These Are The Superior Potatoes For A Creamy Potato Salad

Spring has sprung, and with the warm weather comes that most glorious of cold cookout staples, the potato salad. While there are all sorts of different ways you can prepare a potato salad — you can even serve it warm, like German potato salad – it's impossible to resist something so smooth and delicious. But what potatoes should you use for this creamy concoction? We asked a couple of chefs for their advice and they told us that all-purpose potatoes, like Yukon Gold, will give you the creamiest results. (If you want it extra-creamy, you can always swap mayo for soft-boiled eggs in potato salad.)

First, it's important to know the differences between the different kinds of potatoes. David Kirschner, founder of the private dining company dineDK, broke it down for us. Waxy potatoes include varieties such as "new potatoes, fingerlings, red bliss, and marble potatoes," he explained. "Starchy potatoes, also known as russet potatoes, are your Idaho potatoes and baking potatoes." Starchy potatoes, Kirschner warned, aren't ideal for potato salad, because you "run the risk of turning it into the texture of a mashed potato after mixing." He prefers waxy and all-purpose potatoes for potato salad, because "the starches will lend themselves to that creamy texture, but you still maintain the integrity of the potato itself, even under heavy mixing."

Megan McCarthy, founder of Healthy Eating 101 and Edible Garden Chef at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, concurs with Kirschner, specifically singling out Yukon Golds if you're after a creamy potato salad. "They strike the best balance between holding their shape and offering natural creaminess without falling apart," she told us.

So you know what kind of potato you're going to buy from the supermarket, but how do you know which specific potatoes you want? Do you want something nice and big, or something cute and compact? How hard should the potato be? Are a couple of bumps okay, or should they be completely unblemished? Experts David Kirschner and Megan McCarthy, once again, have us covered.

McCarthy advised us to be scrupulous in our potato selection. The spuds should be "firm, with no soft spots," she explained. We should "avoid green tints, sprouting eyes, and deep bruises." As for size, we should look for "uniform size for even cooking." This will help to give the potato salad a more consistent texture.

When picking your spuds, "the size of the potato should be relative to the recipe you are using it for," explained Kirschner. That means bigger potatoes for something like a french fry, and smaller potatoes for something like a dish of roasted red potatoes. As for potato salad, well, we like nice, bite-sized chunks for ours, but you are the master of your domain. Once you've chosen yours, to properly prepare the potatoes for potato salad, start cooking them in cold water rather than hot to stop them from turning mushy. Or to switch things up, try using sweet potatoes for an earthy twist on potato salad.