The Major Seasoning Mistake You're Making With Mayo-Based Potato Salad

It's really not a picnic or a backyard barbecue without a bowl of some kind of homemade potato salad. Whether it's made with tangy vinaigrette, or tossed with creamy mayo or sour cream, every paper plate should have a pile of chilled, seasoned spuds. Most potato salads are simple to make; simply boil the potatoes, chop up the ingredients, make a dressing, and mix everything together. Potatoes are a blank slate, which makes them so versatile. So when it comes to potato salads, the sky's the limit in terms of flavor combinations. Potato salad structure, however, is a little finicky when it comes to adding the dressing. Salads with vinaigrettes should actually be dressed while the potatoes are still warm so that the starch absorbs the flavors, and those made with mayonnaise (or anything creamy) should be mixed up when the potatoes are cold so that the dressing doesn't break.

If you find yourself in charge of the potato salad for the next cookout, and you want to make a good impression, pay a little extra attention to when you season and dress the potatoes. Even though most potato salads are pretty good, yours can be even better if you prep it like a pro.

If you're making a potato salad with creamy dressing, heat is not your friend. This is because creamy salad dressings, and the ingredients used to make them, are temperature sensitive. If you mix in creamy dressing with hot potatoes their emulsions will break, leaving you with a greasy mess of a salad. Mayonnaise, especially, will break at temperatures higher than 90 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Duke's.

When you're making any kind of creamy potato salad recipe, you'll have plenty of time after the potatoes are boiled to make the dressing. When the potatoes are cooked, go ahead and drain them and then spread them out flat on a sheet pan to cool. When they're cool enough to touch, you can mix your potato pieces with the creamy dressing, and then store the salad in the fridge until it's time to serve. If you want to add a little flavoring before the potatoes cool, you can toss them with a few tablespoons of seasoned vinegar before you spread them out to cool. The hot starches will suck up a little bit of that flavor, which is also why you should only mix salads made with vinaigrette when the potatoes are hot.

If you've ever had a well-made German potato salad, then you know that mayonnaise isn't the end-all when it comes to spuds. Any vinaigrette recipe will make for a good potato salad, as long as the fat and acid are balanced. The key to making a potato salad with vinaigrette is to have the dressing ready while the potatoes are still hot. When potatoes are boiling, the starches absorb water and expand. If you toss your spuds in vinaigrette while they're still warm, the starch in the potatoes will absorb some of the acid in the dressing the same way that they absorb water. 

While it's tempting to let the potatoes sit in the colander while you throw together a simple vinaigrette, every minute counts. Have your mixing bowl, dressing, and a spoon for tossing ready before the potatoes are finished boiling. When you drain the water away, dump them right back into the hot pot with the dressing and any extras (such as bacon, onions, etc.) and stir it all up. Once you have everything incorporated and have seasoned the salad with salt and pepper, you can transfer it to a container for storing in the refrigerator.

If you make sure you're careful to mix your salads with their dressings at the right temperature, you'll always get the flavor and texture just right — and you'll never have any leftovers to take home after the party's over.