Potato Salad

Potato salad appears in some form across virtually every culinary culture, from German vinegar-dressed versions to Japanese mayonnaise-rich preparations to the creamy, mustard-spiked Southern American classic. In the American South, potato salad is a cookout essential: boiled or steamed potatoes dressed in mayonnaise, yellow mustard, celery, onion, sweet pickle relish and hard-boiled egg, seasoned with salt, black pepper and sometimes paprika. The choice of potato matters. Waxy varieties such as Yukon gold, red-skinned or marble potatoes hold their shape well and produce a creamy, cohesive salad. Floury varieties absorb dressing well but can turn mushy if overdressed. Temperature and timing are critical: potatoes should be dressed while still warm, when their pores are open and they absorb seasoning most effectively. Dressing cold potato produces a salad where the coating sits on the surface rather than flavouring the potato through. As Sherry demonstrated in this episode, potato salad can be elevated far beyond its humble reputation: using multiple cooking techniques, steaming, smoking and building a broth from the trimmings, she extracted every dimension of flavour from a single ingredient and turned a cookout staple into a composed restaurant dish.