I learned this trick from a friend while preparing potato salad for her daughter's wedding:

After boiling, skinning, and cubing the potatoes, marinate them in a little vinaigrette for a few hours before adding the mayonnaise and other ingredients. This gives the potato salad a whole new depth. Use white vinegar or rice vinegar or white balsamic vinegar to keep from darkening the potatoes, and good olive oil.

Elise, this was delicious! Made it for a Labor Day party and got compliments. I couldn't resist adding stuff, which is a bad habit of mine. To your terrific base recipe, I added some roasted corn and to the dressing, I added some buttermilk, since I had it out for a cake and was really loving that tangy taste. With the buttermilk, I ended up adding a bit more mustard.

Love your blog!

Ever tried some sliced apples in your potato salad - DEEEEElicious !

My mom always put dill pickle juice in her potato salad. It is almost the same recipe..cept mom always used good ole' ball park mustard and sometimes some sliced green olives.

Thanks for the comments, y'all. I've been making this with Kosher Dill pickles & the juice for lots of years. Tonight I was wondering if there were recipes for this in cyberspace or did I just make it up and enjoying this alone? :-) Makes me wonder...Has anyone reading this ever try POLISH DILL PICKLE SOUP? Has a very similar flavor only its a creamy soup version...CHECK IT OUT....YUM!

Made this tonight to go with Elise's pulled pork recipe. I thought it was really good. I used regular european mustard, increasing the amt. since I like a mustardy potato salad, and used cornichons since we don't get dill pickles here. Used green onion instead of scallions. I thought it was really delicious.

Parsley is used quite often in many recipes. However, a replacement for parsley that you might want to try is fresh cilantro. This adds a real great taste the potato salad. We try to rip off just the leaves and use them only. It may take a moment of your time, but is well worth it. Many of our friends are wowed at the unique taste.

I made this recipe for a BBQ get together with friends last night. I doubled the recipe and thank goodness I did because the bowl was pretty much licked clean! Rave reviews from all! I added and omitted a few things but overall this recipe is great. I highly recommend it!

I found a recipe in Cook's illustrated similiar to yours and your Dad's. The only exception was half mayo and half sour cream. I used red onion as well, diced small. This is my first attempt ever trying to make potato salad, had a big craving for it with my bbq chicken. The recipe I had also suggest yukon but I had the little red russets and it turned out so good. Everyone like it, including my Mexican boyfriend and by picky sons that don't normally eat potato salad. I do think it is the pickle juice and the the Dijon mustard that makes the differnce. It wasn't the bright yellow salad that would scare my children away in the past.

This recipe is for your Dad, and everyone else, it's a Germany Potato Salad with Sour Cream. I was looking through an old, copyright date 1961, New York Times Cookbook by Craig Claiborne and remembered I hadn't made this is years, but it is so good.

1 pound potatoes, boiled (about 4 medium potatoes)
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup thinly sliced cucumber (optional)
Paprika

1. Slice potatoes while still warm. If new potatoes are used, slice in their jackets. Old potatoes should be peeled.
2. Mix the sugar, salt, mustard, pepper and vinegar. Ad the sour cream and cucumber and mix. Pour over the potatoes and toss lightly until all the potatoes have been coated with dressing. Turn into a serving dish and sprinkle with paprika. Serve warm or cool. Serves 4

I grew up eating Texas-style potato salad made with Russett potatoes, dill pickles and dill pickle juice, onions, celery, and lots of yellow mustard (hardly any mayo). Some of my aunts put boiled eggs in theirs but not always. They also would kind of mash the potatoes until lumpy. You don't find people making that old-time Texas potato salad much anymore. They make it way too creamy and don't mash it like they used to.

This is the second time I'am making this for a holiday picnic. The first time it was very good but this time I stepped out of the "box" and sprinkled in a generous amount of celery seed, threw in some of the celery leaves, added a tablespoon of cider vinegar to the mayo and Grey Poupon Dijon mustard mix. I gave my husband a spoonful to taste test. he looked up at me and said "that's it" "tastes just like my aunt Tish's" btw, your dad was right about using Russett potatoes. thank you Dad!