Chef Thomas
A Ploughman's Salad
The old pub ploughman's, shaken loose from its board and laid across butter lettuce with a sharp mustard dressing, for the kind of lunch that feels like you've given yourself the afternoon off.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Classic Potato Salad with Salad Cream
Created by Chef Thomas
Floury potatoes dressed in sharp, mustardy homemade salad cream with spring onion and white pepper. The potato salad of village fetes, garden tables, and Saturday evenings that stretch on until the light goes.
Salads
British
Picnic
Potluck
20 min
Active Time
20 min cook•PT40M plus cooling total
Yield6 servings
The smell of boiling potatoes is not glamorous. It's starchy and domestic and it fogs up the kitchen window. But it is the smell of something being made for someone, and that counts for more than glamour.
This is the potato salad I grew up eating, or near enough. Not the American sort with mayonnaise and celery, which has its own virtues, but the British one: floury potatoes in a tangy, slightly sweet salad cream that coats each piece in something pale and sharp. Spring onions for bite. White pepper for warmth without the dark specks. It belongs on a blanket at a village fete or on a garden table in the evening light, alongside cold ham and a tomato salad and whatever else the day has offered up. It tastes like summer remembered through a kitchen window.
The salad cream is worth making yourself. Shop-bought will do if you're short on time, and I won't judge you for it, but the homemade version has a brightness and a mustard bite that the bottled sort can't match. It takes five minutes and a small saucepan. A recipe is a conversation, not a contract, so adjust the vinegar and mustard to your taste. Some evenings call for more sharpness. Some don't.
I wrote it down in the notebook years ago: potatoes, salad cream, spring onions, the garden. Saturday. I keep coming back to it because there are few better feelings than carrying a bowl of this outside and watching people help themselves without being asked.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
floury potatoes (Maris Piper or King Edward)
Quantity
1kg
peeled and cut into large chunks
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
spring onions
Quantity
4
finely sliced
flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
small handful
roughly chopped
white pepper
Quantity
to taste
large egg yolks
Quantity
2
English mustard
Quantity
1 tablespoon
caster sugar
Quantity
1 tablespoon
white wine vinegar
Quantity
100ml
double cream
Quantity
150ml
fine sea salt
Quantity
pinch
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| floury potatoes (Maris Piper or King Edward)peeled and cut into large chunks | 1kg |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| spring onionsfinely sliced | 4 |
| flat-leaf parsleyroughly chopped | small handful |
| white pepper | to taste |
| large egg yolks | 2 |
| English mustard | 1 tablespoon |
| caster sugar | 1 tablespoon |
| white wine vinegar | 100ml |
| double cream | 150ml |
| fine sea salt | pinch |
Equipment Needed
- •Large saucepan for the potatoes
- •Small saucepan for the salad cream
- •Wooden spoon
- •Serving bowl
Instructions
- 1
Boil the potatoes
Put the potatoes into a large pan of cold, well-salted water. Bring to a steady simmer and cook until a knife slides through without resistance but the potato doesn't collapse around it. Fifteen to twenty minutes, depending on the size. You want them tender, not falling apart. This matters more than you think: a potato salad made from broken potatoes turns to paste once the dressing goes in.
Start in cold water, always. Potatoes that go into boiling water cook unevenly: chalky in the centre, soft on the outside. Cold water lets everything come up to temperature together. - 2
Make the salad cream
While the potatoes cook, whisk the egg yolks, mustard, sugar, and a pinch of salt together in a small saucepan until smooth. Add the vinegar gradually, whisking as you go. Set the pan over a low heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon. This takes five minutes, perhaps a little more. Don't rush it and don't let it boil or the eggs will scramble and you'll need to start again. Take the pan off the heat, stir in the cream, and let it cool. It should taste sharp, a little sweet, and faintly mustard-hot. If it doesn't make you raise your eyebrows slightly, add a touch more vinegar.
If you're nervous about the eggs catching, set the saucepan over a bain-marie instead. It's slower but almost foolproof. The result is exactly the same. - 3
Drain and cool
Drain the potatoes well and spread them on a clean tray or large plate in a single layer. Let them steam dry for a couple of minutes, then leave to cool until they're warm rather than hot. Season them now with salt and white pepper while they're still warm enough to absorb it. This is the window. Seasoning cold potatoes is like trying to introduce yourself to someone who has already left the room.
- 4
Dress and finish
Spoon the cooled salad cream over the warm potatoes and turn everything together gently. Don't stir. Fold. You want each piece coated but still holding its shape. Scatter in the spring onions and most of the parsley, keeping a little back. Give it one more gentle fold, taste for seasoning, and transfer to a serving bowl. The last of the parsley goes on top. Let it sit for at least twenty minutes before serving so the flavours settle into one another. It should be cool, not fridge-cold. Room temperature is right.
Chef Tips
- •Floury potatoes are essential. Maris Piper or King Edward have the right texture: they break just enough at the edges to catch the dressing while keeping their shape in the middle. Waxy potatoes stay too firm and the salad cream slides off instead of clinging.
- •Season the potatoes while they're still warm. Warm potatoes absorb salt and pepper in a way that cold ones simply refuse to. This is the difference between a potato salad that tastes seasoned and one that tastes dressed.
- •Don't serve it straight from the fridge. Take it out twenty minutes before you want to eat. Cold dulls everything. Room temperature lets the mustard and vinegar come through properly.
- •If you have a few chives in the garden, snip them over the top alongside the parsley. They belong here. A few capers wouldn't be unwelcome either, though that's a deviation I only make when the mood is right.
Advance Preparation
- •The salad cream can be made a day ahead and kept covered in the fridge. It thickens slightly as it chills, which is fine.
- •The finished salad is best eaten within a day. It keeps overnight in the fridge but the potatoes firm up and the dressing loses its edge. If you do make it ahead, bring it back to room temperature and taste for seasoning before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 220g)
Calories
290 calories
Total Fat
14 g
Saturated Fat
8 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
6 g
Cholesterol
96 mg
Sodium
450 mg
Total Carbohydrates
38 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
5 g
Protein
5 g
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