Jubilee Country-Style Potato Salad

Rich and eggy, this easy-going potato salad was one of our favorite recipes in Toni Tipton-Martin’s Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking, from which it is adapted. We reviewed the book, which won the 2020 James Beard Award for best American cookbook, in June, 2020.

You can use any type of potato in this recipe. The instructions are written for larger ones, such as russets or full-sized Yukon Golds; if you use smaller ones, such as fingerlings, you wouldn’t need to cut them up before cooking; just slice them or chop roughly before mixing. Also, red-skinned potatoes don’t need to be peeled, just scrubbed.

Serves 8 to 12.

Ingredients

2 pounds peeled and cut-up potatoes, in 1-inch cubes (about 4 1/2 to 5 cups; see headnote)

1/2 cup diced celery

1/2 cup sliced scallions (white and green parts, about 2 or 3 scallions)

4 hard-boiled eggs, coarsely chopped

3 tablespoons sweet pickled relish

2 tablespoons yellow, Creole or Dijon mustard

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Paprika, for finishing

Instructions

1. Place the potatoes in a large saucepan, and cover them with salted water by an inch or so. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until fork-tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Drain and cool.

2. In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, celery, scallions eggs and relish. Set aside.

3. Make the dressing: In a small bowl, stir together the mustard, mayonnaise and pepper. Gently fold this into the potato mixture until well mixed. Taste and adjust seasoning. Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight to allow flavors to marry.

4. Sprinkle the potato salad with paprika before serving.

Recipe notes

Tipton-Martin’s headnote says any type of potato can be used; we tested the recipe with russets. The recipe calls for 5 cups of them, which the author says is “about 2 pounds”; for us two pounds measured about 4 1/2 cups, so we went with weight, as it’s easier to purchase two pounds than to try to imagine how many potatoes 5 cups diced would be.

Diced, they cooked much quicker than the 30 to 40 minutes the original recipe called for and adjusted the time accordingly, so you don’t wind up with waterlogged spuds. You can also cook the potatoes whole in their skins in salted water till just tender, which is what we usually do. Once they’re cool enough to handle, slip them out of their skins and cut them up.

The recipe calls for additional salt in the dressing, but if you use commercial mayo and salt the potato water, you shouldn’t need any more salt. Best to adjust at the end.