The Smartest Way To Dress Potato Salad, According To Julia Child

Potato salad can go one of two ways. This picnic staple can make the perfect complement to barbecue ribs or buttery corn on the cob. However, this is only true of a good potato salad. It seems that batches of potato salad tend to either provide a much-needed lift to a picnic plate, or it's the runny mess that needs to be walled off from other side dishes by a thick border of macaroni and cheese, and otherwise forgotten. So, how does one make sure that their potato salad turns out both creamy and delicious? Well, lucky for us, the late and legendary Julia Child developed the perfect advice for ensuring the creamiest potato salad possible. As a famous television cook and the co-author of the kitchen essential "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," she has proven to be a staple for many home cooks. 

But this potato salad hack might just elevate Child beyond legend status and into an entirely new stratosphere. It's perhaps one of her simplest tricks, and it's also one of her best. Julia Child's potato salad requires absolutely no extra ingredients; just reserve a small amount of water from the pot used to boil your potatoes. By utilizing these starches, you can help bind your potatoes to the creamy and delicious dressing. 

This tip is not from Julia Child's original French cooking masterclass. Rather, it originated in a joint cookbook authored by Child and French chef Jacques Pépin. The cookbook, titled "Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home," was published in 1999. However, if you can't get your hands on the book, the full recipe for Child's potato salad can be found on the Food Network website. Essentially, Child's method calls for adding ⅓ cup of potato water to your potatoes after they've been removed from the pot. Then, you toss your potatoes with the water and a small amount of cider vinegar. This is a small adjustment to traditional potato salad recipes. However, it makes all the difference in improving your potato salad's texture and will yield the creamiest result possible (no macaroni and cheese barriers necessary). 

This method has many admirers — including the Barefoot Contessa herself, Ina Garten, who cited Child's tip in her cookbook, "Go-To Dinners." Other cooks agree with Garten's praise for Child's creamy potato salad hack, with several reviewers noting the potato water's ability to create a delicious and incredibly cohesive potato salad. The potato water helps the dressing stick to the potatoes rather than becoming a thin, runny mess. Child's recipe has even been known to change the minds of a few potato salad haters. This praise, along with the Barefoot Contessa's endorsement of the method, should be motivation enough to give Child's potato water method a go.

But why does potato water work for making your salad creamier and more homogenous? Well, the reserved potato water works similarly to pasta water — which is often used to thicken pasta dishes — and acts as a binding agent between noodles and sauce. Keeping a reserve of pasta water, also known as "liquid gold" by many cooks, is often seen as an essential part of the pasta-making process. The same rings true when adding potato water to potato salad.

These two tricks work because of the binding properties of starch, which can be found in both pasta and potatoes. These starches are released into the water when they boil, making the leftover liquid a great source of starch that can be easily added to other ingredients. This liquid can help bind your base with a sauce or dressing, acting as a glue that makes your dish more cohesive. The starch also helps prevent your dish from turning into a watery mess and provides an essential thickening agent, making your potato salad irresistibly creamy. Of course, since this tip comes from the amazing Julia Child, there should be no doubt that her simple potato water trick can turn your potato salad into a pot of gold.