Potato Salad: The Evolution of a Recipe

 Recently I received an urgent request for the potato salad recipe of Donna Michels. The requestor said she had searched the PDFs of the recipe books, but couldn't find it. I was able to provide a quick link to the recipe on the Hinko Family Recipes blog.

I added that I was certain the recipe also could be found in the PDF of one of the recipe books. It was there. It was just attributed to the person who originally shared the recipe with Donna. The recipe is titled Glenda Unger Potato Salad. It can be found on Page 58 of the PDF titled The Orange Binder. Comparing the two recipes establishes the provenance. But it's the differences that bring forth the evolution.

Both recipes call for the addition of a bay leaf to the potato boiling water. But in Donna's later edition, the one from Hinko Family Recipes, she doesn't boil the potatoes, she steams them. This yielded a more favorable texture.

From there, we find an assortment of tweaks made over the years. 

There's a switch from cooking oil to olive oil. In the mid twentieth century, olive oil was not a common ingredient in American kitchens. Later in that century, olive oil was everywhere, and it was delicious.

Donna and I would occasionally visit a restaurant in Valparaiso, Indiana called Don Quijote. They served a dish called Patatas Alioli, made with an exceptionally garlicky mayonnaise. Donna upped the amount of garlic in her recipe, using a garlic press to infuse the marinade poured over the freshly steamed potatoes.

My parents moved to Tarpon Springs, Florida, a community of Greek Americans. When we'd visit my parents, we enjoyed a specialty offered in the local restaurants, Greek Potato Salad. Their potato salad didn't use mayonnaise at all, instead dressing the potatoes in lots of olive oil. Also, the potato salad was garnished with Kalamata olives and feta cheese.

If Donna and I planned to enjoy a meal strictly for our own consumption, this is the version we'd make; very garlicky, no mayonnaise, lots of olive oil, Kalamata olives and feta cheese. If we were serving potato salad to guests, we'd try to size up our audience. Would they go for these Mediterranean variations or would they expect the more traditional American potato salad. We could adapt the original recipe to whatever would please the crowd.

I heard back from the original requestor. She thanked me for finding Donna's recipe. She said she made some changes to the list of ingredients. And she added bacon. The evolution continues.