Creamy “Smashed” Potato Salad

We love homemade potato salad at our home. Why? I can’t say, but potato salad quickly disappears whenever I make it. Homemade potato salad is so much superior to purchased deli potato salads, that I’m always willing to try a new potato salad recipe. As luck would have it, a recipe for “Creamy Potato Salad” recently popped up on one of my internet recipe feeds. The recipe was featured in a 2024 issue of Food & Wine magazine and claimed to be a Texas-style recipe from a BBQ restaurant. The creamy-style potato salad — using mashed Yukon Gold potatoes — contained crunchy bites of celery, dill pickles, red onions and green onions. The dressing was unique — rather than commercial mayonnaise — the dressing consisted of a homemade vinaigrette of cider vinegar, yellow mustard and a raw egg emulsified with oil. But the recipe had lots of salt! And, the dressing had lots of oil. And a raw egg? Woah. Although the recipe got rave reviews from plenty of folks who tried it, I was skeptical. The concept looked great — such as smashing the potatoes and including crunching vegetables and a sweet/sour dressing — but I wasn’t so sure about some of the quantities. In the end, I changed almost all of the ingredients. My “final recipe” is darn good — a great alternative to a rich mayonnaise-type potato salad. My adapted “Smashed Potato Salad” is just in time for Memorial Day weekend and a summer BBQ picnic.

My Deep Dive into “Who owns what recipe magazine and digital WEB site?”

I became intrigued in learning “who owns what” after receiving the recent recipe, “Creamy Potato Salad,” via a digital feed. The potato salad recipe came to my e-mail account from the internet WEB site, “MyRecipes,” which I apparently had subscribed to. Surprise — how did that subscription happen? The recipe originally appeared in Food & Wine magazine. How does Food & Wine magazine fit into MyRecipes.com? I did a “deep dive” to get some clarity.

The print and digital recipe magazine industry has certainly changed through recent years. With mergers, buy-outs, spin-offs and closures, many of our favorite foodie magazines are not the same. Plus, digital recipe sites have become as predominant as print magazines. It is hard to keep up with this ever changing business.

I discovered that, over the years, many of our favorite food and life-style magazines have been “bought out” by huge media conglomerates. And, some of these media corporations have changed their names — “digital footprints” — while undergoing further merges/sales/purchases. For example, Betters Homes & Gardens, Southern Living and Martha Stewart Living are now all owned by the same corporation — People.com. Imagine that — I had assumed that these food magazines were competitors! And, to further complicate things, People.com has just rebranded their name and image from Dotdash Meredith. Remember Meredith Corp? Meredith Corp., established in 1902 in Des Moines, Iowa, is best known for publishing Better Homes & Gardens. That company also published Parents and Shape magazines with a licensing partnership for home goods at Walmart. In 2021, Meredith was acquired by Dotash. Our beloved midwestern food and lifestyle magazine, Betters Homes & Gardens, now belongs to the magazine family with all our other favorite foodie publications.

“MyRecipe.com” is digital web site and browser tool (owned by People.com) which lets you save, store, organize and access your favorite recipes. The recipes come from from magazines owned/managed by People.com such as Allrecipes, Food & Wine and Southern Living. So, that explains how my reference recipe, “Creamy Potato Salad,” — first published in Food & Wine –, got onto the MyRecipe.com WEB site. Food & Wine is one of People.com’s magazines and some of these recipes appear digitally on MyRecipe.com.

What does People.com manage? This giant media and publishing corporation has assembled an impressive portfolio of food and lifestyle brands/magazines. Here are some of the top publishers and their food-related magazines. (Keep in mind that these corporations manage other magazines, too, such as finance, fashion, sports, etc.)

People.com: Better Homes & Gardens, Southern Living, Martha Stewart Living, Food & Wine, Real Simple, Cooking Light, MyRecipes, AllRecipes, EatingWell, Serious Eats, Simply Recipes, The Spruce Eats, Feedfeed, Liquor.

Hearst Magazines Digital Media and MSN: Good Housekeeping, Country Living, House Beautiful, Veranda, Delish (with MSN). Food Network Magazine

Hoffman Media, LLC (HM): Taste of South, Victoria, Louisiana Cookin’, Bake from Scratch, Southern Home, Southern Lady, Tea Time, Cottage

America’s Test Kitchen: Cook’s Illustrated, Cook’s Country

Condé Nast Publications: Bon Appétit, Wired, Pitchfork, Vogue, The New Yorker

Trusted Media Brands, Inc. (formerly The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc:) Taste of Home

Forks Over Knives, LLC: Forks Over Knives

Why does this matter? First, a merger may mean that some magazines will cease being published. For example, Fine Cooking (1994 – 2002) and EatingWell (1990 – 2002) both ended monthly publication when purchased by DotDash Meredith. And I loved Fine Cooking. Second, some of these magazines have applications where you can catalog and save recipes. Woops, if the magazine ceases to exist, your saved recipes are lost, too. Third, if you want to contact customer serve for some reason — such as getting permission to publish a recipe, clarify information — it is helpful to know who the publisher is and who to contact. You won’t go in circles — like I did.

Back to my “Creamy Smashed Potato Salad” Recipe:

I made this potato salad several times and loved it every time. Each version had more and more adaptations. The creamy potato salad recipe was first published in the print Food & Wine magazine and now appears digitally on MyRecipes.com. The dish has lots of appeal, primarily the potatoes are partially mashed rather than diced. The sweet and sour dressing is also unique. Here are several recipe highlights:

1. ***The original recipe used Yukon Gold potatoes with the skin left on. Since these potatoes have a thin skin, peeling them is difficult — so it works well to leave the skin on. This also adds flavor and nutritional value.
   
   
2. ***Yukon Gold potatoes are easy to mash and have a great buttery flavor. However, they may be difficult to locate in grocery stores. All-purpose yellow potatoes and Russet potatoes also work in this potato salad.
   
3. ***The potato salad dressing doesn’t contain mayonnaise. Instead, the cider vinegar, sugar and oil dressing give a sweet and sour flavor to the dish. This recipe twist has appeal for folks who don’t like mayonnaise-based salad dressings.
   
4. ***The original recipe included a raw egg in the dressing. I skipped this part of the dressing (it didn’t need the egg for emulsification). Instead, I added a hard boiled egg to the cooked, mashed potatoes.
   
5. ***Dry mustard in the dressing gives a tangy flavor. Although my final recipe includes dry mustard — prepared yellow mustard can be substituted. Again, not too, too much mustard. I don’t care for potato salads where mustard overpowers the potatoes.
   
6. ***Paprika adds a zingy flavor “pop,” too.
   
7. ***The original recipe included dill pickles and fresh dill. I felt that dill didn’t fit the “flavor profile” of this recipe. Instead, I substituted a sour mustard pickle. Any “fresh” pickle on the refrigerated isle of a grocery store works. A little sour pickle really adds flavor “pop.”
   
8. ***I added just a small amount of sweet, white onion — rather than red onions and green onions.
   Onions should not overwhelm the potato salad. Just a tiny bit of sweet white onion is all you need.
   
9. ***I added diced, canned pimento for color.
   

Yukon Gold Potatoes vs Russet Potatoes

Yukon Gold potatoes are used in the original recipe. Yukon Gold potatoes are a hybrid variety of a yellow potato. As an all-purpose potato, they have a buttery flavor and creamy interior. Yukon Gold potatoes are higher in moisture content than russet potatoes and they don’t break down as fast when boiled. Perfect for potato salad.

Yukon Gold potatoes, however, are becoming more difficult to find in grocery stores. They just aren’t profitable for farmers to grow. These hybrid potatoes have low yield. Plus, they are susceptible to diseases, are finicky to grow and have poor storage performance. So, many farmers are switching other types of yellow-flesh potato varieties.

For these reasons, I tried other types of all-purpose yellow potatoes in the recipe. I also made one batch using traditional russet potatoes. Both were successful. However, flavorful potatoes are the key to potato salad having great flavor. It is worth your time to research and locate a source for quality potatoes,

Recipe Ingredients

Here are the ingredients for my adapted “Smashed Potato Salad” recipe:

Making the Recipe:

This recipe involves pre-prepping the ingredients. Get everything boiled, sliced, diced and blended first. Then mixing up the potato salad is easy.

Step 1: Scrub the potatoes. Cut the potatoes into chunks (don’t peel). Boil in salted water. (Russet potatoes are shown in these photos. For the smaller all-purpose yellow potatoes, I cut the potatoes into halves.)

Then, drain and chill the boiled potatoes.

When you are ready to assemble the potato salad, mash the chilled chunks with a potato ricer or potato masher. (The skin of the russet potatoes was tough, I removed much of it during mashing the potatoes.)

Step 2: Hard boil the egg. Add to a small pot and cover completely with cold water. Bring to a boil. Then, reduce heat on stove. Simmer (just boiling) for 10 minutes. Remove from stove, drain. Add cold water to chill egg. Peel and chop.

Step 3: Chop the vegetable seasonings — onions, celery, pickles and parsley. Drain the diced pimento. Combine everything.

Step 4: Here are the ingredients for the vinaigrette (salad dressing). Blend all the ingredients (except oil) for the salad dressing — apple cider vinegar, sugar, dry mustard powder, salt and paprika.

I used a small food chopper/food processor. Then blend in the canola or vegetable oil until emulsified.

Step 5: Finish the potato salad. Carefully, fold the chopped vegetables, pimento and diced hard boiled egg into the mashed potatoes.

Step 6: Then pour on the dressing and gently stir to combine. Chill the potato salad for several hours in the refrigerator to meld all the flavors together.

Step 7: When you are ready to serve, transfer to large bowl. Garnish with a few sliced tomatoes and more fresh parsley. I lined the bowl with lettuce.

Here’s the finished potato salad. I love it. The sweet and sour vinaigrette dressing made a welcome change from heavy mayonnaise-based dressings. The “smashed” potatoes also gave a “fresh” approach to this potato salad recipe.

I do confess. There is preparation involved in making homemade potato salad — this includes any potato salad recipe. It takes “elbow grease” — time and effort to get the potatoes and other ingredients prepared. However, homemade potato salad is so much better than any commercial potatod salad from a deli that it is worth the extra step to make it yourself.

Enjoy!