The Major Mistake That Makes Potato Salad A Watery Mess

Potato salads are the perfect summer cookout food with a combination of rich, creamy, sweet, and tangy flavors that appeal to everyone's taste buds. While there are many amazing recipes for delicious potato salads, it is surprisingly easy to make major mistakes that can ruin the whole dish. One of the worst potato salad mistakes you can make is accidentally making it too watery, causing the dish to go from appetizing to gross. If you've ever had a potato salad suddenly become a watery mess in the fridge, the reason probably had to do with how you cooked the potatoes for your potato salad.

This is because potatoes tend to soak up quite a bit of water like little sponges during the boiling process. So, putting hot, recently cooked potatoes directly into a potato salad can cause them to eventually release all that water and ruin your dish. So, how do you avoid this mistake and cook the perfect potato salad every time?

The most important thing you should do to prevent your potatoes from leaking water into the potato salad is to make sure you get all the water out before adding them in. This will take a little more time but will ensure you get a delicious final product.

To do this, after cutting up the potatoes and boiling them, let them sit in a colander and drain until they are completely cool. As the potato pieces cool, they will release water. So, it is important not to start mixing the potato salad together until the potatoes have cooled down to at least room temperature. Potatoes that are slightly warm may still contain enough water to ruin the dish.

Another option to avoid the watery potato problem entirely is to steam the potatoes instead of boiling them. This method will not only not avoid water-filled potatoes but will also cook them more quickly. Steamed potatoes can be mixed into the potato salad dressing while still hot. 

Besides how you cook the potatoes, there are a few other mistakes that can cause a potato salad to have too much liquid. To prevent this, you should be careful when adding liquid ingredients to the salad. This is especially true for pickle relish, mustard, and vinegar. When adding pickle relish, make sure to strain out most of the brine. While some pickle relish juice can add flavor, too much is definitely best avoided.

When adding mustard and vinegar, make sure to carefully follow the proportions listed in the recipe and not go overboard. Mustard and vinegar are important flavors in a potato salad, but the creamy dressing base should still be mostly mayonnaise.

And lastly, giving your potato salad enough time to sit in the fridge will help it reach that perfectly thick consistency. As they cool, the potatoes will absorb some of the dressing and become more flavorful and creamy.