Momma's Top Secret Potato Salad
My dear, sweet Mother just hates sharing recipes.
I've never figured that one out. For decades we've gone on and on about her potato salad. It's just plain good. No matter what we did, we could just never get the recipe out of her. We had a lot of family in town with several of my mother's siblings staying with her when my Daddy passed away almost 5 years ago. Momma had cooked up a batch of potatoes and had left them to cool. My sister and I came back into the kitchen and a family friend, Amanda, was measuring up some mustard. We just about lost it. "Don't touch it! Momma's got to fix it!" She calmly informed us Momma gave her the recipe. Well, we just couldn't believe it! You know we got it out of her and what Momma don't know...
Momma has fixed two versions, which I've included, just in case you dislike celery. I like both equally.
- 5 lb. bag potatoes
- Hellman’s mayonnaise
- 5 hard-boiled eggs
- 1 medium onion (Vidalia) chopped
- 1/2 cup sweet pickle relish (option 1)
- or
- 2 celery stalks (or more), chopped fine(option 2)
- 1 heaping tbsp. French’s yellow mustard
- To taste: salt, pepper and paprika
Peel and boil potatoes* until you can easily run a knife through them. Don’t overcook or your potato salad will be mashed potato salad. (About 15 minutes.)
Let cool.
Peel eggs and chop three of them and slice the other two into rings.
In a very large bowl, to start with, add two cups of Hellman’s mayonnaise, onion, chopped egg, relish or celery salt, pepper and mustard. Mix well.
Start stirring in the potatoes and work in the mayo mixture until all potatoes are covered. If needed, add additional mayo, salt and pepper.
Place egg rings on top of potato salad. Sprinkle with paprika.
