Almost every American family has its favorite memories of the 4th of July. Maybe it’s fireworks in your hometown, picnics at the beach, a local carnival or maybe a concert in the park. My memories are mixed. Yes, happy simpler times, with family and friends — but mixed with some rather awkward memories from a fat girl who was just a little too old to wear a paper plate hat for 4th of July parades at home with her cousins.
Yes, I’m the one with the white Go-Go boots. My mom and aunt made all of our festive tent dresses — perfect for chubby girls.
I got to be Majorette for this ragtag parade. I think Aunt Helen was promoted to hat maker.
Our Great Aunts Rose and Ally were the hat makers in the early years.
Awkward as I might have felt these are still very fond memories of the 4th of July — hanging out with my cousins, letting our moms and aunts dress us up for a parade, having our own little 4th of July Queen contests, and riding through little almost abandon towns on the back an old convertible — doing our best queen waves and wearing 60’s flowered hats.
This is similar to our hats — they tied under our chins so they wouldn’t blow off! So image the crew of girls above in these hats waving on the back of a convertible waving at random people they didn’t know in towns they weren’t from…
After our parade there would always be a picnic and the star of the show was always Aunt Margaret’s Potato Salad. As many a recipe, Aunt Margaret didn’t write this recipe down — she kept it in her head. In the quest to make the perfect potato salad the summer my son was a senior in high school I made 75 pounds. This is pretty gosh darn close. It never is quite as good when I only make 5 pounds, which makes no sense at all, but maybe my 6th-grade math skills aren’t so good anymore.
Tips I remember from helping her make it for weddings:
Always use red potatoes, at least 10 pounds, never use mayonnaise, buy the cheap store brand salad dressing (we were poor, no name brands for our family) use the whole quart, a dozen boiled eggs give or take, a couple of chopped onions, add some sugar and vinegar to your salad dressing, squirt in a generous amount of mustard. Taste it — adjust as necessary — Salt and pepper to taste. Simple ingredients, but not so simple to pull off.
A note here to let you know — Aunt Margaret’s potato salad was famous — she even sold it in the neighborhood grocery store — so the quest to duplicate for future generations became an obsession.
- 10 pounds red potatoes
- 1-quart salad dressing or Mayo -- whatever you like best or have on hand
- 8 to 12 boiled eggs -- I prefer 8, the more you use the drier your salad will be
- 2 large white salad onions -- sweet ones are nice also
- ⅔ cup white sugar
- ⅓ cup white vinegar
- 3 to 6 TBSP yellow mustard
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Garnish with paprika and/or fresh chopped parsley
- Potatoes: Peel and dice into 1" cubes, boil in salted water until fork soft - about 15 to 20 minutes -- watch closely so they stay firm. Ideally, chill overnight. **This is the quickest way to do the potatoes, but my preferred way is to boil red potatoes with skins on -- let them cool in the fridge and then peel and dice -- I think the flavor is better, but it does take longer.
- Eggs: Cover eggs with cold water, bring to a boil. Cover and remove from the heat. Let sit 20 minutes. Rinse with cold water. Cool and ideally chill overnight.
- If you can not prepare the potatoes and eggs the day before you put the salad together, cool both to at least room temperature and chill as long as possible before you put it together.
- Assembly:
- Peel eggs place yokes in a deep bowl for the dressing. Dice the whites and mix into potatoes.
- Finely dice onions. Mix into potato and egg whites.
- Dressing: Mash egg yokes and add salad dressing, sugar, vinegar, and mustard. Salt and pepper to taste.
- Add dressing to potato mixture. Chill at least 2 hours -- preferably overnight.
- Potato salad is one of those foods that tastes better when it has a chance for the flavors to meld together so I highly recommend chilling overnight.
Diced potatoes, eggs and onions
Smash egg yolks to create a smooth dressing
Mix dressing ingredients into the mashed egg yolk. Taste and add salt & pepper to taste — if too tart add more sugar to taste a little at a time.
Garnish with parsley and/or paprika. Chill at least 2 to 4 hours, but best if made the day before.
You sure do stand out in those boots! Shared your post on twitter!
I love potato salad. This looks delicious. It’s interesting how a salad like this is better after a day. I guess it gives it time to let the flavors gel together.
What a delicious potato salad. Perfect for the 4th of july!
This reminds me of the potato salad my late Aunt Mary, who grew up in Oklahoma, made. I suspect the Salad dressing vs. mayo thing is a Heartland vs. East Coast thing, because we in NYC would always have used mayo.
I am not a fan of Salad Dressing in most things, but the sweet/sour ratio is better with dressing than Mayo for this recipe — although I will use either in a pinch.
My Husby is a potato salad connoisseur!
I’m going to try your recipe on him. It sounds absolutely delicious!
I’ll let you know . . .
Thanks — If you use a store brand rather than Miracle Whip — make sure you taste to adjust the sweet/sour — some of the store brands are a little heavy on vinegar . I’d love to see how it works for you!
This recipe is reminiscent of the potato salad my mother used to make though she didn’t make it in such large quantities. She always used salad dressing but she did spring for Miracle Whip – no store brand. And she didn’t mash the egg yolks and mix into the dressing. I’m going to try this recipe for my next contribution to a picnic potluck. Sans hat, though I think you looked adorable in your homemade hats and dresses!
I think Margaret mashed the egg yokes mostly when she was making commercial batches for the local store — makes it a little smoother for those that think they don’t like eggs I suspect. My kids were better at eating it without chucks of yolks.
I can’t believe they made us wear paper plates on our heads with nylon net pom-poms…
Mary, is this Margaret Andersons recipe by any chance?
Hi Ann,
No Margaret Brighton
Thanks!
I agree that some of those childhood family get togethers were not some of the most photogenic moments of our lives, but definitely some of our favorites. Thanks for linking those precious photos to the #Celebrate Patriotic Party this month.
Hubby and I have developed this insatiable craving for ALL the potato salads. Now I’ve got a new one to make. Thank you for sharing!!! And you know what? We’ve all got the “wow” photos from childhood – and in a flash, we can time travel back into what it was like to be a little girl. The beautiful memories are all that matter, and they’re ours to keep forever.
This looks so good. I tweeted it!