together cider vin, chicken stock, white pepper sugar salt dry mustard celary seed....this was put up in gallon jars to be mixed with mayo after I had peeled a 50# bag of little red potatoes and sliced on a torture device that looked like the slotted side of a box grater....all while they were still hot.

Mixed gently with grated onion dried parsley Hellmans extra heavy mayo and the afore mentioned juice.

The only place I eat mayo is coleslaw and tuna salad.....I did get the old bastards coleslaw recipe out of him though

Wilks Deli many locations bergen and passaic ounty NJ

tracey

[jo-mel]

Aside from preferring my 'caper' potato salad, ----when I'm faced with a buffet and there's a miriad of salads, I ALWAYS go for the potato salad ---- no matter what kind it is. Forget the pasta salads and the cole slaws. I like potato salad sliced. chunked, relished, mayoed. oiled. red skin, plain white --- whatever. I'm a potato salad gourmet!

[purplewiz]

If it's "white" potato salad, with mayo based dressing, yes eggs.

If it's not, like sliced new red potatoes with fresh herbs and a vinaigrette, no eggs.

I'm always delighted when I find a restaurant whose potato salad has eggs in it. Eggs have a high correlation with the dressing not being overly sweet (I don't like sweet potato salads).

Marcia.

[Gifted Gourmet]

  purplewiz said:

(I don't like *sweet potato salads).

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Neither do I .. and I am assuming that you aren't talking about *yams here, Marcia ... I avoid pickle relish for that very reason .. it doesn't taste right to me anyway if it has any sweetness to it .. a personal preference ...

[purplewiz]

  Gifted Gourmet said:

  purplewiz said:

(I don't like *sweet potato salads).

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Neither do I .. and I am assuming that you aren't talking about *yams here, Marcia ... I avoid pickle relish for that very reason .. it doesn't taste right to me anyway if it has any sweetness to it .. a personal preference ...

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Yes, you're right....not yams, but potato salads that taste candied, like many grocery store ones do. (I don't like candied yams, either, but that's another discussion. ) I'm with you on the pickle relish - not in my potato salad !

Marcia.

[fifi]

Sweet pickle relish in potato salad was an abomination according to mother. She always diced up dill or other non-sweet pickles, usually of some recipe that dad made. The closest she got to using anything sweet was this "bread and butter" pickle that dad made. Think sweet-sour. I actually hated those pickles but they were good in the potato salad. . . with eggs.

[highchef]

  Quote

My mother made a potato salad that barely made it to the meal. She used hard boiled eggs alongside the potatoes and chopped raw onions as well. I remember mustard, vinegar and her cracking the peppercorns for the salad. I can not remember the details other than that. Ah, freshly blendered mayonnaise, but minus the sometimes addition of garlic. Oh, how we would sit at her elbows and beg to eat the salad while it was still warm. Now I've had other potato salads, I tend to like them all, but the family style one is my favorite. Mom was from Boston, by the way.

This was my mom's potato salad too, and she was from Boston as well! Must be a yankee thing. I think of this as the classic style, but if it's red potatoes and no mayo, then no eggs.

btw, many people growing up during the depression in the rural south did not have eggs in their potato salads. The eggs were sold for extra income and to use them would have taken food off the table! John Folse I believe calls this version something like the 'widows potato salad'. I'd go look it up, but the damn book weighs a ton and I don't want to haul it upstairs. I'll check later. Makes sense though.

[Smithy]

  fifi said:

Sweet pickle relish in potato salad was an abomination according to mother. She always diced up dill or other non-sweet pickles, usually of some recipe that dad made. The closest she got to using anything sweet was this "bread and butter" pickle that dad made. Think sweet-sour. I actually hated those pickles but they were good in the potato salad. . . with eggs.

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Brava to your mother! I grew up HATING potato salad and could never figure out the attraction. I finally had some that didn't have sweet pickle relish and didn't have Miracle Whip, but did have dill pickle relish and a nice tartness to it. That was goood stuff.

Can't remember whether it had eggs or not. Back to the topic, I really don't think it would matter much.

[foodiehall]

  Smithy said:

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Can't remember whether it had eggs or not.  Back to the topic, I really don't think it would matter much.

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Trust me...if you hated hard cooked eggs the way I do, their presence in potato salad (or anything else) would make a big difference. I guess I always assumed that putting the eggs in was a matter of personal preference, rather than being a "Southern thing". When I was a kid, if I knew my mom or my grandmother was making potato salad, I'd hang around the kitchen to be sure that no eggs made it into the bowl.

[Megan Blocker]

  foodiehall said:

  Smithy said:

.....

Can't remember whether it had eggs or not.  Back to the topic, I really don't think it would matter much.

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Trust me...if you hated hard cooked eggs the way I do, their presence in potato salad (or anything else) would make a big difference.

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Ditto. I cannot stand hard cooked eggs, and avoid them at all costs. I love eggs cooked pretty much any other way, but hard-boiled? Nope.

Therefore, they are not included in my potato salads.

[eJulia]

While I like with and without eggs... I had to report on some "expert advice" I just saw....

Sandra Lee (ugh) just made a potato salad on TV that included eggs "because my husband loves them", a small amount of mayo, sweet pickle relish and GET THIS.....

CANNED POTATOES!!!!! She even suggested you retain the water they were packed in for a future gravy.

I know I'll get some heartburn from people wondering why I am even watching this program, but I usually have Food TV on all the time - while working, cleaning, cooking, etc.

SL is fun to watch for the train wreck effect!

[dockhl]

  chef koo said:

  Jason Perlow said:

I believe egg in potato salad is optional, and I am not opposed to the addition of it. However mustard is MANDATORY.

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that's very diplomatic of you. i agree. i can't say which i prefer. but i think we;re looking to have some shit disturbed

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ACK...........mustard...............

[dockhl]

  purplewiz said:

I'm always delighted when I find a restaurant whose potato salad has eggs in it. Eggs have a high correlation with the dressing not being overly sweet (I don't like sweet potato salads).

Marcia.

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DITTO !

[mamacat]

Must have eggs...I've tried it both (actually many) ways and I keep coming back to the way my Grandma made it with grated hard boiled eggs, green onions, chives, s&p, a little mayo, a little sour cream, a little plain yogurt and a little Madras curry powder. Yum!!!

[Susan in FL]

Sometimes I make some other potato salad recipes, but "my" potato salad which my son requests every time he visits is Bacon & Egg Potato Salad... Bacon, eggs, a little chopped onion if he's here and a lot if he's not, mayo & Dijon mustard, and a few other secret ingredients. OK, I'll tell. When the potatoes are still warm, add some butter and after it's melted, add in all the other ingredients, including some chopped Claussen pickles and some of the Claussen pickle juice.

[ghostrider]

In Maine the stores sell 2 kinds of salad made from potatoes. One is labeled Potato Salad and the other is labeled Potato Salad With Egg. This seems to be a pragmatic recognition that they are different things, and the ur-Potato Salad has no egg.

[ruthcooks]

My potato salad(s) have no eggs, just potatoes, onions and dressing.

Devil those eggs and serve them alongside...a good thing.

[Chris Amirault]

Seems to me that y'all ought to post your recipes on RecipeGullet so that we can make us some tater salad and put your claims to the test.

Except Sandra Lee's canned potato dish. Egads.

[lesfen]

  ghostrider said:

In Maine the stores sell 2 kinds of salad made from potatoes.  One is labeled Potato Salad and the other is labeled Potato Salad With Egg.  This seems to be a pragmatic recognition that they are different things, and the ur-Potato Salad has no egg.

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This reminds me... we're having our annual cook out at work next Friday and they always get 2 kinds of potato salad. Grandma's and Grandpa's. Anyone familiar with this? They look the same to me, but I refuse to eat it because they don't mix the dressing very well and there are big globs of "mayo" in it. What's the difference?

[chromedome]

When I lived in Newfoundland, no festive occasion (graduation, wedding, baby shower, etc) was complete without the mandatory three bowls of potato salad: one white, one green, one pink.

The white was (at least where I lived) yer basic potato/egg/Miracle Whip agglomeration; the green had mushed-up canned peas mixed into it; while the pink had little bits of pickled beet and the attendant juice mixed in. Not being a fan of Miracle Whip, I wasn't that keen on any of them.

Other than that, I'm open to pretty much any variation on the overall theme of potato salad. I like them with and without eggs; with mayo or vinaigrette (or German-style with bacon fat and vinegar); with or without mustard; with pretty much any kind of pickle or any kind of fresh herb...let's face it, potatoes whether warm or cold are pretty much a blank slate. They'll work with any combination of other ingredients that taste good in their own right.

[TMus1111]

Just adding my two cents - with eggs. My Grandmother was from Winston-Salem, NC and my Grandfather from Georgia, near Savanah. I, like my mother and her mother make potato salad with preferably yukon gold or some other whiteish potato (as opposed to a baking potato), boiled and then peeled and diced as soon as they are cool enough to handle. Add in mayo - NOT MIRACLE WHIP - probably 6-8 hard boiled eggs for 5 pounds of potatoes, sweet relish or sweet gherkins cut finely or maybe even just pickle juice, onion, cut finely, s&p, a touch of mustard - and maybe even a sprinkle of sugar or a dash of vinegar depending on the taste of the potatoes themselves (some need sweetning while others need a certain vinegary taste) - mixed carefully so as not to have mashed potato salad - and in the fridge until time to eat.

[stef_foodie]

eggs please, if we're making classic American potato salad.

i do like the French and German versions too though.

[Marlene]

For the record, there were no eggs in the potato salad at the pig pickin. Not because I was adverse to putting them in, but we already had so many devilled eggs, that we didn't think we needed to add eggs to the salad too.

I think it was a success.

[fiftydollars]

  eJulia said:

Sandra Lee ...

...CANNED POTATOES!!!!!  She even suggested you retain the water they were packed in for a future gravy...

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GTFOH!!

My mind is boggled.