Aunt Betty’s Comfort Kitchen · Classics

Traditional Potato Salad

Name: Traditional Potato Salad
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 900 g potatoes; 4 hard-cooked eggs; 30 g celery; 40 g onion; 60 g sweet pickle relish; 20 g chopped pimento; 275 g mayonnaise

The cookout standard — tender potatoes, chopped egg, sweet pickle relish, and pimento in a creamy mayo dressing. Dressed while warm so it's seasoned all the way through, then chilled.

~45 min + chill total 25 min prep 1 hr+ chill

Effort ●●○○ Time ●●○○ Some Doing

VegetarianGluten-Free

Servingsamounts scale to match

Units

Ingredients

Dress the potatoes while they're still warm, then chill. Warm potatoes drink in the mayo and seasoning, so they taste seasoned all the way through. Cut the cubes the same size so they cook evenly, and pull them the moment a knife slides in — overcooked, they turn the salad to mush.

Easier, if you like

Leftover or pre-cooked potatoes and store-bought hard-boiled eggs turn this into an assembly job.
Jarred diced pimento (near the olives) is exactly what the recipe wants — no roasting peppers.

Method

Cook's notes

Leaving the peel on about a quarter of the cubes is Betty's touch — a little rustic texture and color. Use a waxy or all-purpose potato (Yukon Gold or red) so the cubes hold their shape.

Season while warm. A splash of pickle juice or vinegar over the warm potatoes, before the mayo, brightens the whole bowl.

Sweet pickle relish and pimento are the classic Southern combo — tangy-sweet with a little color. Dill relish makes a sharper salad.

Better after a few hours chilled; keeps 3–4 days covered.

Make it vegan (it's already vegetarian and gluten-free)

Gluten-free: it already is — just confirm your mayo and relish (nearly all are).

Vegan: use a vegan mayonnaise and leave out the eggs (or fold in some chopped firm tofu for a similar bite).

See Betty’s original page

Betty’s hand-lettered “Classics” page — Traditional Potato Salad is at upper right, alongside the Ro*Tel and California dips, Hush Puppies, Southern Fried Corn, and Fantasy Fudge.