My Mom's or Anabel's Potato Salad

My Mom’s (or Anabel’s) Potato Salad

10 lbs Russet (large) baking potatoes
1 Large Jar of Best Foods Mayonnaise (only Best Foods Real Mayonnaise will do.)
1 Large Jar of Del Monte Sweet Pickles (only Del Monte Sweet Pickles will do.)
1 Very Large White Onion (diced finely)
1 dozen Large Grade AA eggs (boiled and peeled and finely diced; brown range free are great)
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Paprika garnish on top

Day 1

Wash and puncture each potato with a fork (several times). Wrap in aluminum foil and bake at 375 degrees for 1 and half hours. Remove from oven, cool, and then store the wrapped potatoes in your refrigerator overnight.

Day 2

Hard boil your 1 dozen eggs. Allow time for the eggs to cool completely when the boiling is done. I prefer to place them in a bowl of ice and water to cool very quickly.

Unwrap the cold potatoes and peel them. (I prefer to peel with a knife rather than a potato peeler). Cut the potatoes in half. Cut each half into thirds, and thirds again in the opposite direction; then dice. Do not make the dice too small or you will end up with mush after stirring in the other ingredients. Place diced potatoes in a very large serving bowl.

Finely dice your peeled, very large white onion and add it to the bowl with the potatoes.

Peel your boiled eggs and finely dice the eggs (yolks and all) into the bowl with the potatoes and onion.

Finely dice 8 - 10 large Del Monte Sweet Pickles and add to the bowl with the other ingredients.

Spoon 6 – 8 heaping tablespoons of Best Foods Mayonnaise into the mixture. (More if you like your salad creamier, less if you like it drier.)

Stir the mixture until the ingredients are completely mixed.

Add about six pinches of salt (I prefer kosher/sea salt). You may add more salt to your taste if you like.

Fresh grind in a copious amount of pepper. I prefer Trader Joe’s Eight Pepper Blend. You will want to see a lot of pepper flakes/specks throughout the entire mixture.

Last add some of the Del Monte Sweet Pickle juice to the mixture (to your taste but be careful not to overdo it). I find that the salad takes on a particular “sound” when this last is stirred in.

Make sure to use your child/grandchild, or your lover, or your best friend as your “official taste tester”. You will be building lasting memories with this step. Listen carefully if they suggest more salt or pepper or pickle juice, and after you taste test for yourself, you may consider their suggestion or not.

Once the mixture is complete, smooth the top of the potato salad with a fork (tine marks are wonderful). Wipe the exposed lip of the bowl with a clean napkin to remove any smudged salad on the sides of the bowl. Sprinkle the top of the salad with paprika and grind on more pepper.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator.

You may serve the salad after you chill it for several hours, but the salad tastes best if you refrigerate it overnight before serving it. It’s even better the day after that! Yum!

You may also decorate the top of your potato salad. Here is one idea:

Half two additional boiled eggs and arrange in a flower petal pattern (large end of each egg half toward the very center of the salad with the smaller ends pointed diagonally out to the outer edge of the bowl. Quarter one of the sweet pickles into thin slices and place a slice in between each of the egg halves. It makes a nice “flower like” design.

That’s it! Everybody who eats this simple potato salad says it’s incredible, just like mom used to make! I agree, because this is exactly how my mom used to make it.

Enjoy!

Michael Dennis
Shaver Springs, California