Ina Garten-Inspired Potato Salad

Compiled by Igor Kukolj, Editor. Nobody here has cooked this — how these are made.

Two things want to happen to the potatoes at opposite temperatures, and doing both at once is why so much potato salad is bland with a greasy dressing.

Dress them twice. Hot potatoes are open and absorbent: a splash of vinegar and salt poured over them while they steam goes right into the flesh and seasons them from within. Mayonnaise on hot potatoes does the opposite — the emulsion breaks in the heat and turns to oil sitting on the surface. So the vinegar goes on hot, the potatoes cool completely, and the mayonnaise goes on cold.

Skip the first stage and the only seasoning in the dish is on the outside of each cube.

Boil them whole, in their skins

A cut potato has an enormous surface area and it drinks water the whole time it cooks, which is where waterlogged, collapsing potato salad comes from. Boil them whole with the skins on, then peel and cut them while warm. It takes a little longer and it is the difference between pieces and mush.

Start them in cold water

Dropped into boiling water, the outside of a large potato cooks through long before the middle is done. Started cold and brought up together, the whole potato heats evenly. This is the opposite of the rule for eggs, and both are right.

Soak the raw onion first

Two minutes in cold water takes the harsh sulphurous edge off diced raw onion without softening it. In a salad that sits for a few hours, untreated onion keeps getting stronger until it is the only thing you can taste.

Storing

Three days. Do not freeze — mayonnaise splits and potatoes go grainy. If it looks dry on day two, a spoonful of soured cream rather than more mayonnaise brings it back without making it heavier.