Allison, it depends on how you want your potato salad to turn out. Some folks like theirs to be soft at mushy, much like mashed potatoes with a few smaller chunks in it. Others prefer firm potato salad with a little "tooth" to the pieces. For soft potato salad, use russet or Yukon gold. For more solid pieces, use red potatoes. We like it both ways, and also will sometimes use both types of potatoes so there is a little of the mashy-type mixed in with the chunks. Here's a picture of the mashed style:
I like to use fingerlings or baby creamers about the size of chestnuts. But if you are going to slice the potatoes you might use some that have interesting colors like purple.
Kind of depends what you like. Lately I've been getting some small potatoes called "Butter Babies" which are reminiscent of Yellow Finns, the first yellow potatoes I saw and the sweetest. For firmness, Peruvian Purples- they mostly work well in combinations. There are a lot of "baby" potatoes out there now- it seems to be a major marketing push- most of them I've tried are pretty darned good.
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