why we’re afraid to cook + salad olivier
I’ve had an entire week to read your cooking phobias as they rolled in and you know what? I had a lot fewer cooking fears when I started this process! I mean, fish? offal? phyllo? Why hadn’t I thought of those? Thank goodness I warned you I’d be doing some outsourcing.
[View the details of your cooking phobias over here.]
But really, when you read 363 tales of kitchen apprehension in a row, several times, certain things smack you in the face. Like the fact that we’re all such worrywarts, aren’t we? And so irrational, determining that just because something went horribly awry once, it will continue to do so for ever and ever and..
You’re right, I’m talking mostly about myself, but surely at least some of these reasons are familiar:
Why We’re Afraid to Cook
1. Our mother or mother-in-law cooks it better: Whether it is out of respect, deference or certainty that your version will pale, it seems that there are many of you who don’t even want to touch dishes that are others’ signatures.
2. The Food Police scared us: They’ve struck an absurd amount of fear into our hearts, now our panic over undercooked chicken and eggs or imperfectly canned food is so great, we cannot approach either calmly or rationally. (Don’t worry, I’ll get to all of these in time.)
3. It went really badly the last time (or times) we made it: So you’ve responded by keeping your distance. Had I not been actually forced by the deadline of the wedding and my desire to make a specific frosting for the wedding cake, I would have taken a year to get back to Swiss buttercream. At least.
4. We jinx ourselves: Failure is so often a self-fulfilling prophesy, wherein we are so certain something is going to go wrong, we indeed make some futzy errors. (This would be me, with phyllo, every single time.)
5. It’s hard to get our head around the steps: I admit, I feel more confident when I can remember a recipe without even looking back at it, because it is simple, or proceeds in logical steps. I always forget that I’m only expected to do one thing at a time.
6. There’s a very specific deal breaker: It requires pig’s blood, will stink up your apartment or serve 24 people. Kim Severson discussed these in a funny article in the New York Times last month, and she’s absolutely right. It only takes one word of some of these for me to flip the page and call out “next!”
7. We’re afraid of wasting an expensive ingredient: Many of you mentioned this in reference to large cuts of meat and good fish, where the price of making an error seems so steep, a flop is that much more of a risk. I totally get it as when I blow it on a pricey dish, I feel that much more awful about it.
8. Our skills aren’t where we wish they were: Recipes that require poached eggs, when you’re terrible at poaching eggs, just seem easier to skip. So can instructions that demand a fine brunoise or long, thin juliennes if you haven’t taken a semester of knife skills, or have a natural finesse in the area (or a really good mandoline, at least in the case of juliennes).
Do I have answers to all of these? Well, not today, but I will in time–well, on everything but the offal that is, a girl’s got to draw the line somewhere.
However, reason number one–”Our mother-in-law cooks it better”–got me thinking about my Alex’s mother Salad Olivier, something I adore but when I tried to make it at home a few years ago–my first potato salad ever, and also with virtually no experience cooking potatoes–it was a gloppy disaster and I haven’t made it since.
Or hadn’t. I mean, if I’m going to try to get us through our cooking worries here, I suppose I should take the lead and reattempt one of the easiest salads on earth, right?
Now, before you say “I’ve had Salad Olivier and we made it with this and not that,” and also “You’re doing it wrong!” let me warn you that my mother-in-law says that you can put three Russians in a room and they will all make it differently–and they’ll all be right.
Of course, her’s is the most right because it’s getting featured here today. So there.
One year ago: Red Pepper Soup
Salad Olivier
Adapted from Alex’s mother
By the way, even after all of my fussing, I still overcooked the potatoes this time and determined it not as good as my mother-in-laws’. The difference is, I suspect I’ll be revisiting this again much sooner this time because it is so delicious, I cannot let fear keep us apart any longer.
2 pounds Russet potatoes, boiled, peeled and finely diced (1/4- to 1/2-inch for this and all chopped ingredients)
2 eggs, hard-boiled, finely diced (optional)
1 small red or white onion, finely diced
3/4 cup mayonnaise (low-fat, or a mixture of mayo and sour cream work great here)
3 small dill pickles, finely diced
1 cup canned peas and carrots, drained or 1/2 cup cooked peas and 1 carrot, chopped and cooked
Salt and pepper
Mix all ingredients and season to taste.
There’s always something isn’t there? Still, each time a recipe goes RIGHT for me I find my inner three year old shouting “I DID IT!!” (and my real life three year old asking me “Did what, mommy? Did what?”)
My favorite was when I went from someone who really didn’t like potato salad to someone who loves it, as long as it is when I make my new favorite recipe for potato salad. :D
Oh, and hopefully your MIL isn’t the type to “accidentally” leave out a small, but important ingredient for getting the right flavor.
Do extremely demanding cookbook authors (you know, the zucchini has to be hand-picked with blossoms within the last 60 minutes or the vanilla MUST be from Madagascar) count as food police, or are they in a different category?
My mother in law makes the best potato salad in the world. Everyone could potentially fight over the leftovers, in fact, I have almost seen it happen. Not an outright fight of course, we’re Minnesotan Lutherans after all, but strategic placement of the leftovers so no one else will find it, first to the refrigerator later in the night and then of course there is eating it during clean up. Anyway, I did get her recipe and mine batch was good, but not exactly hers! After making it, way too much work to do the potatoes and cook the sauce. She is a jem for making it over and over again. It will be part of her legacy. See photo of it on my blog (search for “Summer Vacation” and you’ll see photo). Seriously to die for food!! Made the old fashioned way by cooking the eggs, milk, sugar together to make your own mayonaise.
Salad Olivier! Oh haha I had the same experience with blinchiki a few days ago. My boyfriend’s mother makes it different from his grandmother and apparently mine is somewhere between theirs! I’ve tried their recipes but they always come in the form of “this many spoonfuls” and “a bowlful of this” and of course my spoons and bowls are different. Nevertheless I love it! I enjoy the ocassional Russian recipes you post and would love to see more!
Mandy, my mother in law is so guilty of that! My husband, his sister, and uncle have been working together for years to figure out what she keeps leaving out of the family meat sauce recipe. Now I’ve been watching her like a hawk too but she’s so sneaky and quick.
it took me over a decade, to figure out how to boil Russets for potato salad w/o overcooking - quarter them first. they cook faster and the outside isn’t mush before the inside is done. leaving the peel on while boiling helps too. hth.
Is that really Olivier salad? The staple of Russian feasts?
Your mother-in-law is right, we all make it slightly different but I think you got all the major ingredients in there, you even mentioned the mixture of sour cream and mayo as a dressing.
BTW it’s the first time I see a vegetarian version of Olivier but I would not be the one to complain .
I definitely have the problem with rejecting recipes if there is an ingredient or step that I’m not familiar with! Great entry. ~Y
My family is Russian, but oddly doesn’t make this at home (they eat it at other people’s homes!). I love all potato salads, so delighted to add this to my list. I like adding a little mustard, though is admittedly not authentic. I also might add some radish for crunch - and radishes are very Russian.
Other Russian favorite- cold borscht with garnishes (eggs, potatoes, pickles, cucumbers, dill).
Once my ice cream maker arrives, I’ll be making the sorbet.
i saw the title of this post and thought to myself, awesome she’s making persian food! i had no idea that this very uncharacteristic persian luncheon staple was actually a russian dish! regardless, yum. my mom makes it with leftover cooked chicken and a bit of mustard.
(so happy to have stumbled onto your blog by the way — it’s really lovely =)
OK Kids: ‘fess up: WHAT KIND OF PICKLES for this salad: dill? B&B? What?
and also, Anya says “… this vegetarian version…”; what is in the version with meat?
Thanks all.
LOL on number one reason. I love that that my boyfriend’s mother cooks completely different things than I do. We once made a recipe of her mother’s and “wasn’t quite the same” but I reminded myself that of course it wasn’t - family recipes are imbued with love and memories of what was … you just have to carry them on and turn them into what will be.
Maybe I will conquer my phyllo fear this weekend… you reminded me that it’s been on the “request” list for several weeks now.
Selkie — The pickles are dill. Many versions of this salad are made with cubed chicken breast as well, but Alex’s mother never makes it that way.
I’m with Selkie….Sweet pickles?….Dill?? Argh!
The potatoes I can handle….and I’m assuming the pickles are sweet. I have never been able to duplicate my Moms potato salad, and unfortunately, she passed away before I could wrestle the recipe away from her. This sounds uber-yummy. Let me know if the pickles are something other than sweet. :)
…never mind….
:)
Iranians take the Salad Olivier recipe to the next level. It’s an intimidating salad and I won’t touch it. My Iranian husband & his mom actually have competitions regarding who can make a better Salad Olivier!
You are so right. Worrying is one of the main problems. Sometimes the best advice for tackling a cooking phobia is to just keep trying. Make it once. If it doesn’t work out, try it again. Or ask friends for help. I resolve to try cooking everything (though I do have few phobias!).
At first, I thought, “Peas and carrots in potato salad?” But you can’t tell by reading or looking at a picture. Even in person, the eyes deceive. You have to taste. And as Jamie Oliver says, “Mr. Potato is best friends with peas and carrots” in other applications, why not in salad? God, I love this blog. Eye candy bolstered by plain language, good stories and THE most supportive atmosphere. A-plus, gold star, three cheers…all of the above. Thanks for being here.
I don’t make yeast bread, I make doorstops. Hope that’s on your list, too.
Kate: “I reminded myself that … family recipes are imbued with love and memories of what was … you just have to carry them on and turn them into what will be.”
Beautifully said.
#3, 4, and 7 are definitely me. Failure in the kitchen can be really depressing, especially because I’m running on a shoestring budget and don’t have much time. I’m in law school and working two jobs in order to afford not to eat ramen all the time, so when I fail in the kitchen, it can be extremely upsetting. Unless it’s literally not edible, I have to eat it, because I can’t get that money back. All week I’ve been eating this eggplant caviar that for some god-awful reason called for a tablespoon of salt, and I feel like wretching every time. For some reason, shoving food down your throat as quickly as possible to ignore the taste is no better when it’s self imposed than when it’s Mom making you do it! I’ll be looking forward to your tips; hopefully less of this will happen in the future.
Debbie,
Your salad “Olivier” looks very authentic, and I am sure, it tastes great.
Let me know if you want any other russian receipes to try out.
I would love to see the chart larger, however, i am not a flicker contact and therefore, do not have the “view all sizes” option. Would you be willing to link to the larger view version of the pie chart? mmmmm, data! delicious!
And i didn’t answer before (longtime reader, poor commenter) so i am afraid of yeast, for sure.
The thing about the Mother-in-Law issue is that, as much as you may like your version better (and I usually do) it is a complete turn-off to cook something for someone who will tell you the dish is good - but not as good - as their mother’s
especially when I cook from scratch and said mother makes insta-food.
ya know?
I use homemade dill pickles.
So take that, Alex’s mom…
Hi Deb — This is in the “Everything Old is New Again” category. I love this salad. I can vouche it’s Russian. My mother was born in Russia — in 1914, she’s 94! But I bet someone else says, no, it’s Italian, I learned from my Italian grandmother. I learned to make this from her. She skipped the carrots, her’s had peas and canned beets. Trust Deb, it’s delicious.
I’ve tried to make her eggplant caviar several times and gave up. Why? I know the method, I know the ingredients. But, I never wrote down, I don’t have her stove, her pot, her hand doing the stirring. (Your mother-in-law’s recipe is different, but I promise I will try it . . . soon.)
We also made cookies we called “Auntie Barbara’s Pie”. It wasn’t pie, it’s a bar cookie. Why did we call it pie? No idea. This was a recipe I learned fifty years ago. Guess what? You’ve printed it as Hungerian Shortbread (I think?) I saw Gale Gand on FoodTV and she called it “Lydia’s Rashberry Shortbread” (I think?) Trust Deb, this is the BEST cookie ever!
The good ones get handed down. My point? Everyone needs to stand next to their mothers, mother-in-laws, dads, etc. and learn the recipes you love, and MOST important: WRITE IT DOWN! Trust me on this, you think you’ll remember . . . you won’t.
I just threw away 24 blackberry muffins that I had planned to take to work because the blackberries sunk and so did the crumb topping (right into the middle of the muffin) and they were inedible. The batter sure did taste good tho! This is my first muffin failure, but it won’t cause me to keep trying new recipes. I love your website and have successfully made things you have presented to us. Thanks for taking the time to put in the beautiful pictures.
Oh Susan that’s a shame! What a lousy disappointment. Could this be a recipe failure? Oven issue? I’m not trying to make too big a deal out of it, but how would you go about learning from it?
Anyway, I wanted to say that I actually PRINTED the graph (nouns: nerd, geek, anal retentive, OCD) and it came out letter sized. If you put your cursor on the graph and right click, you can COPY and then minimize your browser and right click on your desktop and PASTE. This will create a file that you can look at and print. My problem is that I can’t tell which green got a third of the votes: was it cake, fried chicken or rice?
I do a potato salad kind of like this one — it has capers, no pickles or peas, tiny tiny carrot bits (you could pulse them in the food processor, they’re that small) just barely steamed, parsley and everything else is the same. I like to use creme fraiche with a little mayo but it works with just plain mayo quite fine. I do like a little more of the hb eggs in there than this recipe calls for.
Linda, I’m betting on cake being the biggest phobia — so much can go wrong…
Ooh, I had no idea this was a salad with a name! i make a really similar potato salad myself and all along it was already in existence! I love the capers and pickles in there, tangy goodness.
#3, 4, 5, and 8 apply to me, for sure.
I looked at the pie chart and was stunned to see that more than 25 % were afraid of cakes. I then realised it was “other” and calmed down.
E. J., I had to laugh at your comment…my first challah for my husband’s family many years ago was received with the “doorstop” comment…and 30+ years later, I am teasingly reminded of that brick! Now I use a recipe that is very well received! There’s hope!
I have to add to the comments of Selkie (#12) and Leighann (#15). They type of pickle is very, very important. When my father (Southern Indiana) married my stepmother (Georgia coast) when I was a teenager, I discovered that there was more than one type of pickle. Many a sandwich has been ruined by mindlessly pulling a pickle from the fridge without reading the label first (B&B pickles are almost as disgusting to me as Miracle Whip). There are very strong regional alliances over pickles. Yes, this is a salad of Russian origin so it most likely calls for dill pickles. But, I bet there are cooks in the South who make a version with sweet pickles - and their kids think it is the only authentic way to make it.
#7 is defenitly the onefor me. I cant even remeber how many times I didnt do a cake or a dish simply because i though I would waste an expensive ingridient.
for another matter, if i`ll replace the mayonnaise in the salad to sour cream alone (without mayonnaise) , will it be ok? i simply really dont like mayonnaise, and this salad sounds good.
This is quite similar to my Polish grandmother’s recipe but she always used very crunchy purchased from the refrigerated section kosher dill pickles (we’re not Jewish, she just liked the crunch of them), added an apple (I think this one’s the real secret ingredient), polish sausage (which I always skipped when I made this years ago - never been a big fan), used a white onion and usually mixed mayo and miracle whip and added some pickle juice for the tang. I think that’s it but this reminds me of my long list of “recipes” (she eyeballs everything, even ingredients for baking - still not quite sure how that works chemistry-wise but she’s never failed at anything) that I need to get from her while I still can. Thankfully she’s pretty good about sharing the reasons for what she adds and that helps because without measurements, you at least know what flavor or texture component you’re shooting for. I do tend to get pretty close on her dishes when I try them and I always outdo my mother-in-law with one exception - chicken pot pie - but I’ll leave her that one. When your Italian in-laws can’t stop talking about your meatballs (made w/turkey btw) and sauce (thank you Giada!), and are shocked that their Polish daughter-in-law can make such good Italian food, you feel pretty good and that feeling of having something to prove dissipates pretty quickly. Now if only I could get my grandmother’s Christmas Eve borscht and pierogi dough right - the borscht is supposed to be vegetarian - my aunt and I are convinced she put beef in hers for years and now won’t ‘fess up to breaking a religious rule and keeping it a secret. Her borscht is very different from Russian borscht - it’s a hot, red, tangy, clear soup filled with teeny tiny mushroom uszka (dumplings) - it’s soo good. Alas, still so much to learn!
Love the blog btw! Relatively new to it and I can’t stop turning the pages.
Yum!
One question - what kind of pickles?? Sweet or dill? (maybe it doesnt matter, but if I want to get your authentic, best version, I need the right pickle… :)
Cant wait to make this. What a great summer staple!!
Wow, when I was a kid growing up in Iran salad Olivier was my favourite thing ever! I haven’t had it in years, maybe i will try making it. I think a lot of Iranian versions add chicken as well.
Here’s an interesting article on Iranian style Salad Olivier
http://www.iranian.com/Food/2001/May/Salad/index.html
I’ve always been semi-lousy at baking anything that wasn’t the ‘from a box with 3 easy steps’ variety. I did have success with gougeres once, but I also once made the worlds worst guiness chocolate cake - dry, dense, bitter, etc. Maybe it’s how I contribute balance to the universe…
Recipes from relatives! More inlaw or family feuds have started over those recipes! I dogged my MIL for her potato salad recipe and have it down-pat now. But I like another type as well, maybe more. Potato salads (like brownies and cornbread) are like politics..everyone believes they have the Only answer, and everyone else is just misinformed! Thank goodness there are many ways to make it so we can all be happy.
Patience and persistance are the keys to getting any recipe or technique perfected. I just refuse to think that anything that can be thought up and written down by someone else, is out of my realm of success. I’m not much of an innovater though, I do need the recipe for many things. In some instances though, the recipe writer is just too fussy,( like a certain Napa Valley Chef we all know and love!) and the procedures can be worked around. It takes some experience (read: successes and failures) to learn that. That’s why the newer cooks should work through the process, again and again if necessary, and learn it..dern it! Yes..a prime rib is costly but an egg is not. Practice roasting on a cheaper cut..like a cross rib, just to learn how to do it. If you fail..you can make roast beef hash and not feel terrible about it!
Thanks for going through this with all of us, Deb. You are priceless!
Love, love, love potato salad. Especially my late mother’s salad. She added mustard for kick and pickle juice (or vinegar) for tang. But, like you, I tend to screw up when boiling potatoes, they are either under or over cooked. So, sadly, I stick to pasta salads and hope someone offers me some good potato salad every summer.
I was very surprised at the number of comments regarding cooking rice. For me it’s a snap. If only potaoes were so easy.
I HATE the food police. They’re idiots. If raw eggs could kill you, that would mean that we couldn’t eat cookie dough. To hell with that thinking!
The potato salad looks great. I like the originality of it and yes, I know how it is to over-cook the potatoes for potato salad - VERY easy to do. But, at least it still tastes good, save for the slight lack in texture.
I have another reason to add to your list - not the food police, but the critics. A picky young eater who refuses to eat tomatoes would stop you in your tracks from making tomato sauce - but even worse is the critical husband. At every meal, something is wrong. Too much salt, not enough, overcooked, undercooked, too cooled, the pork doesn’t have enough flavor, or the dreaded comment. “It’s just okay. I don’t know why, or what could make it better.”
There’s nothing like working your butt off and putting your love into a meal only to be rejected at the dinner table to put you off from trying that recipe again, or stepping outside your comfort zone at all.
My onedaytobe father-in-law likes to add a small amount of green apple and chicken to his. The green apple really gives it an extra kick. Other parents that I know like to add polska kielbasa.
I don’t know if Alex’s family makes this, but you should inquire about Plov. Best rice dish ever, whether you make it traditionally with lamb, or if you modify it to chicken.
Oh, Meggie! Not to get too much into marriage counseling or anything, but you DO know, don’t you, that it’s not supposed to be that way? My husband learned a long time ago that constant criticism was hazardous to his health. Tell your darling husband to make dinner himself.
Two edits! I added a link to the full size of the image (so you can read the details) and edited the pickles to say “dill pickles.”
Meggie, that’s absolutely horrendous. I just can’t imagine how heartbreaking that must be. I’m with Susie. Get your husband to throw on an apron and see what it’s like to try really hard to make something great!
Pickles meet potato–ahhh, bliss! I’m trying this recipe tomorrow.
I absolutely love salad olivier or any other type of potato salad! Unfortunately, here in the Netherlands there’s a company which became big with the Dutch version of russian salad/salad olivier called “huzaren salade”. Nowadays, it’s considered to be a bit tacky and stale to serve huzaren salade. I don’t care; I’m not a food snob and I make it myself.
Olivier salad! My husband’s fave thing in the whole wide world - I had no idea there was an actual recipe! I learned how to make it from the nice lady at the deli near our apartment in Ukraine. I just hung out, watched and practiced my Russian until I could recite the method (couldn’t give a cab directions to our apartment, mind you, but I have the objective case down. “Now she is dicing the pickles for the salad,” I picked up, but “turn left here” - just couldn’t get it straight! ) But she always put peeled cukes and diced ham in too - so yummy!! Thanks for the memory jog - I’ll make this tomorrow for our cookout!
Deb—What an interesting take on potato salad! You know, it’s probably just as well for family harmony if you never quite make it as well as your mother-in-law does. And I loved that deal breaker article in the times. My wife Marion even did a post based on the article, taking on one of her own culinary deal breakers, namely absorption pasta.
It is called “russian salad” in ex Yugoslavian countries:), and with a bit of ham in it it is called “french salad”.
Oh and I forgot, there should be hard boiled eggs in it to (both versions)!
I just threw away 24 blackberry muffins that I had planned to take to work because the blackberries sunk and so did the crumb topping (right into the middle of the muffin) and they were inedible. The batter sure did taste good tho!
^ Do you mean inedible as in, literally cannot eat lest you get food poisoning, or just wouldn’t taste as good as it should? ‘Cause seriously, who throws away 24 muffins? At the very, very least, there are some really hungry people in the world who would love some muffins, failed or not.
Anyways, I love this site. Seriously. I made the watermelon salad and it was delicioussssss. Maybe I’ll make this recipe, too. I’ve got some potatoes kicking around that aren’t being used at the moment…
Southerners wouldn’t dream of putting dill pickles in potato salad of any kind! But then, 90% of our recipes include a cream o’something soup so there you go.
Cut the potatoes the size you want them to be. Rinse in cold water to get rid of some of the starch. Start cooking them in cold water and don’t boil violently. Remove from heat when they just reach the state you want them to be in and then rinse with cold water immediately.
Go crazy. Add some salt to the cooking water.
I shall include this recipe in my future book.
My kids absolutely die for my potato salad - it’s pretty much the same as yours, except I add a hefty spoonful of homemade white horseradish and it transforms the entire salad into something that explodes with flavor upon contact. It somehow makes all the other ingredients taste better together. Try it!
Giggle, see, carrots, I just don’t like them so I won’t make anything that has them. Yes, I could leave them out, but then it wouldn’t be the recipe so why even make it in the first place (at least that’s my rationalization for not making this!)
This Mississippi girl can’t imagine potato salad without eggs or dill pickle. And mayo. We love us some mayonnaise! And in N. Mississippi, lots of black pepper. I make my mom’s. She poured zesty italian (or vinaigrette)on the hot potatoes. They absorb the spices. When cool, proceed — and maybe add a bit of minced celery, but I think the apple would be even better.
I was at a dinner party last night, and one of the guests shared a funny potato salad story. The cook was also attempting to reproduce her mother-in-laws famous potato salad. She chopped pickles and onions. She followed the directions to at Tee. But the salad just didn’t taste right. What did she forget? The potatoes
I agree, there are certainly things I avoid cooking. I especially tend to avoid a recipe where it calls for a small amount of a spice or sauce that I don’t have and don’t feel like paying $10 for only to use 1/2 tsp.
I don’t think I’ve ever had potato salad with pickles in it…. Then again, I don’t think I’ve ever made a homemade potato salad. I’ll have to try it to accompany some burgers.
Toss in some cubed ham- makes it that much better. And get yourself some Russian pickles- not the yellow-from-excess-vinegar kind. :-p
You could also do the same thing, but toss in some chopped boiled beets (fastest in the pressure cooker) and omit the mayo. Then you’d have a “vinegret!” (I was so confused the first time I heard of “vinaigrette” as a dressing lol)
This recipe looks so awesome! I am going to have to try this out next time I have some friends over.
I know your MIL doesn’t make it with this special ingredient, but trust me it will make your potato salad taste so good. just add some crushed pineapple. i love it. :)
Wow… I’m super lucky. I’ve only been married for 2.5 months, but I’ve been with my husband for 3 years and I’ve known his family since I was a teenager. In all of that time, my now MIL always gives me her recipes. I guess it helps that she doesn’t cook that often, so it’s really just a couple of recipes!
Now… trying to get a recipe out of my grandmother is like pulling teeth! She swears she doesn’t remember (and I actually believe her!)
I wonder how many different kinds of potato salad there are??!? My sister is here visiting, and I proudly pulled from the fridge a bowl of “her” potato salad. She politely wrinkled her nose and advised that the potatoes were undercooked, and should be sliced, not cubed. Also, “you didn’t use Helllman’s did you? because the recipe says Hellman’s and you really need to stick to that.” No I did not use Hellman’s, and in fact used light (maybe even fat free!), as well as 1% cottage cheese, rather than the full fat cottage cheese called for in the recipe. She picked right up on that too!
I never make anything as good as my mother-in-law. Sigh.
It’s great to come back to a failed recipe with a few years more experience under your belt. The first time I made risotto it was a stodgy, chalky mess because I blindly followed the recipe and stopped adding stock when my 4 cups ran out. A year later I came back with a sense of how things *should* taste and it was so much better.
You won’t hear any criticisms of this salad’s authenticity from me. I’ve never heard of it before, but it sounds delicious :)
The Salad Olivier looks wonderful, but I feel the need to comment on the food police! I frequently wonder how I survived childhood, what with potluck food sitting around for hours, mayo-based salads sitting around at picnics, eating rare hamburgers and undercooked scrambled eggs, etc. I know there are people with compromised immune systems who have to be careful, but I really think it’s gone too far….
Ooh delicious. And I thank good every day that my MIL only cooks simple southern (US) food or out of a can!
My phobia is traditional buttercream frosting. Three time disaster…best way to ruin a perfectly good cake!
Phyllo is a good thing to make. I wish I could trade skills with someone. I’ll trade my knowledge of phyllo for anyone’s knowledge of grilling. It does take a village!
That salad - with the addition of apples - has been made as long as I remember at my family’s traditional Polish Easter Christmas dinners. We even add it to the Thanksgiving table as our one Polish addition. At one point in my teens it became my job to make this and I have been doing it ever since and because I didn’t like onions as a child, we never added those. It was so nice to see it on your site! This is one of my favourite family recipes.
Thanks for compiling these, this is fascinating. In our kitchen, we have a weird developing ‘gender’ territory that is limiting our kitchen activities. Do automatically skips baking recipes, whether bread or deserts, because that’s ‘my’ territory. I automatically leave meat-centric dishes to him (grilling, steaks, roast), as well as chili. Part of this is simply preferences (I know he loves chili, so I’m going to let him have at it), part of it is silly. I mean, c’mon, why should she bake deserts and he grill?
Thanks for trying to help us all through our cooking fears! I find it incredibly generous to not only demonstrate delicious recipes, but to literally coach us through specific problems.
You are just so very good to us readers! Thank you Thank you Thank you — for what? For you! My favorite food blog and I will make this salad tonight (err… tomorrow!).
I grew up in Russia and this is my favorite salad ever! This salad is present at every single family celebration. We often add chicken to it, or sometimes even hotdogs. It’s also good with Granny Smith apples and defrosted peas instead of canned. This is definitely one of the comfort foods, if only it did not take so long to make :)
And make sure you make enough to keep as leftovers: it only gets better as it sits.
i find it very interesting that less people are afraid of gnocchi than tart crusts. boggles the mind.
I had the worst case of “My Mother Made It Better” with 5 male college housemates. I got peaches at the farmer’s market, and made a peach cobbler. “My mother’s was better”. Not to be deterred, I found a different recipe and made another one - the same day!!! Same response. Seven hours, countless pounds of peaches, and FOUR more totally consumed peach cobblers later - that same d*mn hot sticky endless day… “My mother’s was still better.”
I finally asked how their respective mothers made it. All the same response - “B1squ1ck”!
Last time I made any of them peach cobbler.
Heathens.
Well, once they realized that protest got them more peach cobbler, you were in trouble.
well once i overcook the potatoes and it starts getting mushy while i’m putting in the mayo and stuff- I just convert it into mashed potatoes… my strategy with food is to improvise or call it “a la …” it works.
I think of cooking like I think of a new haircut- what’s the worst that could happen? I am not a risk taker in the sense of bungee jumping, but I love cooking things I’ve never made before, and am happy asking my hairdresser to choose a new cut for me.
My kitchen phobia? Swiss broyage. I attempted it once, when I was @ 14, and it was a dismal failure. Never since. I bake yeast bread frequently (love the CI Dutch oven version), have no trouble with phyllo, but SB has me buffaloed. Maybe it’s time to have another shot at it.
while this is “salad olivier” and not “potato salad,” this is still the best potato salad i have ever had/made. even better than MY mother’s. i’m normally horribly impatient and can’t stand to chop and dice everything the same size, but i had a bit of extra time on my hands today so i did. and it paid off. delicious. :)