Rodney Scott’s Potato Salad

Looks flavorful, doesn’t it?

Potato Salad is usually hit or miss, hopefully this hits.

Time: 55 minutes

Difficulty: 1/5

Ingredient Availability: 5/5

Homemade potato salad is almost always better than restaurant or store bought. Not only can you make it exactly how you like it, but it’s also just more fresh than the alternative. This recipe calls has a few interesting aspects to it, including using Rodney’s Rib Rub from his cookbook and calling for relish. We’ll see how it turns out.

Key Ingredients & Omissions:

He went all out with the ingredients on this one

The recipe calls for red potatoes, but I already had some russet potatoes, so I just used those. Also, I used dill relish instead of sweet relish. Other than those two substitutions, I used everything the recipe calls for. However, this is a recipe that you can customize to your liking, so leaving out or adding things is completely acceptable here.

Tools:

• Big Bowl

Cooking Review:

Prep: 16 Minutes

To prep for this recipe, I quartered my potatoes, measured out my mayo and other condiments, and chopped the red onion and celery. While I waited for the water to come to a boil. I went ahead and mixed the dressing together.

Cooking Potatoes: 20 minutes

Once the water had come to a boil, I added some salt and the potatoes. After 20 minutes, I was able to piece the potatoes easily with a knife. I drained the potatoes at this point.

Finishing salad: 19 Minutes

After I drained the potatoes, I finished the dressing and added the hot potatoes to it, using a wooden spoon to break up and mix the potatoes. While the potatoes were boiling, I was also boiling the hard boiled eggs. I peeled and chopped those next and added them to the potato salad. Finally, I added the scallions and rib rub to the salad. Below, you can see that it looks a little soupy, but that resolves itself after being refrigerated.

Analysis:

The flavors here are pretty bold. There’s a little of everything here, from sweetness, saltiness, acidity, and even spiciness. Initially, I though that there was a good mixture of textures with the celery, potatoes, potato skin, scallions, relish, and eggs. However, in hindsight I think that it could do with a little less variety of textures, as it can get a little overwhelming at times with so many textures going on. The rib rub definitely sets this potato salad apart from most others, as I think this is where some spice and complexity comes from. At the same time, the flavors can be pretty intense, so If that’s not what you look for in a potato salad, this may not be the one for you. In all, I think this recipe earns a 8/10. The flavor is impressive, if not bordering on too much. The texture is nice, but at times a little chaotic feeling. I think that this recipe has some good ideas, but just needs a little refinement or toning down to be better.