Doctoring up store bought potato salad


 

Jim Morgan

TVWBB Fan
Hey guys, I've got a catering gig coming up, and I want to use some potato salad from Sam's Club. Any reccomendations to what they have, and how to kick it up a notch?

Seems like I heard someone said once to add egg salad to it, and that helped it a lot.

Thanks for any advice.
 
I'm not familiar with Sam's salads but here are a few suggestions you might want to consider. Many commercially made salads lose whatever zip they might have had over time and end up kind of flat and sweet. If you get potato salad with egg already in it then adding more would be overkill; I think the egg addition is a good idea though, especially if you can make it yourself. If the potato salad is already creamy as is, err on the side of caution and make the egg salad drier. You can always add more mayo later; it's hard to fix a too-creamy/loose salad after the fact.

There are a few additions common to potato salads that lose their zip when sitting too long: lemon juice and/or vinegar, onion, and mustard. If you can get a mustardless/eggless salad as a base you could then add your own mustard too. (I'd use Dijon here; it adds higher, fuller flavor notes than standard yellow.) A dash of Tabasco is nice. A little lemon will brighten flavors as will vinegar. Go lightly on the lemon juice, or use a little finely grated zest, so as not to make it lemon-y) I use rice vinegar when I'm punching up creamy salads because it's softer. Minced sweet onion (like Vidalia) will help restore whatever onion is already in there.

Working in some fresh parsley, finely minced, is always welcome in potato salads, imo. And,I if you're doing buffet serving, a scattering on finely diced red bell pepper on top does a lot for visual appeal.

If you have to do much of this ahead of time, get eggless potato salad, make an egg salad on the dry side with a little mayo, Dijon and Vidalia in it. Store it separately. Before you lay out your spread, fold the egg salad into the potato salad, squeezing a few drops of lemon here and there and a few of rice vinegar. Taste periodically for balance and add the minced parsley. Scatter on the fine red bell dice and serve.

(If you need to mince parsley early do this: Wash you bunch(es) and shake well to remove excess water. Strip off the leaves and pile them on a few paper towels stacked up. Wad the paper towels around the parsley leaves and squeeze the hell out of them extracting as much water as possible. Repeat if necessary, you want it pretty dry. Mince the parsley leaves. Lay a folded-over paper towel in the bottom of a flat storage container; put the parsley on that and cover with a lid leaving one corner loose. Store chilled. Don't make the parsley too deep in the storage container--maybe an inch tops. It'll stay fresh and bright for sevearl hours if kept chilled.)

You can certainly add other stuff too--I love minced green olives in potato salad--but when catering, as you no doubt know, you often have to walk the middle ground.
 
Horseradish sauce- I buy Kraft Horseradish sauce in a mayonaise form. I put it in everything just a little to add a hint of flavor so it peaks everyone taste buds.
 

 

Back
Top