January/February 2017taste magazine 67
aybe it’s the weather, maybe
it’s all those barbecues, but this
isthetimeofyearforpotato
salads.Thetaste.com.auwebsiteisbesiegedwith
people trawling through the 835 potato salad
recipes looking for inspiration.
The first recipe for potato salad ever recorded
wasbyJohnGerardbackin1597.Headvisedthat
potatoesbe“boyledandeatenwithoyle,vinegar
andpepper”.Addalittlesaltandthatwaspretty
muchtherecipeforallsaladsgoingasfarbackas
the ancient Romans. What’s interesting, however,
isthatnotmuchchangedonthepotatosaladfront
foraround250yearsafterGerardwrotehisrecipe.
(Note:Thereistalkofpotatoesthatwereserved
with prunes or sopped in wine after cooking, or
even cooked in wine with spices, but it’s hard
to find primary sources to support this.)
The development of interesting potato
salads was stymied by two things; this
rather dull approach to all salads, which
continued through the meat-obsessed
MiddleAges,andthefactthatthepotato
wasafairlylatearrivalontheculinary
scene. It only landed in Spain in 1570 and even
then spent a couple of hundred years gaining
acceptance,firstasfoodforlivestock,thenasfood
for prisoners in Germany before it was finally seen
as something fit for the working man.
By1750,thepotatowaswidelyplantedand
whentheLittleIceAgefamineof1770hitandold
staplecropsfailedinthecoldweather,itconfirmed
theimportanceofthisnewcrop.Yet,inspiteofthis,
itspresenceinrecipeswasutilitarianatbest–
largely replacing turnips and swedes – and the
unimaginative potato salads were a case in point.
Germans,whowereearlyadoptersofthepotato
along with Basque fishermen and some northern
Italians,atleastinventedwarmpotatosalads.
Thepotatoesweredressedinhotstock,loaded
with speck and vinegar, and served lukewarm.
It wasn’t until the mid-to-late 19th century that
cooksinFrance,theUSandtheUKstartedto
experiment,addingpoundedcookedeggyolk
to their vinaigrettes and including new ingredients,
such as anchovies, onions, mustard, celery, herbs
like tarragon and parsley, and pickled cucumbers.Mayonnaise was a later addition. The legendary
French chef Auguste Escoffier did not regard it as
asuitabledressingforfish,chickenorvegetables,
preferring strange liaisons of warm gelatinous aspic
with cream, egg yolks and bechamel sauce. It wasn’t
untilthe1940sthatmayonnaisestartedtotakeoff
asadressingandappearinpotatosaladrecipes.
It’samazingittookthislong,asthecombination
is so perfect and mayonnaise had been around
since1756,accordingtomypreferredversionofthe
‘mayonnaise creation myth’ at any rate. This credits
the famousbon vivantand lover of nude dinner
parties,DucdeRichelieu.It’ssaidheinvented
mayonnaise to celebrate his bloodless capture of
Minorca’sportofMahon,hencemahonnaise.With
nocreamleftinthetown,he(ormorelikelyhischef)
discovered the magical properties of whisking oil
with egg instead for the celebratory dinner.Yes,IknowthatchefMarie-AntoineCarême
thought the name came frommanier, the old French
wordfor‘tostir’,andthatitshouldbecorrectedto
magnonaise, and that ‘mayonnaise’ is close to the
old French word for ‘yolk’ (moyeu,don’tyaknow).
And I know the people of Bayonne think it was
invented there, asBayonnaise,whichgotmisheard.
TheysaythatFrance’sfirstfamousfoodieandfood
reviewer,GrimoddelaReynière,wasfondof
chicken bayonnaise for lunch and supported their
claim. But one suspects he did this out of French
culinary snobbery – how could something so good
comefromaSpanishislandornothaveaFrench
name?So,giventhereportsthatRichelieu’ssauce
was subsequently served at a dinner in his honour
in Marseilles shortly after his victory, my heart
andheadaregoingwiththatclaim!
Now,wehaveavastarrayofrecipesthatpair
various textures and dressings with different potato
varieties, from pink eyes with crème fraîche and
minttokipflerswithhard-boiledegg,troutanda
dill dressing. From chats with corn, bacon, paprika
and maple syrup to our latest version, overpage.“Inthe1940smayonnaisestarted
totakeoffasadressingand
appear in potato salad recipes.”
WORDS
MATT PRESTON
RECIPE
MATT PRESTON & MICHELLE SOUTHAN
PHOTOGRAPHY
JEREMY SIMONS
STYLING
MICHELLE NOERIANTO
FOOD PREPARATION
DIXIE ELLIOTT
weekend