Southern Potato Salad Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What if I put too much apple cider vinegar in my potato salad? ›

If you have added too much vinegar to a recipe, you can try adding a bit of sugar or honey to help balance the acidity. You could also try diluting the vinegar by adding more of the other ingredients in the recipe.

There's no reason at all, so my advice is to leave the skins on. The skin on a potato adds a nice texture and flavor to the potato salad and it's also the healthiest part.

The addition of a sweet element should be enough to neutralize the extra vinegar, but if the flavor is still off, Taste of Home recommends using baking soda. Baking soda has the effect of making vinegar more alkaline, and all you need is a pinch of it — too much of it will contribute to an unpleasant taste.

Pick the Best Potatoes for Your Potato Salad

To keep your salad from falling apart into mush, it's important to use the best potatoes for potato salad. Skip the russet potatoes and use a waxy variety instead, like Yukon gold, red potatoes or fingerlings.

Vinegar is also a natural preservative and can help to keep the potatoes fresh for a longer period of time. Additionally, the acidity of the vinegar can help to break down the starch molecules in the potatoes, making them creamier and easier to mix with other ingredients.

Furthermore, there can be side effects of taking too much vinegar at once in concentrated form, including stomach upset and irritation of the esophagus. Its high acid content can erode tooth enamel.

Always cut up the potatoes into a dice before boiling them. If you boil the potatoes whole, the exterior of the potato will get too soft and crumbly before the interior has a chance to cook through. Best potatoes for potato salad? Russet, Yukon Gold, or red potatoes (new potatoes) are all excellent for potato salad.

Rinsing potatoes helps remove excess starch, so it is recommended to rinse the potatoes before cooking. To ensure even more starch is out of the way, it's recommended that they even be quickly rinsed after boiling. We recommend using hot water for rinsing after boiling and cold water prior to boiling.

Larger potatoes should be cubed to ensure they cook evenly (peeled first if desired). Smaller potatoes tend to have thin skins and can be boiled whole, no peeling required.

You've got two options. The first option is to cook more potatoes and make more potato salad, adding more of every ingredient except mustard. Doing so will get the mustard content in equilibrium with the rest of the flavors in the salad. Your other option is to adjust the seasonings to compliment the…

How do you fix vinegar taste in potato salad? ›

The addition of a sweet element, like sugar or any sweetener, should also be enough to neutralize the extra vinegar, but if the flavor is still off, use a pinch of baking soda. If all else fails, adding more potatoes is an option.

- Add some sugar or honey to the dish. Sugar and honey can counteract the sourness of vinegar and add some sweetness to the dish. You can start with a small amount and adjust according to your taste.

Not Getting The Cook Time Right

It's a delicate balance to achieve soft, tender potatoes for that just-right potato salad texture. Defer to your recipe for specific cook times, which depend on the type of potato being used, but a good rule of thumb is to boil them until you can pierce the spuds with a fork.

The Vinegar Trick

In his recipe, López-Alt shares his secret for perfectly cooked potatoes every time: Adding vinegar to the water (specifically, 1 tablespoon of vinegar per 1 quart of water) prevents overcooking. This one tip has transformed potato salad for Kristina Razon, the Senior Food Editor at Kitchn.

The best way to counteract vinegar if too much is put into soup is to add a sweetener, such as sugar or honey, to balance out the flavor. You can also add dairy, such as cream, milk, or yogurt, or a starch, such as potatoes, rice, or pasta, to help mellow out the acidity of the vinegar.