Potato Salad
3 good sized potatoes 1 teaspoonful of salt 1 saltspoonful of black pepper Pare and boil the potatoes. While they are boiling, pre- 9 tablespoonfuls of olive oil 3 tablespoonfuls of vinegar I good sized onion 3 or 4 sprigs of parsley pare the dressing. Put the salt and pepper into a bowl, and add gradually the oil; stir until the salt is thoroughly dissolved; add gradually the vinegar, stirring all the while. Chop the onion very, very fine. When the potatoes are done, cut them into thin slices, mix them carefully with the onion, then add the dressing, and turn them upside down without breaking the potatoes. Dish and stand away in a cold place for one or two hours. Sprinkle with the parsley chopped very fine. The dish may be garnished with parsley and pickled beets cut in fancy shapes. 6 tomatoes
A plain oil-and-vinegar potato salad, no mayonnaise. The text has come through with the ingredient column tangled into the method, and the stray "6 tomatoes" at the end belongs to the recipe that follows, not to this one.
- The full ingredient listThree good-sized potatoes, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 saltspoon black pepper, 9 tablespoons olive oil, 3 tablespoons vinegar, 1 good-sized onion, 3 or 4 sprigs parsley. A saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon.
- Dress the potatoes warmThe recipe has you slice and dress the potatoes as soon as they are done, which works in the cook's favour: warm potato absorbs the vinaigrette, cold potato sheds it. Cutting them into a bowl straight from the pot makes the difference between a seasoned salad and oily slices.
- The dressing ratioNine parts oil to three parts vinegar is a standard 3:1 vinaigrette, a generous half cup of oil to 3 tablespoons vinegar. This recipe has you dissolve the salt in the oil first; dissolving it in the vinegar works better, since salt is not soluble in oil.
- Choose a waxy potatoThe recipe assumes a potato that holds its shape through boiling and slicing. Yukon Gold, red-skinned or fingerling will slice cleanly; a russet will collapse into the dressing at the turning stage.
- Onion quantityA whole good-sized raw onion, chopped very fine, is assertive by current standards. A small yellow onion, or a shallot, gives the same effect without dominating; slicing it thin and soaking it briefly in the vinegar takes the edge off.
- "Turn them upside down"Read alongside "without breaking the potatoes," this appears to mean folding the salad over on itself with a spoon or the hands rather than stirring, so the slices coat without breaking.
- Resting timeOne to two hours in a cold place lets the flavour settle. Follow the recipe and keep it genuinely cold; if it has been refrigerated, let it lose the worst of the chill before serving, or the oil will be dull and stiff.
- YieldThree potatoes will serve roughly three or four as a side dish, depending on their size.
Potato salad dressed with oil and vinegar rather than boiled dressing or mayonnaise is the older form, and American cookbooks of the 1880s and 1890s often label such versions as German or French in character; the creamy mayonnaise-bound version that now dominates picnic tables became the American default later. Summer and hot-weather cookery collections of the period tended to favour dishes that could be finished early, stood away in a cold place, and served without firing the range again at dinnertime, and potatoes boiled in the morning, dressed while warm, and left to sit fit that logic. The garnish of pickled beets cut in fancy shapes reflects a period table style in which a cold dish was expected to arrive looking composed rather than casual.