Alma’s potato salad is the epitome of southern cooking (Alma is my aunt). A whole lot of eggs, mayo, and sweet pickles help make this dish a southern classic. We served it at our 4 July get together earlier this month, and it was a big hit. The eggs and mayo give this dish a creamy texture. Most southern style salads use sweet relish or chopped sweet pickles. I make a slightly different version of this recipe (see my recipe for Nearly Southern Style Potato Salad), but I use chopped dill pickles or dill relish instead of the sweet pickles. Not that Alma’s potato salad isn’t good; I just prefer dill pickles over sweet pickles. I still ate more than my fair share of Alma’s potato salad at the cookout.
See The Glory of Southern Cooking: Recipes for the Best Beer-Battered Fried Chicken, Cracklin’ Biscuits, Carolina Pulled Pork, Fried Okra, Kentucky Cheese
Check out Paula Deen’s Southern Cooking Bible: The New Classic Guide to Delicious Dishes with More Than 300 Recipes
It’s a bit difficult to keep salads and meat cool and safe in the Florida summer. I served the potato salad in a double disposable tin. I filled the small tin with small ice cubes, then put the tin of potato salad on top. That kept it cool for most of our cookout. It was fairly breezy, too. That helped with the overbearing heat.
Alma's Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 6-8 large potatoes peeled and diced
- 18 eggs
- 8 tablespoons sweet relish or chopped sweet pickle
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 2 cups mayonnaise
- salt & pepper
Instructions
- Hard boil the eggs. Set aside to cool.
- Bring potatoes to a boil in a large pot of well-salted water. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook until potatoes are tender, about 15-20 minutes. Drain well.
- Chop eggs in a large bowl. Add onion, relish, mayonnaise, and two or three dashes of ground pepper. Add potatoes and mix well. Adjust salt as needed.
And I get a big bowl of it all to myself each birthday!
Lucky you!
Aunt Alma has a fan here!