How To Make Perfect Classic Southern Potato Salad That's Cookout Worthy - The Hillbilly Kitchen

howdy folks and welcome to the hillbilly kitchen today we're making tater salad [Music] now to make tater salad obviously you need some taters you need four eggs and you need half a cup of sweet pickle relish a quarter cup of mustard half cup of mayonnaise and you need some spices and i've got a tablespoon of onion powder a tablespoon of sugar a teaspoon of salt and a half a tablespoon of pepper now that's how i season mine you can season yours with anything you want you can add minced onions you could add a little minced um celery maybe some green bell peppers or red bell peppers i mean there's lots of things you can add into your tater salad but you need to kind of keep in mind the crowd you're making it for lots of folks have trouble with raw vegetables especially onions and celery and things like that they have trouble digesting them and that's one of the reasons why i use the onion powder in mine also kids are way more likely to eat it if they don't see a raw onion in it but in my case i actually have an allergy to raw onion i eat it cooked all day long but not raw and lots of other people have trouble just digesting it and stuff and a lot of people actually do have that allergy so you know kind of keep that in mind now as far as varieties of taters go you can use anything from a plain old russet tater which is what brett prefers and it's what i usually use a russet tater though is a little bit softer and it has a slightly different flavor as like a red skin or a yukon gold they're going to be firmer and they have a slightly different flavor but mostly they're just firmer in texture and lots of folks around memorial day which is this weekend or independence day which is coming up very soon they will use the little red white and blue potatoes to make tater salad and kind of give it a patriotic look and you can certainly do that the variety of tater really does not matter it's you can pick what flavor you like best and what texture you like best like i said i usually use the russets because that's what brett likes and whether or not you peel them again that is entirely up to you it's the flavor you want and the crowd you're making it for if i use redskins or yukon gold i usually don't peel those but the russets i usually do and brett prefers his taters and his tater salad peeled again and i cook mine all together a little bit deeper pot than this would be better but i wanted you all to kind of see what i do so but i put my taters in and then i put my eggs in kind of on top of my taters so they're not all the way down in the bottom because generally speaking the eggs are going to cook faster than the taters and it's also a good idea if all your taters are the same size like see how most of mine are this size and i got this one real big one here you don't really want one real big one because that one real big one won't get done before all the rest of them are cooked mushy so if they're all about the same size that's better even if they're different varieties and i put my eggs on the top because like i said generally they cook a little bit faster than the taters but you can cook a boiled egg for however long it takes you to cook your taters as long as it's not sitting in the bottom of the pan right down on the stove element that will burn it and you know it'll make it kind of brown so just keep them up in the top and you can cook them all together and put enough water in here to cover everything or at least cover all your taters good because your eggs cook faster if your pots you know if you're making like 20 pounds of taters for tater salad and you've got to get a whole bunch of eggs in it if your eggs aren't all completely covered as they cook you can kind of roll them over you know and somewhere toward the middle of cooking the taters and they'll cook that way too and just the the heat from the pot will probably cook them even if you don't rotate them in the time it takes your taters to cook if they're mostly covered with water you can cook this in an instant pot too and in an instant pot if you put it in the instant pot set it to seal for about 10 minutes but as soon as the timer goes off release the steam and run cold water over it don't let it sit in that pot full of steam and slow release if you do that your taters will be mushy and you'll have mash tater salad instead of tater salad when you're done charlotte and i make gallons and gallons and gallons of this stuff at yesteryear and we always did it in an instant pot and it works really really well just 10 minutes with the steam set and your taters are all cooked no matter what size they are and your eggs are cooked and they don't burn and you can put it all in there together and if you're making a lot we would usually make 10 pounds of taters and a dozen eggs at a time and it works just fine like that and like i said they don't burn and everything gets done in 10 minutes just make sure you do the steam release and then run water over them as soon as your pot releases so if you want to instant pot them instant pot them especially if you got to do a lot but all you do is cover this with water and boil it until your taters are done and i cannot give you a set time on that because different varieties are going to cook at different speeds the firmer ones like the redskins are going to take longer to cook than the russet ones the bigger ones are going to take longer to cook stick them with a fork and when they're tender they're done also if your skins start cracking on your taters that's a pretty good sign they're done but you can just stick them with a fork and they should be soft when you stick them with a fork if you have trouble getting a fork in them they ain't done keep cooking them okay if you want to peel your taters don't peel them before you cook them it takes way too long it wastes a lot of your tater if you cook them while they're still warm you can literally take your hands and just slide the skin off like that i had girls do this at yesteryear though and they all complain because sometimes you got to use your fingernails a little bit that it ruined their manicure i mean i literally had little girls cry because they was running their manicures if you take your pear and knife and take the side of it you can kind of scrape the skin off with your prayer knife and you don't have to use your fingernails so if you have your fingernails done you've done a manicure or something it won't ruin them you do want to though whether you peel them or not check them for bad spots because all taters have bad spots and you can see right there's one on this one and just kind of dig that out with your pear knife if you were using your hands you'd have to use your fingernails for that and that was what they would cry about because it would ruin the manicures so if you've got your nails done just kind of rake a pair of knife across it it's still much faster than peeling a raw potato and much easier and you don't really waste any your potato you know you're literally just scraping the outside of the skin off it is sticky though and it will make a messier nails so you know if you've got your nails done especially if you've had them done because you're getting ready to have big get together for memorial day or independence day or whatever you don't want to have that to worry about but i said very very quick very very easy and it don't waste half your tater that was one of the many tricks that charlotte and i learned while we were making so much tater salad yesteryear now there's a couple other tricks too if you have to make if you're making this for like 30 40 people and you're making a 10 pound batch and you don't want to take the time to cut all the taters up because that does take a minute you can break them up with your hands just break them up in chunks about the size of what you wanted you know you don't want to totally mash them but you want to be able to get the dressing evenly distributed on your taters and you um also don't want big old huge chunks of tater that aren't going to have any salt and pepper and stuff on them no dressing on them it just doesn't taste good that way but you don't want it too small and mashed so i like chunks about this big and you can do it like i said cutting them or breaking them up with your hands it just depends on how much time you have but it's much faster to cut them once they're cooked so boil them whole boil your eggs with them one pot's all you need to for the eggs i like to mash mine with a potato masher it's really quick and you can chop them up again you can use a knife and chop them up real fine but the potato masher does it in just a minute i mean literally like a squish or two for per egg and they're all squished up and ready to go and you don't have to stand there all day and i do like my eggs pretty fine i don't like real huge chunks egg white in my dressing and the egg is going to be a big part of the dressing on your tater salad and you can save an egg to garnish the top with if you want that's just up to you depends on how you're going to be serving it if you're going to be taking it on a picnic you know throwing it in your rubbermaid bowl or your tupperware bowl and taking it on a picnic you know it's not so important but if you're going to be sitting a nice table maybe you're serving it for sunday dinner with fried chicken and stuff you might want to garnish the top with a cut up egg so you just save one of your eggs and do that if you're cutting them again like i said you want them cut kind of in bite size pieces you really want to be able to get a couple of chunks of potato on the fork with the dressing so you don't want them too big but either way breaking them or cutting them much faster much easier once they're cooked because a raw potato is pretty hard and it's hard to get your pear and knife through it it just takes more effort and honestly i think cutting them once they're cooked might even be faster than breaking them up with your hands but like i said if you're in a huge hurry you can just grab all that tater and squeeze it you know like well yeah i guess that's faster and that's how we made it pretty much it yesteryear we just squeeze it brett's not as fond of it when you break up the potatoes because he doesn't like the little chunks of potatoes that you get you know like you'll get little pieces like that in it and he don't like that he likes his more in cubed pieces and there are people who are you know like him they just they get stuff set in their head that's how it's supposed to be and all of his life just about i made him tater salad with cube pieces until yesteryear where me and charlotte were making tater salad by the bucket fulls and uh i started just breaking them up and last time he i made tater salad he said why don't your taters not have any chunks in it anymore so you know it depends on who you're making it for whether you cut it or whether you break it and that's all there is you just want to get it in pieces whether you break them where you cut them it don't matter just get them in pieces and then the dressing you can make in your bowl you don't have to mix it up separate pickle relish is um kind of important to your tater salad you want to get a pickle relish that you really really like the flavor of um wiggles is really good and you can use dill pickle relish in your tater salad if you want to my dog used to make dill pickle tater salad a lot and or you can just dice up a dill pickle and put it in it instead of the sweet relish it's a totally different flavor really really good but totally different and it really depends on what flavor you like so if you want to dice up a dill pickle in it that's fine there is a sweet pickle relish that the dollar tree sells that has sugar in it instead of high fructose corn syrup and it doesn't have any really strong overpowering spices in it and next to wickles that's probably my secret second favorite brand of pickle relish and it's much less expensive wickles is pretty expensive and i know a lot of us are really having to watch every dollar we spend on groceries right now so the sweet pickle relish at the dollar tree is not bad give it a try if you haven't tried it but you just dump in your pickle relish and you can adjust the mustard um i kind of cut my mustard back i used to like a little more mustard in mine but samantha complained that she didn't like quite so much mustard in it so i cut it back a little bit because i do try to adapt what i'm cooking to the flavor of all the people that i cook for she likes it she just don't like quite so much so i cut mine back to a quarter of a cup and it's just plain yellow mustard nothing fancy about it the cheap stuff and i have a half cup of mayonnaise now mayonnaise is also important in this the man the flavor and the texture of the mayonnaise is going to change the flavor and the texture of your tater salad um my mama swore by duke's mayonnaise and i tried a lot of different brands when my kids were growing up to save a penny here or there and i got to tell you duke's mayonnaise is worth it and if you shop sales you can get it for the same price as you get the store brand of mayonnaise for you just got to watch for them to have it on sale so watch for the duke's mayonnaise sales and get the duke's mayonnaise it really does make a difference and like i said the spices are to taste and you can change them and you can dice up fresh onion mince it real fine fresh celery um different things some bell pepper and stuff in here if you want to if the crowd you're eating likes it definitely fresh is always best but i have a tablespoon of onion powder a half teaspoon of pepper a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of sugar and i know a lot of folks are going to say you're adding sugar yeah i'm adding just a tablespoon of sugar you would not believe what a difference that one tablespoon of sugar makes in the flavor of your salads and most commercial salads and commercial salad dressings are sweetened it's just something that we have come to expect when we taste a salad in this country and probably about everywhere we've just gotten used to sweeter foods as time has gone on if you don't want to put the sugar in there you don't have to put it in there and now all i'm going to do is i'm just going to stir this until everything is very well blended i don't want any lumps of mayonnaise and i don't want any lumps of eggs i'm gonna get all my chunks of potato that i sliced separated up there every once in a while i'll have somebody real educated comment because i say tater a lot and they'll say who in the world says tater that ain't even a word nobody says tater anymore well when i grew up nobody said potato but most of them people who say tater ain't a word eat tater tots so you know it's a word folks and they eat tater wedges i mean most tater wedges they don't say potato wedges they say tater wedges on them when you go buy them and tater tots definitely don't say potato tots but that right there is a pretty well mixed up bowl of tater salad and that's literally all you have to do to make it you only need to put one pot on the stove and heat up the kitchen with one pot and tater salad is better if it's made at least three or four hours ahead of time and put in the refrigerator and chilled and you can definitely make it the day before you can even make it three days before like if you're going to have a big cookout on the weekend and you want to get stuff prepared before you can make tater salad and coleslaw and macaroni salad and all that stuff thursday or friday evening so that when the weekend comes and you're having your cookout you don't have to spend all day cooking you can go out and enjoy the day with everybody else in the summertime i keep sides like tater salad and coleslaw and baked beans and macaroni salad in the refrigerator because they will literally go with just about everything not just cooked out stuff i mean you could have it with fried chicken you can have it with pork chops you can have it oh goodness of course hamburgers and hot dogs and barbecue chicken and all that stuff but just about any meal tater salad makes a good side and if you have it made ahead of time you know make enough for three or four or five nights especially when you're just cooking for one or two people it will save you a ton of time and in the summertime you don't feel like standing there and cooking a big meal with a lot of sides especially if you've been outside working all day in the heat you want to come in and have most of your meal already ready and with sides like tater salad you can do that so give this a try use some of the tricks you know save all the peeling and cutting until after you cook the potatoes if you want to peel them um or if you don't want to peel them you don't have to it's just what you like the taste you like the texture you like and how the people that you're making it far like it most of my crowd likes it peeled there's a few of them that don't care but most of them care and they want the peel off so that's how i usually do it but like i said if i'm using something like yukon gold or red skin potatoes you really can't even tell those skins are on there because the potato itself is a different texture so make up some tater salad for memorial day for independence day for all the summer cookouts coming up hang on to this recipe and not just free cookouts keep some in the refrigerator for when you need some quick side dishes on a weeknight before we go i want to leave y'all with john 15 12 and 13. this is my commandment that you love one another as i have loved you greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends folks this three-day weekend that we've got coming up is about more than a cookout or three-day weekend or get together or a party it is about all of the men and women throughout time who have made the ultimate sacrifice who have laid down their lives to achieve and to preserve our freedom as well as protect innocent people all around the world and now more than ever it is so important that as parents and grandparents we teach young people what the true meaning of this holiday is and the true meaning of independence day that's coming up here in about a month it is our duty it is our responsibility to teach the young people the true meanings of these holidays and while you're gathered together this weekend with your friends and your family i know a lot of you are watching what's going on right now please as a family pray for our nation and pray for our world that the whole truth will be revealed and it will be followed by true justice so that we can maintain the peace and the freedom that we enjoy and that our lord intended for us to have [Music] if you have not already please don't forget to click like and subscribe before you leave and until next time remember to put god first happy memorial day and god bless you all

Channel: The Hillbilly Kitchen - Down Home Country Cooking

Views: 370,545

Keywords: the hillbilly kitchen, make ahead side dish, easy to take along dish, tater salad, potato salad, dinner, cookout, culinary, hillbilly, food, cooking, kitchen, recipe, cooking with, country cooking, country kitchen, homemade, how to, how to cook, learn to cook, cook, Recipes, how to make potato salad, easy side dish, heirloom recipe, 100 year old recipe, summer side dish, cookout recipe, classic potato salad, southern potato salad, potato, tater, salad, tasty, struggle food, yummy

Id: x9MyLlLULT4

Length: 22min 25sec (1345 seconds)

Published: Sat May 29 2021