Getting through a bag of potatoes before they start producing any sprouts and spoil can be quite the challenge, especially if you’ve run out of ideas for how to use them up. But as we enter the warmer months, it’s the perfect time to use up whatever potatoes you have lying around and perfect your potato salad recipe.
A staple dish in the summer, often served at barbecues or as part of a weekend lunch spread, although potato salad is relatively easy to make, it also risks quickly becoming a bland mess. While some recipes have experimented with adding Greek yoghurt for a more creamy dressing, or swapping mayonnaise for starchy potato water, the salad can easily become repetitive and tasteless. Adding a touch of mustard, or even capers, as Good Food recommends doing, for a tangy kick, can improve a boring potato salad, but there’s another ingredient you might want to try that will transform the dish and leave guests wanting more.
In an article for Southern Living, Kaitlyn Yarborough revealed her granny’s secret ingredient for potato salads, sharing that it’s “flavour goes beyond just mayonnaise and mustard”.
While most potato salad recipes call for mustard or apple cider vinegar, for an added sharpness to help balance out the mayonnaise, Kaitlyn explained that the “tang” in her granny’s potato salad that “everyone can’t get enough of” is neither of these.
Despite suspecting it was the addition of mustard, which is often used in several salad dressings for a sharper taste, the mystery ingredient that Kaitlyn’s granny uses is, in fact, pickle juice.
Dill pickles, in particular, are frequently added to potato salads to cut through the sauce and add some extra crunch alongside the boiled potatoes.
But you can also experiment with adding some of the pickle juice from the jar, which Kaitlyn said “lends the perfect amount of acidity and saltiness to the dish” thanks to the brine.
If you do plan on adding this to your recipe, it’s important not to add vinegar, as this risks the potato salad becoming too acidic. Simply substitute your vinegar with pickle juice, adding around five tablespoons and doubling this for a larger portion.
You can go ahead and add the rest of your ingredients as normal, including chopped pickles if you use these. Celery and shallots are also popular additions, as well as spring onions and even pancetta for a tasty salad.
How to store potatoes
Waxy potatoes like Yukon Gold or even new potatoes work well in a potato salad, but it’s important to store them correctly.
Remove them from any plastic packaging and keep them in a paper bag, or loose in a basket, in a cool and dark area of the kitchen.
Storing them away from onions and apples that produce ethylene gas will also prevent them from quickly spoiling.