Potato Salad (Sous Vide)

I love good potato salad, and I’ve made batch after batch in pursuit of duplicating the best I’ve made (a few of which were the one’s made by a friend- Aaron DiGeorge,) and have regularly come up disappointed.   The secret is in cooking the potatoes.  I’ve tried roasted, boiled whole (no), boiled diced, etc.. and it’s VERY difficult (at least for me) to get just the right “stays chunky but mushes with mild pressure” consistency.  So, sous vide.   Sous vide cooks at a precise temperature, and lengthens the window of perfection, so this time, I found a few sous vide recipes, and adapted them for my potato salad.  Here you are.  You’re welcome.

Ingredients

• 2.5 lbs russet potatoes (Yukon gold would be better- it’s what I had on hand for this batch) diced into 1″ chunks
• 3 hard boiled eggs rough chopped.
• 1 cup of real mayonnaise
• 1 tsp of sugar
• 1/2 – 1 tbsp yellow mustard
• 1 stalk of celery, diced
• 1/4 cup diced dill pickles
• 1/2 cup minced white onion (or equivalent onion powder if you want- I was out of onion on this good batch.)
• 1-1.5 tsp salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp of pepper to taste

Cook the potatoes

• Dice potatoes into approximately 1″ chunks.
• Vacuum seal the potatoes in a single layer in one or multiple bags.
• Set sous vide temperature of the water oven to 183F/84C.  Let water come to temp.
• Add bagged potatoes to water.  Cook for 45 to 60 minutes, testing after 45 minutes.  Potatoes are done when pressing lightly but firmly on one through the bag causes it to “shear.”
• Remove bags, run under very cold water, or add to ice water bath to stop cooking.

Make the dressing

1. Mix all other ingredients except eggs

Final

Add potatoes and eggs to dressing.  Toss with a large spoon.  Refrigerate till time to eat.  Enjoy.

Sous vide for potatoes adapted from Craig’s Potato Salad