Creamy Gold Potato Salad
Updated July 6, 2026
Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
- Ready In
- 50 min
- Rating
- Comments
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Ingredients
Salt and black pepper
3 pounds large Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed well
1 yellow onion
4 meaty celery stalks with leaves
1 (16-ounce) jar sweet relish (see Tips)
1 cup mayonnaise, plus more if needed
¼ to ½ cup yellow mustard, such as French’s (see Tips)
Sugar, to taste
Hot paprika, to taste (see Tips)
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 to 12 servings)
47 grams carbs; 84 milligrams cholesterol; 389 calories; 6 grams monosaturated fat; 11 grams polyunsaturated fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 21 grams fat; 5 grams fiber; 652 milligrams sodium; 7 grams protein; 19 grams sugar
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Bring a big pot of water to a boil and add a lot of salt (about ½ cup should do it). Add the potatoes and cook until tender all the way through, about 30 minutes. Remove them from the pot and let them drain until they’re cool enough to touch but still warm. Gently peel the potatoes, using a paring knife as needed, then cube them into pieces that are about an inch or an inch and a half. Do the size you want, but be consistent.
- Step 2
While the potatoes boil, mince the onion, celery and eggs by hand, keeping them separate. The pieces should be small enough that you don’t end up seeing distinct pieces of onion, celery and egg in that potato salad. Be sure to mince those celery leaves too.
- Step 3
Drain the jar of relish in a strainer and run it under cold water to rinse all the sauce off. You don’t want the sugar from the relish brine, just the sweet pickles. Use paper towels or a clean tea towel to press all the liquid out through the strainer and get the pickles as dry as you possibly can.
- Step 4
Put the potatoes in a big mixing bowl and add the strained relish, celery and eggs, along with half the onion. Add the mayonnaise and a nice big healthy squeeze of mustard (about ¼ cup to start). Sprinkle on a pinch of sugar and a lot of salt, pepper and hot paprika. Get the mix going, taste it and see how onion-y it seems. Add more onion if you want and taste again.
- Step 5
Now, see if it needs more mayonnaise. It should be very creamy, but in no way wet. If you put the salad in a glass container to bring to a picnic, it shouldn’t move around in there. If it’s drier than it should be, add more mayonnaise by the tablespoon. Taste and add more mustard, salt, pepper and paprika if it needs it. The potato salad is delicious at room temperature, but as refreshing as a beer when chilled until cold. It’s even better after a full 24 hours in the fridge.
Avoid dill pickle relish for this recipe — you want a sweet relish that’s got a little bit of red bits of pimento.
You want to use enough mustard to turn the salad yellow. The turmeric in French’s yellow mustard is an essential element here. When buying mustard, check the date on the bottle: You want the freshest one, with the latest expiration date you can get.
If you don’t have hot paprika, use sweet paprika with shy pinches of cayenne. You don’t want it to be hot on the tongue, but it’s great when it’s hot at the back of your throat.
Private Notes
Comments
My mom, a home-economics major and two time winner of the Betty Crocker Future Homemaker of America award, taught me this recipe, more or less. The only thing I would add, which makes a big difference, is to pour some vinegar-nothing fancy, just Heinz-over the potatoes while they are still warm. I can't be precise on the "some" because it just depends on how many potatoes. Not till they're swimming, but vinegar-kissed.
Our family potato salad is much simpler - potatoes, onions, celery, salt, and pepper. Final touch is sweet paprika on top for presentation. But I look forward to trying this one. After all, the only thing better than a great potato salad is two great potato salads!!! Thank you for sharing!
This is a wonderful recipe. On Tybee Island in the summer my granny made it just that way but she always used Dukes Mayonnaise and a little chopped pimento. She said it gave it that “twang” . Whatever it gave it, there were no leftovers.
All of the ESSENTIAL ingredients! I already know it's going to be good!!
Rinse the pickle relish? Just…no. No.
Similar to my moms potato salad. So much nostalgia! She made her own sweet pickle, and chopped some of it into the salad instead of relish. She also added pickle vinegar. She used a little cider vinegar also. She was more likely to add celery seed than celery. And she boiled the eggs in the pot with the potatoes!