

18
MY
ROUSES
EVERYDAY
maY | JUNE 2016
M
y mother was the queen of potato salad. It was always
on the menu for barbecues, fish fries, and Sunday family
gatherings. As children, we called it “wet” potato salad
because it was so moist with mayonnaise. Mama always told us that
it was very important to cut the potatoes in chunks because she
didn’t care for “mashed” potato salad.
For many years, she made the homemade mayonnaise by hand. I
remember sitting on my stool in the kitchen (or at the camp)
watching her mash a hard-boiled egg yolk with a raw egg yolk in
a shallow bowl, and adding drips of vegetable oil, a little at a time,
and blending it with a fork until it was just the right consistency. She
added just enough fresh lemon juice or white distilled vinegar, salt,
black pepper, and a pinch of sugar to satisfy her taste buds. In later
years, she used what she called her “mayonnaise jar.”The quart-size
jar had a lid that was inverted and had a small hole. A metal “plunger”
fit through the hole. Then you could add a little oil to the lid. The
oil dribbled into the egg yolks, and the plunger was moved up and
down to mix the components.Wow! Even when we presented Mama
with an electric mixer and a food processor, she chose to make her
mayonnaise by hand!
Before she mixed the mayonnaise with the boiled potatoes and
chopped hard-boiled eggs, she always made a survey: Should we
add chopped onions, celery, green olives, parsley, or sweet pickle
relish? We would all yell “only a bit of parsley!” We didn’t want
anything marring the taste of the salad!
Mama’s “Wet” Potato
Salad
Makes about 8 servings
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
5 pounds red potatoes, scrubbed
Rouses salt
8 hard-boiled eggs,
peeled and coarsely chopped
Rouses freshly ground black pepper
Hot sauce
Optional:
¼ cup minced celery
¼ cup finely chopped green onions
2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
HOW TO PREP
Boil the potatoes in salted water until fork
tender. Remove from the heat and drain. Set
aside to cool. When cool enough to handle,
peel the potatoes and chop coarsely.
Put the chopped potatoes and eggs in a large
serving bowl. Mama put them in layers, i.e.,
a layer of potatoes, a layer of eggs, sprinkles
of salt and pepper, a dash of hot sauce, then
continued the layering until all was used. Then
add the mayonnaise and whatever condiments
you wish and toss gently (so as not to break
up the potatoes) to mix.
Mama’s “Wet” Potato Salad
Mama NEVER chilled the salad. The
potatoes and eggs were at room
temperature. The mayonnaise was
chilled for about an hour or so, then
immediately added to the salad right
before serving.
Pig Tales
by Marcelle Bienvenu continued ...
photo by
Eugenia Uhl
the
Pork
issue