Potato salad, a Czech Christmas classic. Here's how to make it
Every year, as many stories are written about potato salad as recipes. This classic is one of the strongest traditions of Christmas and one of the treasures of Czech cuisine, even though it has only recently joined them. The search for a single original recipe turns out to be the same as with svíčková – each chef recognises their own, which they usually consider a family heirloom. However, the process and the essential ingredients are repeated in all kitchens. What are they, and who first combined them?
The story begins
The history of potato salad is unclear, especially when it comes to the Czech one. It is said to be based on a recipe by French chef Lucien Olivier, who served Russian potatoes in his Moscow restaurant in the 19th century, in a salad called Olivier. At first it was just a platter of various meats, crayfish, lobster and caviar, with boiled potatoes and eggs in the middle – only then Lucien noticed that his guests were mixing up the ingredients, so he had the idea to make a salad with a special dressing. He reportedly never revealed the recipe to his cooks.
The author of today's salad is most likely Olivier's apprentice Ivanov. He adapted the recipe in 1930 at the Hotel Moskva and invented a slightly poorer version without luxurious ingredients – the basis of the Czech potato salad. Variations of the traditional dish gradually gained popularity in various parts of Europe, for example in Vienna around 1900 or in France, where the salad arrived in the 1930s.
Historians also consider a relationship with the German salad, whose first version (with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and sugar) was discovered in the chronicle of an Austrian Benedictine monastery in 1621. However, our neighbours also disagree on the recipe – in the north, potatoes in their skins are mixed with mayonnaise, sour cream or yoghurt and pickle relish, while in the south, potato slices are seasoned with hot onion stock, vinegar and oil. According to family custom, the salad is then mixed with herbs, chopped eggs, pickles, apple pieces, peas, ham cubes, bacon or soused herring.
Christmas salad
The potato salad we enjoy today only came to Czech cuisine during the First Republic, and the well-known 19th-century cookbooks do not mention it. Magdalena Dobromila Rettigová (1826) mentions a potato salad made from 'various leftovers' such as cold roast veal, ham, smoked tongue or capon, which were placed on top of warmly sliced potatoes covered with a dressing made from boiled egg yolks, Brabant oil (virgin olive oil from Brabant in the Netherlands and Belgium, where one of the first European refineries operated in the 17th century) and vinegar with chopped onions. The potatoes were accompanied by anchovies and herrings, boiled broad beans and boiled cauliflower covered with vinegar, chopped egg yolks and egg whites.
Cookbook Marie B. Svobodové from 1894 published a salad made of potatoes boiled in their skins, cut up and, while still hot, covered with vinegar, salt and oil, seasoned with pepper and mixed with finely chopped onions. The oil can replace the hot fat from the roast and the finished salad is garnished with watercress, or mixed with mashed herring with a little water and vinegar.
In other books, for example by Sandtner or Kejřová, potatoes are paired with various dressings and finally with mayonnaise, but the classic potato salad is out of the question.
Potato salad is said to have been first eaten as a side dish with fried carp around 1924, and then only in wealthy bourgeois families. It was not until the 1940s, when the Keřkov Breeding Station gave birth to the potato variety Keřkovské rohlíčky, that it became famous, and it was not until the 1950s that the potato speciality became a popular part of Czech culture.
Vinegars for salads by Marie B. Svobodová
Vinegar from shallots or onions: Pour a litre of vinegar over 125 g of fresh peeled and chopped shallots (or onions) in a jar, close the jar tightly, and leave it to stand for 14 days in the sun. If the vinegar is to be stronger, it can be aged for up to three weeks. Then strain, bottle and store. It is good in potato salad or as a condiment for sauces.
Tarragon vinegar: Tarragon leaves are best picked in late May and early June, as they turn curly later, don't contain as much juice and their scent fades. Place the freshly picked or slightly wilted leaves in a bottle, sprinkle with a little salt and pour in good vinegar. Seal the bottle tightly and leave it in the sun for 14 days.
The amount of the herb depends on how strong the vinegar needs to be. The cookbook suggests about 140 to 200 g tarragon per litre of wine vinegar. After 14 days, the leaves are squeezed, the vinegar filtered and poured into bottles with corks. In addition to salads, they also flavour cold sauces such as béarnaise or ragout. A handful of shallots, a few bay leaves and cloves, a few peppercorns and allspice are also added.
Keřkovské rohlíčky
The right potatoes are a prerequisite for a perfect salad – they shouldn't be too mealy. Therefore, the so called "potato rolls" have succeeded in the Czech market. They are not widely grown, but they add variety to the regular menu and are popular with cooks for specific dishes such as Christmas potato salad.
Among the best known are the blue potatoes Valfi and Val Blue, but also the aforementioned variety Keřkovské rohlíčky. It is a cross between Višňovské rohlíčky and Parnassia, and fulfils the main requirements for potato salad – firm consistency and medium floury texture. Keřkovské rohlíčky from Česká Bělá even earned the Regional Food of Vysočina Region award.
A thousand and one recipes
When you ask for potato salad, most cooks smile and share the recipe without exact weights. In addition to the basic ingredients such as potatoes, eggs, root vegetables, onions, cucumber sauce, mustard and mayonnaise, each household mixes whatever they want into the salad, creating individual own tradition.
"I don't have any special recipe, I stick to my mother's classics. She puts potatoes, pickled root vegetables à la "moravanka", mayonnaise, tartar sauce, hard-boiled eggs, pickles and a bit of pickle juice, mustard, a few drops of worcester sauce, gothaj, salt and pepper into the salad," says Honza Všetečka, creative chef at Ambiente and chef at Kantýna.
At Café Savoy, the potato salad goes with the steaks and on the sandwiches. To this day, it is still prepared here as prescribed by the then chef Oldřich Sahajdák at the very beginning. "We couldn't do without potato salad and no one has dared to change the original recipe," says the current chef František Skopec. "Before I came to Savoy, my dad was the king of potato salad for me, but he makes it in a similar way to us. It includes potatoes, root vegetables, pickles, mayonnaise, mustard, salt, pepper and a pickle relish."
At Bufet, they make a salad of potatoes, carrots and pickles, season it with Worcester sauce, pickle brine, salt and a little sugar, and also add Dijon mustard, a 12-minute egg, celeriac and mayonnaise.
In the summer, it is then replaced by a Viennese salad – potatoes Grenaille cooked in their skins are combined with a dressing of strong stock, mustard, apple cider vinegar and oil after cooling. Finally, coarse mustard, parsley, pepper and shallots are stirred in.
The chefs do not allow any innovation into the potato salad recipe. "I think a true salad should contain honest homemade mayonnaise. It's a shame to impoverish yourself and serve a lightened version with yoghurt or sour cream on Christmas Eve. For my part, celery does not belong in potato salad and instead of salami we choose only Prague ham," says Eska's chef Martin Štangl, reminiscing:
"Only once have I made potato salad in an unconventional way, and that was at La Degustation. We added smoked carp and used the mixture to fry a croquette, which was then served with lemon mayonnaise as a Christmas amouse bouche."
Practical tips
Choose low starch potatoes, as they retain their firm consistency and shape better when cooked. Always place them on the stove in a pot of cold water – gradually heating them up to the boiling point will ensure the potatoes have the right texture. They firm up at a temperature of around 60 ºC.
The potatoes must not be overcooked and should be thoroughly cooked before preparing the salad. Leave them enough time to cool!
Give the salad time! Preferably cook the potatoes in their skins the day before. Let the finished salad rest overnight to combine the flavours of all the ingredients.
Potatoes and all vegetables should be cut into equal sized cubes. Root vegetables can be boiled, pickled or baked in the oven. The taste is then more intense.
Pickle juice spices up the salad and adds acidity. It enhances and refreshes the overall flavour of the dish, as does the lemon juice.
Use chopped onions which have been steamed with boiling water, hot stock or warm pickle brine – this helps them acidify immediately. Raw onions are too pungent and will oxidise and smell quickly.
In addition to carp cutlets, you can also fry up a little nostalgia from your childhood – homemade fish fingers. Cut a whole skinless fillet into smaller pieces, sprinkle with salt and a little thyme. The mixture is then ground coarsely, and left to rest in a cool place for 24 hours. The salt binds the meat together, so there is no need for flour, and you don't have to worry about bones. Then just wrap the meat in a breadcrumb triple wrap, and fry in good quality oil, butter or lardwhich has a high smoke point.
Source: Ambiente chefs, Marie B. Cooking School. Svobodová, Havlíčkův Brod Potato Research Institute
