My grandma's potato salad secret from a picnic in 2012

I was helping my grandma, Helen, set up for a family picnic at Lakeview Park and watched her add a whole tablespoon of yellow mustard to her potato salad dressing. I always thought it was just mayo and celery seed... She said her mom taught her that the vinegar in the mustard keeps the potatoes from tasting dull after sitting out. Does anyone else have a weird ingredient that actually makes a classic dish better?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_lee23d ago

My aunt puts a splash of pickle juice in her deviled eggs for the same reason, to keep them bright. That mustard trick is so smart. I agree with @tara793, it's cool how those old fixes are just good science. It makes me want to ask my mom about the weird things she does when she cooks, like why she puts sugar in spaghetti sauce. What's the strangest tip you've gotten from a family member?

tara79323d ago

It's funny how the best cooking tips come from solving a real problem. Your grandma's mustard trick is basically old-school food science. Those little fixes are what make family recipes actually work.

grant.susan23d ago

Exactly, it's all just problem solving with what you have. I read an article once about how a lot of classic recipes came from making do. Like adding vinegar to pie crust because the butter wasn't always cold, or using sour milk in cakes before baking soda was common. Those fixes got passed down as "the right way" to do it, but they started as a workaround. It makes you wonder how many of our own kitchen habits are just old solutions we don't even question anymore.